Story
Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) is an incredibly talented chef, an artist in the kitchen. She has been cooking for Dodin (Benoit Magimel), a perfectionist gourmet, for over 20 years. Together they create spectacular dishes the world has never dreamed of and impress everyone who’s fortunate enough to try their food.
Eugenie is assisted in the kitchen by Violette (Galatea Bellugi), an aspiring chef with poor skills, and her young cousin Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), who has astounding talent when it comes to identifying ingredients and flavours and who yearns to be a chef as well.
Dodin is very much in love with Eugenie, who has an intimate relationship with him but who’s reluctant to accept his proposals. When Eugenie becomes ill, Dodin begins to cook for her and she eventually agrees to marry him. She passes away suddenly, and Dodin is left bereft, unable to eat, cook or even think straight.
Violette and Dodin’s friends can’t reach him, but young Pauline and her desire to learn to cook as Eugenie did might be the one thing that can lift Dodin from his misery and help him learn to live again.
Themes
Illness; death; grief
Violence
The Taste of Things has some violence. For example, there’s a reference to a child who’s left in the street and told that he can never go home because his family has too many children and there isn’t enough to eat.
Sexual references
The Taste of Things has some sexual references. For example:
- A man notes that he watched a newborn baby greedily throw itself at its mother’s breast and that this has given him an appetite.
- Dodin asks Eugenie if she’ll leave her door open to him in the evening. They occasionally have this conversation about their sexual relationship. Eugenie mentions that if she were Dodin’s wife, she wouldn’t have the luxury of shutting the door on him if she didn’t want his affection.
- It’s noted that her door is ‘often open to him’.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
The Taste of Things shows some use of substances. For example:
- Characters frequently consume alcohol. This is often various wines, which are paired with foods during meals.
- Men smoke cigars after dinner.
- Although Pauline isn’t an adult, she’s given wine to try.
- Characters use wine in cooking.
Nudity and sexual activity
The Taste of Things has some nudity and sexual activity. For example, Eugenie is bathing in her room one night when Dodin comes in to watch her. She’s completely naked and is shown from behind.
Product placement
There’s no product placement in The Taste of Things.
Coarse language
There’s no coarse language in The Taste of Things.
Ideas to discuss with your children
The Taste of Things is a slow-paced French movie with English subtitles. The movie’s action takes place mostly in the kitchen of an old chateau, and there are long sequences that show the preparation of food. These are often without words. There’s beautiful cinematography and the gentle plot of an older love story. But the movie is likely to be of little interest to children or teenagers and is better suited to adult audiences and fans of French film.
These are the main messages from The Taste of Things:
- Be true to yourself and to your talents.
- Enjoy and savour your food and relationships, because you don’t know how long they’ll last.
Values in The Taste of Things that you could reinforce with your children include helpfulness, community, compassion, creativity and industriousness.
The Taste of Things could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like:
- insisting that you’re fine, even when you’re not
- pushing yourself beyond your limits
- allowing grief to overwhelm you.