Category Food
Age and Appetite: Pranzo di Ferragosto/Mid-August Lunch (2008)
I’m clearly the world’s most useless blogger. Although I’ve been thinking (and writing) a lot about food and film recently, this post is long overdue. And as we’re well into summer and approaching the middle of August, I couldn’t resist the urge to write a little about Pranzo di Ferragosto/Mid-August Lunch (2008), which I watched for […]
Breakfast time at Spence and Kate’s – Woman of the Year (1942)
Making breakfast has never looked so hard as it does at the end of Woman of the Year (1942) when steely and independent Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) tries to prepare coffee and waffles for her estranged husband, Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy). Tess is a cultured and successful political correspondent – so successful she wins the […]
Heartburn (1986)
Heartburn is chock full of food. Its heroine, Rachel Samstat (Meryl Streep) is a cookery book writer and Nora Ephron’s 1983 novel (which she adapted for Mike Nichols’ screen version) is full of asides in which Rachel discourses on the life-affirming qualities of potatoes, or offers up recipes for cheesecake, vinaigrette, bacon hash and peach […]
Breakfast with Dix Steele – In a Lonely Place (1950)
*Warning contains spoilers* Hardboiled heroes (or anti-heroes) certainly know how to eat and drink. Take Dix Steele (Humphrey Bogart), the cynical screenwriter protagonist of In a Lonely Place (1950). We’re first introduced to Dix on his way to Paul’s, a Hollywood club/bar/ restaurant. He’s going to meet his agent Mel (Art Smith), who has a […]
‘Cheese, Gromit!’ – Wallace and Gromit (1989 – 2008)
Are Wallace and Gromit stop-motion animation’s most famous cheese-lovers? Undoubtedly – although I’d love to hear suggestions for other cheese lovers on film please. The plot of Wallace and Gromit’s first film, A Grand Day Out (1989) opens with Wallace trying to select a holiday destination while also needing to satisfy his urge for some […]
Teenage Licks – Heathers (1988)
I’m super excited about Teenage Kicks, the BFI’s summer season of teen movies which is now on. They’re showing one of my favourite films – Heathers (1988), a very black comedy about murder, suicide, eating disorders and hating your best friends. It stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater (in his best young Jack Nicholson mode) […]
Mildred Pierce (1945 and 2011)
Mildred Pierce (1941 book, 1945 Michael Curtiz film, and 2011 Todd Haynes TV miniseries) is currently occupying my thoughts and my tastebuds. In all of three versions of the story, food – namely fried chicken, waffles and pies – is central to plot and characterisation. Food also conveys much about the gender politics of the […]
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