(Cannes) Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel reunited after a 20-year absence for La passion de Dodin Bouffant, a romance set in old-fashioned French gastronomy that whetted everyone’s appetite.
Posted at 4:08pm.
Tran Anh Hùng was unveiled 30 years ago in Cannes thanks to the feature film The Smell of Green Papaya, which won the Caméra d’or (awarded for best first film in all sections combined). On Wednesday, Tran Anh Hùng excelled in presenting an appetizing film (to say the least!) inspired by a fictional character invented a century ago by Franco-Swiss writer Marcel Rouff.
Similar to “Le Festin de Babette”, a drama by Gabriel Axel that shaped international cinema in the 1980s, the French-Vietnamese filmmaker places gastronomy at the center of his story. What’s more, the first 20 or 30 minutes of La passion de Dodin Bouffant is devoted to the preparation of a sumptuous meal – we think dozens of guests are expected, there are so many things, but in the end there will only be five. de la table – where Eugénie Chatagne (Juliette Binoche) has the opportunity to show off her immense talent.
A preview of the book…
Inspired by a novel published by Marcel Rouff in 1924 entitled “La vie et la passion de Dodin-Bouffant, gourmet” which begins with the death of one of the characters, Tran Anh Hùng had the happy idea of imagining what happened this tragedy happened. By bringing Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel together on a film set, two actors who have not acted against each other in 20 years, the filmmaker also portrays a special relationship between two people who have lived under the same roof for two decades. The fact that the two stars have already formed a “real life” couple inevitably lends an air of truth to the case, at least in the viewer’s mind.
PHOTO CAROLE BETHUEL PROVIDED BY GAUMONT
Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in La passion de Dodin Bouffant, a film by Tran Anh Hùng
Besides the recipes and cooking techniques (we often think of the famous French show La Cuisine des mousquetaires) there is another interesting aspect of this feature film. The cook and the restaurateur are so accomplices on the culinary level that they develop feelings.
There was already talk of marriage between the two, but Eugenie always resisted. It is beautiful to see how sensitively Tran Anh Hùng describes the nature of this connection between two beings who have reached a more mature age. The two actors, who are both considered masters of the kitchen, are thoroughly believable and deliver excellent compositions.
It should be noted that Pierre Gagnaire, three-star chef, acted as a consultant. After Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero and her no-food sect, this is quite a contrast. Everything here is beautifully filmed and brilliantly lit. The fluidity of the staging, which includes several sequence shots, also contributes to the success of the whole.
Geniuses, one by one
The notion of transmission is important here. There are several references to an older chef, Antonin Carême (Talleyrand’s chef), as well as another, Auguste Escoffier, who Bouffant says “makes us dream of the future”. In the eyes of Tran Anh Hùng, it seemed important to provide an accurate picture of the succession of gastronomic geniuses during this period.
PHOTO JOEL C RYAN, INVISION, SUPPLIED BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
La passion de Dodin Bouffant is the seventh feature film directed by Tran Anh Hùng.
“Only thirteen years separate the death of Antonin Carême and the birth of Auguste Escoffier, who, together with César Ritz, would build a culinary empire with his palaces in Europe – first in Monaco, then in London and finally in Paris,” explains the filmmaker in notes to journalists.
“Escoffier and Ritz were the first to recognize the importance of the beauty of places, of light, as a showcase for the kitchen. Even today, when facing an existential crisis, the world’s greatest chefs turn to Escoffier’s book for inspiration and energy. This book remains their Bible. »
The only fly in the ointment of this work, which we will know on Saturday whether it convinced the jury: the presentation of a film that makes the festival-goers’ mouths water, even though they mostly didn’t have time to eat a decent meal take The name for a week is a bit cruel. That’s it!