Film favourites are good enough to eat
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Scandinavian piety is no match for lusty French cuisine as a refugee housekeeper spends her entire lottery winnings on an extraordinary feast that transforms a town.
‘‘The film began something of a vogue for food as an emblem of love in the cinema, but nothing has equalled it. Resist it if you can,’’ wrote Radio Times’ Robyn Karney.
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e’re all eating and watching too much – why not combine the two? Here are five films with cinematic banquets that are worth feasting your eyes on.
Murderous gangsters never ate or dressed as well as they do in Peter Greenaway’s visually sumptuous flesh fest. Expect indigestion.
‘‘Take it or leave it: Greenaway’s contemporary
Jacobean drama, about greed, adultery and cannibalism, is brutal, provocative and visually brilliant,’’ wrote Emanuel Levy.
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Culinary perfectionism falls on deaf American taste buds as two Italian brothers go all out to lure diners in 1950s New Jersey.
‘‘A wonderful film about how the simple pleasures of life – food, family, friends – aren’t so simple,’’ wrote Capital Times’ Rob Thomas.
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A tiffin box seems an unlikely starting point for a romantic comedy, but when an Indian housewife’s lovingly prepared lunches end up with the wrong man, her life takes on new zest.
‘‘First-time writer-director Ritesh Batra has crafted a cracking tale of love, loss and lamb biryani. A sweet and satisfying cinematic delicacy,’’ wrote Stuff’s James Croot.
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Emotion becomes the secret ingredient in this Mexican tale of family tradition, forbidden love and the power of food to inflame the passions.
‘‘A sensual pleasure, like reading a [Gabriel Garcia] Marquez novel or eating a great, multicourse meal,’’ wrote Hartford Courant’s
Malcolm Johnson.