From The Taste of Things to Dune Part Two: What’s on at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse in February 2024
Our film critic, Mark Walsh, takes a look at what’s on the big screen in this column sponsored by the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse.
The Taste of Things
Films about food, and in particular the people that make it, have been big business in recent year. But the likes of Jon Favreau’s Chef, the film turned TV series Boiling Point and TV series The Bear have focussed on the stresses and struggles of the high pressure situations of professional kitchens.
The new film from French-Vietnamese director Trần Anh Hùng takes a different approach, not only a love affair in the kitchen but a love letter to food itself so exquisitely crafted that it would make Michelin-starred chefs salivate.
Hùng has taken his inspiration from a century-old novel, La vie et la passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet. Benoît Magimel plays Dodin, gourmet, restaurant owner and lover of food, well versed in the finest gastronomic possibilities known to man. Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) has worked as Dodin’s cook for more than 20 years, sharing a house with him in the countryside where she crafts him delectable dishes. His admiration for her is equalled only by his love of food, but she has always preferred to remain detached, until he finds the only way to truly express his feelings: he cooks for her.
With iconic French chef Pierre Gagnaire working as an advisor to the film (and appearing in a cameo role), food looks as good on screen as it ever has done, especially in a fabulous half hour opening which shows off both culinary and cinematic expertise. But it’s the chemistry between Magimel and Binoche, former partners off-screen, which is the main course and it’s a ravishing tribute to both the art of food and the joy of romance.
The Taste Of Things is now showing.
NT Live: Vanya
Andrew Scott is well known to TV audiences, from the likes of Fleabag and Sherlock, playing The Priest and Moriarty respectively. He’s also made his mark on the cinema screen already this year in All Of Us Strangers, but he’s also had a distinguished career on the stage as well, picking up an Olivier award for his role in 2019’s Present Laughter at the Old Vic.
He’s now taken a host of roles, in Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Stephens has transformed the classic play, first written in the 1890s and itself a reworking of Chekhov’s earlier comedic play The Wood Demon. Chekhov’s revision reduced the cast from around two dozen down to nine, but Stephens has gone further, turning the play into a one-man show and making it a tour-de-force for Scott’s formidable acting talents.
Hopes, dreams, and regrets are thrust into sharp focus in this one-man adaptation which explores the complexities of human emotions. It was filmed live during its sold-out run in London’s West End, and now the National Theatre Live series is offering the chance to fully embrace Stephens’ vision and Scott’s talents on the big screen.
Vanya is showing on Thursday, 22 February, with encore showings throughout the following week.
Wicked Little Letters
My mother used to say that swearing wasn’t big and it wasn’t clever. It can be a lot of fun, though, and that’s the driver behind a new film based on a scandal that gripped England in the 1920s. Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley are the women at the centre of a war of words, most of which couldn’t be said in front of your grandmother at tea-time.
Director Thea Sharrock (Me Before You) and writer Jonny Sweet (TV’s Chickens) relate the tale of the events which unfolded in the seaside town of Littlehampton. Edith (Colman) starts receiving letters which are not only deeply libellous, but feature some rather obscene language. Suspicion initially turns to her potty-mouthed, no-nonsense neighbour Rose (Buckley), but the other townsfolk begin to suspect that there could be another culprit.
In Colman and Buckley, the film has both one of the finest actresses of her generation, deftly able to switch between comedy and drama, alongside another who’s been putting together a string of excellent performances, including Women Talking, Men and as a young Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter. It’s wonderful seeing the two getting the chance to share screen time this time around, both getting the chance to relish in some filthy wordplay in the name of comedy.
Wicked Little Letters opens on Friday, 23 February.
Dune: Double bill
Critics – including this one – acclaimed Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel when it arrived three years ago, but its success wasn’t a sure thing, despite featuring an all-star cast and some of the most epic visuals ever seen on screen. Thankfully, audiences bought into the Canadian director’s vision significantly enough that the studio allowed him to make the second part of the original novel.
If you’ve not seen the first half since its release, or somehow managed to miss it first time round, then the Arts Picturehouse is offering the chance to catch up on Part One before setting down for the even-more-epic Part Two. Timothée Chalamet returns as Paul Atreides, with the stellar cast from the first film including Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin and Zendaya being supplemented this time by Austin Butler, Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken.
Part One saw Paul Atreides dealing with his destiny as warring factions battled for control of the universe’s most valuable substance, spice. Having had visions about the Fremen, who live on the desert planet of Arrakis. The follow-up sees Atreides unite with the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Villeneuve has succeeded in transforming Herbert’s dense, complex prose into a two-part saga that has a scale of both storytelling and visuals almost unmatched in cinema history; this is the ideal chance to watch the films back to back and to truly embrace the scale of Villeneuve’s achievement.
Dune: Part One is showing on Thursday, 29 February at 8.30pm, followed by a screening of Dune: Part Two at midnight on 1 March.
