User:10000BL/H2-Film & Food: How food is use to convey a message
The genre of food films is maybe less present than the more conventional genres like Action or Horror. Yet much can be researched and said when it comes to food and its appearances in films. Every genre follows a certain structure and consists of certain semantic elements that makes up the genre. This generates expectations and, in my opinion also, recognition within the viewers. Of course it doesn't mean that a genre is static in its form. Instead according to Bower(footnote, page) a genre must be able to change itself by innovation and invention, if not the possibility is there to exhaust. certain elements indicate that a film falls in the genre of food. The most obvious one is off course the abundance of food present in the film, another one is that the storyline is based around a chef, yet this is not a necessity. The film's focus lies on food preparation and presentation that results into closeups and panning shots where food fills the screen. Also the restaurant setting or a wide array of shots of a kitchen as well as from shops where the food is prepared can often be seen in films that fall in the genre of Food. An important convention is also that the narrative of the film depict its characters negotiating questions of identity, relationship and culture among others through food (Bower, footnote, page).
The assigning of a film to the genre of Food is difficult and subjective. Often films depicts scenes where food is present, but many of them are perceived not to be in the genre of food films. A good example of a film with important scenes involving food, but is often not perceived as a film within the food film genre is The Hours (Daldry, footnote, 2002). The film follows the lives of three women that are all connected by the book Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. All are somehow unhappy in their relationship and deal with emotions of suicide. In two distinctive scenes food acts as a conveyor of deep emotions. In the first scene Laura, played by Julianne Moore, wants to make a cake for the birthday of her husband. This is important for her, because it is her way to show her love for him. Yet, as a viewer you notice easily that her love has disappeared already for a long time. Not surprisingly the result of the cake is a failure. The love that had to be transferred by the cake is not succeeded. Her second attempt only succeeds after she finds out she has feelings for her female neighbour. They kiss and even though it seems throughout the scene that there is no future for them as a couple, Laura succeeds in making the perfect cake, which is presented to her husband later the day. The second scene that I want to mention is that of Clarrisa, played by Meryl Streep, who throws plates with expensive food in the trash bin. This wasting of food is a metaphor for the lose of what she actually treasured the most, Richard, for who she has secret feelings and who revealed before he committed suicide that he has the same feelings.
Filmmakers often turn to food to communicate important aspects of character's emotions, personal and cultural identity (Bower, footnote, page). The Hours show many other scenes in which this is the case. Although a film is not about food from its base, food still can play an important role in conveying feelings and emotions. Bower (footnote page) explains that it was because of Terasa de Lauretis that we understand the power of cinema when it comes to production and reproduction of meanings, values and ideology. Food is a conveyer that can be used in many ways and could stand for many emotions, both implicit and explicit. Food, amongst others, in film is a way to tell us who we are, what we stands for and what we treasure. It can speak easily about love, identity, culture and relationship. Part of the real, according to Bower (footnote page), we grasp is in food imagery. How food is coded, whether it plays a major or minor role, it is often a major ingredient in how we perceive the film.
A film that has a strong connotation with food shows a broad exploration of how food exists within a certain culture. By this it gives viewers an insight in ethnic foodways. With foodways is meant the pattern of what is eaten, when, how and what it means (footnote Balthrope, page). For my research it is more important to highlight certain ethnic foodways than to investigate the genre of food films as a whole. This means that classic films that are assigned typically to the genre of Food, like Tucci's Big Night (1996, footnote) or Hallström's Chocolat (footnote, 2000) are not addressed further in this thesis/chapter. Instead, central films for my research are Itami's Tampopo (1985,footnote) and Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman (1994, footnote). Taken into account my graduation project In Search for Perfect Orange, the choice for these films is obvious.
When I started to develop ideas for video works, I had to learn how food is depicted in film and what it means or stance for. If I was only interested in how food aesthetically can be captured on film, the observation of TV-shows dealing with food would be sufficient. Eat Drink Man Woman starts beautifully with a five minute long homage to the Chinese kitchen and its elaborated techniques. If you are font on food, this is one of the movies that suits you best. The film continuous to show scenes of cooking attractive dishes and food is clearly in many facets an important element in the film. The film tells the story of a single father and his three daughters who live under one roof. The daughters differ much in career and interests, but are all struggling with attracting a boyfriend and the interpersonal relationships. Important are the weekly sunday dinners, where father Chu cooks extensively and visually beautifully, yet were taste is of. Key during the sunday dinners are the announcements that are made in the film. Each announcements is a rupture in the structure of this family, (3 footnotes, minutes and waht happens).
Throughout the film we learn that chef Chu is losing his taste for food and that second daughter Jia-Chien shares the same passion for food as her father.
and dressing, but we also learn that chef Chu is losing his taste.
