This Wednesday, November 8, the French candidate for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film is released in theaters in France. Adapted by the Franco-Vietnamese director Trân Anh Hùng from a Swiss novel published in 1920, “The Passion of Dodin Bouffant” shows the complicity between a gourmet and his cook.
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The passion of Dodin Bouffant, bourgeois and fine gourmet, is cooking… But it is above all his cook, Eugénie, who makes his heart beat tenderly. Director Trân Anh Hùng films this peaceful relationship between an independent woman, played by Juliette Binoche, and her employer, played by Benoît Magimel, brought together by a taste for good things.
Advised by star chef Pierre Gagnaire, Trân Anh Hùng shows in real time the preparation of a feast, filmed like a virtuoso ballet. “ I wanted to film the cooking scenes the way we film car chase scenes in action films, explains the director. I wanted the making of food to be extremely concrete, for people to really believe in it. So everything must appear true. »
Awarded the Best Director prize at the last Cannes Film Festival, The Passion of Dodin Bouffant divides the critics… Many denounce its academicism, while others welcome the highlighting of culinary know-how. This film, which was very popular with American festival-goers, was chosen by France to represent it in the race for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.