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Foodie Films
1 Babette's Feast
Gabriel Axel, 1987
Parisian chef Babette becomes a cook in a strict Lutheran community in 19th-century Denmark. When she wins the lottery, she decides to repay her dour employers and the villagers by preparing a celebration meal, but the locals fear that such indulgence will be corrupting. Finest food moment (FFM): The heart-warming scenes as, despite themselves, the guests begin to enjoy the meal.2 Big Night
Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci, 1996
Set in Fifties America, this is the story of two Italian brothers in search of the American dream who open a restaurant. Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, they decide to host a sumptuous banquet for singer Louis Prima in the hope that this will pull in the punters. FFM: The loving attention to detail with which the timballo is prepared is enough to make you cry, and the eventual creation of a dish that is just too magnificent to eat.3 The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie
Luis Bunuel, 1972
Bizarre interruptions from clergymen, military manoeuvres and unexplained food shortages, prevent a group of friends from enjoying a meal together, no matter how they try. The director, Bu�uel, creates a series of situations that reveal the hypocrisy and empty ritual of the privileged classes. FFM: The exasperated expressions of the protagonists hoping for food but never getting any.4 Felicia's Journey
Atom Egoyan, 1999
A poor Irish girl becomes pregnant after a brief affair with an English soldier. Misled about his identity, she embarks on a fruitless search for the father of her unborn child. Once in England, she is befriended by a lonely, middle-aged catering manager. But, all is not as it seems... FFM: Bob Hoskins, as the bachelor, spending his evenings recreating the dishes demonstrated on television by his celebrity chef mother, Gala.5 Chocolat
Lasse Hallstrom, 2000
An attractive single mother and itinerant chocolatier, Vianne, opens a chocolate shop in a French village in the Fifties. She encounters fierce opposition from the mayor who fears the effect her indulgent, magic confections will have on the strait-laced residents. FFM: The villagers' faces as, one by one, they give in to temptation and enjoyment as they sample those irresistible cakes, truffles, hot chocolate and much more.6 Eat Drink Man Woman
Ang Lee, 1994
A widowed chef tries to hold his family of three daughters together, but their only communication is over Sunday dinner. In this gentle comedy of food and family life, primary needs are asserted over more ephemeral desires. FFM: As the opening credits roll, it is such a pleasure to watch the chef preparing the Sunday meal, even the way he cuts the vegetables is inspiring.7 Like Water For Chocolate
Alfonso Arau, 1991
Set against the backdrop of the 1910 Mexican revolution, the plot centres around a widow and her three daughters.The youngest girl, Tita, has the ability to transmit her feelings to anyone who tastes her cooking. FFM: Tita cooks quails in rose petal sauce and her passion for the dish so affects her sister that, unable to contain her desire, she runs from the shower naked, jumps on to the horse of a passing trooper and rides off with him.8 Tampopo
Juzo Itami, 1986
Tampopo satirises Japanese society's view of the relationship between food and sex in a series of amusing vignettes. A wandering troubleshooter helps the heroine transform her nondescript ramen restaurant into culinary perfection. FFM: The lips of a gangster and his moll meet only after using their mouths to pass a raw egg yolk from one to the other.9 Tom Jones
Tony Richardson, 1963
Based on Fielding's 18th-century novel, this is the story of an orphan adopted into an aristocratic household. Our hero's fun-loving attitude makes him fatally attractive to women, including the squire's daughter. FFM: Tom enjoying a bawdy meal with a buxom wench.10 What's Cooking
Gurinder Chadha, 2000
A hilarious film looking at how four ethnically diverse families celebrate Thanksgiving in LA. On the day, tensions rise and boil over with surprising results. FFM: It's fascinating to see how the same ingredient, such as yam, is prepared differently by each family. courtesy of WaitroseGetting the Plot...allotment plans!
My name is down for 2 allotments (greedy!) which should be coming up in the next year. Because I am unlikely to be able to tend to them all by myself, let alone eat the produce, I'm planning to turn them into permacultured forest gardens in which my local community can learn to grow and share food by close observance of nature and how it behaves in order to get the best fruit and veg. Seeing as I only took up gardening in September 08, I've gotta lot to learn! So in fact, I'll be looking for teachers and gardeners ready to come along and show groups what to do and why. I attended a short permaculture course at Naturewise in the Lea Valley in July '09 and there's certainly a lot of fascinating theory to learn about too. Wish I had time to attend the longer courses. http://www.naturewise.org.uk/page.cfm. There is even a Permaculture Picture House in east London devoted to showing films on this topic. The best known is Rebecca Hoskings BBC documentary "A Farm for the Future", which you can probably find a copy of somewhere.
I'll be returning to this post to write more about permaculture and to start mapping out how we might plan the plots and if you have any suggestions as to planting combinations you have found successful, I'd love to hear. EG - maize supports the climbing runner beans and squash plants used as ground cover beneath them prevents weeds.