Throughout the film you not onlsee chef Chu cooking complicated, beautiful looking dishes and advising yet losing it sense for taste.
wide array of food shots
---> explain more in general about food genre, follow chapter bower, maybe now The hours. Give examples of films i watched, foodways etc
The purpose of this thesis is not to explain the history of Food films nor to clarify what exactly a food film is or what it requires. Therefor classic films that fall in the genre of Food, Tucci's Big Night (footnote) and Hallström's Chocolat (footnote, 2000) to name a few, are not the focus of this thesis. Rather the majority of films that are discussed in this thesis are related to (my) ethnicity and/or deal with interpersonal relationships and disturbance of relationships. Starting point
to the focus of this thesis when it comes to food in films must be related first to (my) ethnic background
which films fall in the genre of food can sometimes be subjective, there are certain elements that indicate it that we are dealing
it is logical that food plays a keyrole in the film.
Like every genre films that
The genre of food films doesn't doe under for genres like horrror or ..a. When it comes to films that fall in the food genre,
uitleggen foodways, what food genre is, what voor elementen ten grondslag liggen aan food films
I never realised that the use of food in films was such embedded that it is a study on itself or I never watched films in such a way that I was paying attention to a point that I would make notes when food was present in a film and where it stance for/actually conveyed. When I started with my project Nr. 39 with Rice it was initially not my intention to work with moving image. Only in a later stage I realised that the inclusion of my father, whom is a chef from origin would be an interesting yet logical choice to make. When I started my journey to learn more about how food is depicted in films, how it is presented in films or where it actually stands for, I was looking for films that were culturally close to me. Films like Tampopo (Itami, 1985), Eat Drink Man Woman (Lee, 1994) and Jiro Dreams of Sushi (Gelg, 2011), which is technically a documentary are striking examples of Asian culture in many facets. In my private DVD collection I posses already for many years Kebab Connection (Saul, 2004), a film which tells the story about a Turkish young man Ibo, grown up in Germany out of a traditional turkish family, that is in love with German girl Titzi, whom are awaiting their first child. The upcoming birth of the child puts things on the edge (spanning) in the traditional Turkish family of Ibo. The unfolding of this cultural clash together with the fight between a Greek and Turkish restaurant holder about who has the best eatery of Hamburg with lots of scenes were food is key is a film when looking back falls into the genre of films about food. One of the first movies I watched for my current research was The Ramen Girl (Ackerman, 2008). This film, which story is somehow similar to that of the Karate kid (Avildsen, 1984), tells the story about Abby who moves to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend. This relationship ends at an early stage in the film and as a consequence she starts to build a love(?) for Ramen noodles and insists sensei Maezumi to learn her to cook Ramen. The story unfolds that in order to make good Ramen you have to cook with the heart.
There are many good films about food or where food plays a key role. Since my interest is pointed to a specific cultural context, I left out films like Stanley Tucci's Big Night and Hallström's Chocolat for my research. Two films that became important for my research are Tampopo and Eat Drink Man Woman. Films that fall in the genre of Food come generally speaking in two forms, first where the main character is a chef and second where food plays a symbolic role. Often filmmakers turn to food to communicate important aspects of character's emotions, personal and cultural identity (Bower). The Hours (Daldry, 2002) is a good example where the presentation of food stance for the character's emotion. In a particular scene Laura, played by Julianne Moore, wants to make a cake for the birthday of her husband. This is important for her because it is the way to show her love for him, yet as a viewer of the film you notice easily that the love has dissapeared from here site a very long time ago. The cake then, not suprisingly, is a failure. The love that had to be conveyed by the cake is false. Her second atempt only succeeds when she finds out she has feelings for the visting neighbours. The perfect cake as a result can be seen as a product of her regained love for someone (the hours min...). Another scene from The Hours shows how food can stand for someone lose or sorrow. Clarrisa, played by Meryl Streep, throws away plates of expensive food as a methaphor for losing her former lover Richard, played by Ed Harris, by suicide. Both cherish love for each other, that somehow never became real. The food that Clarrisa throws in the trash bin is a methaphor for the lossing that what she actually treasured the most. Eventhough the film is not about food, food in itself plays an important role in coveying feelings both negatively and positively emotions. Bower explains that it was because of Terasa de Lauretis(check) twenty years ago that we understand the power of cinema in when it comes to production and reproduction of meanings, values and ideology. And food is a conveyer(drager) that can be used in many ways and could stand for many emotions, both implicit and explicit. Food, amongst others, in films is a way to tell us who we are, what we stands for and what we treasure. It can speak easily about love, loss, identity and friendship, power, culture, class, relationship. Part of the real, according to Bower, we grasp is in food imagery. How food is coded, whether it plays a major or minor role, it is often a major ingedient in how we perceive the film.
Through food we can (dis)identify us with the characters on screen. Films like Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), Soul Food (1997) and Festen (19..) all depict the interaction of families through the sharing of /food/foodways. Especially in the first two films The way the use food
that covered in a layer of food, but for my research I choose not to use them...
there are many films i could watch for my research like ... ...., however i choose these films because the have a link with my culture of are closely related to my personal family relationship.