The Big Picture

• The Taste of Things is one of the most quietly beautiful and romantic films ever put to screen.
• The film tells a love story between two culinary artists, finding splendor in both their creations and their life together.
• The film explores the fleeting nature of joy and the bittersweet truth of loss, capturing the essentialness of living a life of love.

There are few openings in cinema as quietly spellbinding as the one in Trần Anh Hùng’s The Taste of Things. Operating on a rhythm similar to Frederick Wiseman’s magnificent recent documentary Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros, The Taste of Things takes us into a kitchen in 1885 France. Though specific in its setting, soon all the walls come down as we get immersed in the particulars of the preparation. Before we know any of the people, we are swept up in the sights and senses of everything unfolding before us. Everything is meticulously prepared by two masters of their craft, playing out like a dance where the only music is the sizzling of a pan or the gentle sound of birds making their way through the open windows.

It is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful and romantic sequences ever put on screen that only grows from there. Though it first premiered back at the Cannes Film Festival, where Hùng won the award for Best Director, its wide release makes it the perfect movie you could ever hope to see for Valentine’s Day this year or any other throughout a lifetime.

What Is 'The Taste of Things' About?

The two chefs making art in this kitchen are Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) and Dodin (Benoît Magimel) and they have been doing so for years. Thus, there is an unspoken yet no less mesmerizing bond between the two of them as they go about preparing dish after dish. They are accompanied by Violette (Galatéa Bellugi) who is also part of this well-oiled machine. This more patient and reflective silence is primarily broken when they offer insights to the young Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), who is seeking to be an apprentice with the two of them. In addition to her curiosity, she also has a remarkable ability to detect any and all details of the culinary creations that just never seem to end. The preparation is being done for a meal for a group of fellows, who will be referred to as the boys, who have come to feast in the luxurious dining room upstairs. This opening scene where we see this all being prepared runs for almost thirty minutes, setting the stage for one of the most mesmerizing and melancholic films ever made. The crushing sense of melancholy begins when we see Eugénie, in the midst of cooking, become overcome by some great pain. Soon, we realize that she is falling seriously ill and may no longer be able to continue doing what she loves for much longer.

The film is then one about love, not just about the glorious food, but of one between two people. Both Eugénie and Dodin could not be more different than each other. The former is often more focused on the craft than socializing, choosing to continue working while the latter goes upstairs to dine. These details are revealed gently and without pretense, as we see how they have settled into just as much of a rhythm in their personal lives as they do in the kitchen. When she is asked about this, she initially demurs before saying that it is not possible for her to join them as she must remain in the kitchen to make sure it is all right. She then gives a more romantic proclamation that she speaks to them through everything that she makes.

Dodin, romantic in his own ways, is a much more social creature. He will make trips out with the boys, including when called to by royalty, attempting to impress him in a scene that takes a delightfully humorous turn, before always returning home to her. The two are sexually intimate at night in authentically sensual scenes, but the repeated proposals for them to marry by Dodin are always dismissed with a smile by Eugénie. How she does it in one spectacular unbroken scene by the water tells us so much about them. With the camera gently moving in and out, we realize that this is also part of a dance the two share. They tease and flirt while more heavy moments start to sneak up on them. It is intimate yet not in a showy sense, as if we are peeking in on two lovers who have already said everything in the world to each other and just want to spend the time the two have in each other’s company as much as they can. Just as we trace the way many of the ingredients make their way into their kitchen, the film intertwines the personal with the poetic in stunningly beautiful fashion. Of course, as is the case with all such moments in life, the time we get to enjoy them is finite. That only makes them all the more joyous to experience and inevitably painful to see fade them all away.

'The Taste of Things' Is a Love Story so Wonderfully Crafted It Can Last a Lifetime

On a second watch, the way all the small moments come together into something shattering is all the more consuming. As we all ultimatley discover, for all the moments where we get to sit in the joys and pleasures of another, there will never be enough time. Even as they find a splendor in the memories they then carry with them and the ones they can still create even when they think all is lost, the pain of this loss remains a bittersweet truth we must all confront. Still, for Hùng, the heartbreak is not just worth it, but essential to living a life of love.

Making a meal for someone can be a way of expressing this love, speaking as Eugénie said at the beginning of this film, just as it is a farewell. The Taste of Things explores all of this, sneaking up with you how profound it is. It culminates in a completely devastating yet delicate ending, letting us linger in the rich textures of its characters and their culinary creations with the same patience with which it opened. May we all love as this film does.

The Taste of Things is now available to stream on VOD in the U.S.

WATCH ON VOD