Cucina Verite: Movies Worth Eating

I need junk food for the brain as well as the stomach, so I'm launching my own little mini Food Film Festival this month, beginning with movies I haven't seen yet and later circling back to my old faves (if I can keep from cheating. I can't wait to see...

By Gail Shepherd

April 28, 2009

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I need junk food for the brain as well as the stomach, so I'm launching my own little mini Food Film Festival this month, beginning with movies I haven't seen yet and later circling back to my old faves (if I can keep from cheating. I can't wait to see Sandra Bernhard again as the hilarious insufferable food critic in Dinner Rush).

So tell me, which films have you seen? Which did you like best? Any I should add to the list? (I'm wondering about TV shows too). Anybody out there in the blogiverse care to watch along with me? I'm planning to do a run that looks something like this, maybe one a week, and post reviews. This ought to keep us busy for at least a year:

Films I Haven't Seen:
Tortilla Soup
Mostly Martha
The Last Supper (the one with Cameron Diaz)
Jamon Jamon (Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem -- who cares if it's any good?)
Woman on Top (more Penelope)
A Walk in the Clouds (Keanu Reeves, maybe my least favorite actor, falls in love with a winemakers' daughter. Possibly too hideous to sit through)
Red Sorghum (Li Gong)
Life is Sweet (directed by Mike Leigh)
Simply Irresistible (Sarah Michelle Geller -- meh)
What's Cooking? (multiculti Thanksgiving, with Mercedes Ruehl)
The Baker's Wife (ancient French from 1940, if I can find it)
Eat a Bowl of Tea (dir Wayne Wang, remember him?)
Mystic Pizza (I may have seen this and wiped it from memory, with Julia Roberts as a fat girl)
God of Cookery (no idea)
Soul Food (Vanessa Williams)
Fatso (Dom DeLouis and Anne Bancroft)
Rice Rhapsody
Oldboy (South Korea)
La Grande Bouffe (Marcello Mastroiani, the best)
Rare Birds (William Hurt as a chef)
Eat Your Heart Out
Three Extremes: Dumplings (Hong Kong)

Movies I Plan to See Again
Big Night
Babette's Feast
Scent of Green Papaya
Chocolat
Fried Green Tomatoes
Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
Vatel
Dinner Rush
Ratatouille
Tom Jones
Marie Antoinette (it is too about food!)
Like Water for Chocolate
Eat Drink Man Woman
Tampopo
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
My Dinner with Andre
Comfort and Joy
Waitress
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Godard, for the unforgettable coffee scene)
Sideways
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Les Blank)

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