On the other hand, I need to get the community involved so I'll leave a lot till then. I'd also like to get a local artist on board to document our plots development. Also, I'd like to see bikes with trailers selling the produce door to door, all over the community.
As always, how to fund it?
loving food
My parents seemed to have instilled a love of good food in me, being exploratory and talented cooks themselves. As the first 10 years of my life were spent mostly in Malaysia and China, and later on based in Italy and Hongkong, my tastebuds were pretty experienced by the age of 5. In China I had a fixation for jiaozhe, (dumplings stuffed with pork belly and spring onion) which were almost a peasant's meal, eaten with a mixture of seseme oil, malt vinegar and soya sauce, with a lump of raw garlic too if you wanted. They are still my comfort food today. We used to have to spend hours making them, but now you can get perfectly good ones in the frozen section of the Chinese supermarkets here in London.
In Malaysia I discovered those tiny salty fishies, ikan bilis, and beef rendang, and we had papaya with lime for breakfast every morning. Nowadays, just slicing a lime transports me right back to age 5. In our garden, at number 7 Lorong Kuda, (now sadly knocked down to create way for those Petronas Towers) we grew bananas, rambutan, lychee, orchids and chickens. And I had durian-flavoured smarties once and they were disgusting.
In Rome later on, recent trauma could not dullen the excitement of mealtimes. Terracotta walls bled red in evening sunlight, church bells pealed, waiters flirted, art beckoned and architecture enthralled. With my father and younger brother I discovered the delights of polenta, risotto, rughetta (rocket) and pizzas in the colours of Italia Novanta World cup. I liked the way Italians mixed their ragu into the pasta in a big bowl, before serving it, rather than piling it in the middle and serving it with the pasta bare. I thought that was highly cool. (You have to remember that was in an era (late 80's) where all Britain had was the wonderful Pizza Express and the horrible Pizza Hut - not a very sophisticated market at all. Then all the Pizza Pastas and other chains started springing up and excrutiatingly slowly, Britain learned about Italian food. )
So a passion for food has accompanied or even fuelled me - around the world. Salmorejo in Spain (a thick tomato soup, more exciting than gazpacho), papas rellenas and ceviche in Peru, even rice and beans in Nicaragua. And still so much more to taste!
I'm a keen cook but I am by no means an expert and have no professional training whatsoever. I would so love to do a proper long-term cookery course, but for now I'll have to keep self-teaching. I still have to catch up skillwise with my extended family, the females of which are expert entertainers. This blog is for whatever comes into my head, but perhaps one day through this vehicle I will rediscover some of my mother and grandmother, remember some excellent meals, put out some of my own recipes, and get used to writing.
And there is also, of course, the growing of vegetables, the learning of permaculture, the discussion of films such as Fast Food Nation, all to talk about too...
Plastic Planet: The Curse of the Carrier Bag, 2006
In 2006 I made a no-budget short film about plastic bags. Put it on Myspace and then suddenly the whole world was contacting me wanting to use it in anti-plastic bag campaigns. At least 40 campaigns from Canada to India to Australia showed it to public gatherings to raise awareness. I think people latched onto plastic bags as a ubiquitous symbol of all that is wrong with our unsustainable way of living these days. Anyway, The Cooperative group in the UK showed it internally, Liverpool projected it in their town square on an open film day, it won a Green TV competition at the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival and Discovery Channel asked to put it on their interactive website to show what's happening at grass roots level, I think as part of their buying the TreeHugger site.
I hope to embed the film here but it doesn't work at the moment.
Interviewees in the film are :
Satish Kumaar, ex-Jain monk and environmentalist, started Resurgence,
Mukti Mitchell, eco-designer,
Jonathan Porritt, Sustainable Development Commission
Diana Verde-Nieto from Clownfish, and ethical PR company,
Jessica Symons, social entrepreneur
the lovely Jeffrey Davies running a plastic bag factory in London (Polybags), telling us why biodegradable bags aren't the answer
a waste-worker in Brighton,
Irish minister talking about the banning of plastic bags there
My favourite bit is the fact that I found a song with the most perfect chorus, and got permission to use it: Simon Denyer's Plastic Bag song. A little bit too catchy...and I like the 50's archive material with its enthusiasm about plastic.
Anthony Alexander edited with a great deal of talent and commitment, and I got Rosanna Jon to draw these cartoons for me with her animation expertise, using photos I had taken of plastic bags arranged with blue tac on my wall in certain positions. They appear at the end of the film depicting the nicknames which people have given the plastic bags you see strewn all over the place : Landfill snowbirds, witches' knickers, urban tumbleweed, Tundra ghosts, and one to do with kites which I've now forgotten... 2 of the cartoons below.
Also, some of the horrid photos that didn't make it into the film. (All copyright permissions cleared in 2006) Every time you throw away a plastic bag into the bin going to Landfill, conjure these images to mind.
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