Beverly Levitt explores an interesting idea, i.e what food movies are worth an Oscar? But she totally mails it in. Seriously Juno? Only in Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade world would a movie backdropped by blue slushies, M&M, and licorice rope be considered a food movie. Hell, Last Holiday directed by Wayne Wang and starring Queen Latifah would be a better choice when food enters the equation.
My off the cuff list of movies where food plays a pivotal role in a memorable sequence or as a key part of the movie in no particular order:
1 -Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (monkey brains anyone…)
2 -Babette’s Feast
3 -Chocolat
4 -Big Night
5 -Diner
6 -Like Water for Chocolate
7 -Marie Antoinette
8 -Age of Innocence
9 -Lady and the Tramp
10 -Moonstruck
11 -Ratatouille (Sills includes this one)
12 -Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
13 -Soylent Green
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mmorowitz
Nice list, except for the omission of one of the best food movies ever:
Tampopo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampopo
Michael Nagrant
Good Call….I had it, but I deleted it from the top because it was too obvious and meant to add it to the bottom, but I forgot…agreed, maybe the best food movie of all…
Babs
and Le Grand Bouffe with Marcello Mastroianni
Jasmine
Tom Jones (awesome feast scene)
Simply Irresistible (terrible but ostensibly Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a genius chef)
scoobyhed
What about Cool Hand Luke? The hardboiled egg scene deserves an Oscar on its own.
mmorowitz
Well, George Kennedy did win an Oscar, and I’m sure the hard-boiled egg scene had a lot to do with it.
Lisa
What about “Five Easy Pieces” and the chicken salad sandwich scene?
Cynthia
Two seductive dinners: On A Clear Day You Can See Forever; Noon to Three (Tom Jones already noted above)
And would Eating Raoul count?
Also, though I never saw it, the movie Eating got some interesting reviews.
Chuck Sudo
For pure voyeurism, I’d go with the scene in “Atlantic City” where Burt Lancaster is spying on Susan Sarandon rubbing lemons all over her body to remove the scent of shellfish from her skin.
Scotty
Monty Python’ The Meaning of Life. Just think of Terry Jones’ Mr. Creosote and the thin mint. Would the meal prior the the emergence of the alien in Alien count
Scotty
My wife just suggested two food fight movies: The invisible food in Hook, and the Cafeteria scene in Animal House
Joebuddy
Spanglish. The BLT with a fried egg that Adam Sandler made is probably my favorite sandwich of all time.
Plus, TK trained Sandler for that role. Respect.
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