The Taste Of Things (NC16)
136 minutes
4 stars
On a country estate in late 19th-century France, cook Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) works with her employer, the famed gourmet Dodin (Benoit Magimel), to prepare menus that exemplify their philosophy of making the most of simple ingredients. Eugenie, realising that she is getting on in years, begins teaching Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), a girl with a gifted palate.
Vietnam-born French writer-director Tran Anh Hung’s film competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and was France’s entry in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Academy Awards.
In long, dialogue- and soundtrack-free scenes underpinned by the sizzle of butter in hot cast-iron pans, actors Binoche and Magimel can be seen butchering meats and cleaning fish.
The visual authenticity on display here is the highlight of The Taste Of Things, which belongs to the genre of films about competent people going about their daily tasks.
Not since the Danish celebration of sensuality Babette’s Feast (1987) or the Taiwanese dramedy Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) has so much food been on display for so long – The Taste Of Things should carry a warning: Watching this could be hazardous to your diet.
The Eternal Memory (PG13)
85 minutes
The two persons seen through the lens of Chilean documentary-maker Maite Alberdi Soto are Augusto Gongora and Paulina Urrutia, who have been together for more than 20 years. He is a former journalist and she is an actress and former minister of culture and the arts.
Augusto was a firebrand who campaigned to keep alive the memory of the crimes of the Augusto Pinochet regime. But his own memories, as well as other faculties, have been eroded by Alzheimer’s disease.
Paulina devotes herself to his care, having to remind the often despairing and disoriented man who he is and the place that love holds in their lives.
The Guardian newspaper says the film makes it clear that the two were “madly in love from the start” and calls the work “humane and profoundly empathic”.
It earned a nomination in the Best Documentary Feature section of the 2024 Academy Awards and won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary section of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
The documentary is being screened as part of the ArtScience Cinema’s Notes On Tenderness Film Programme, created for its extended Valentine’s season.
Where: ArtScience Cinema, Level 4 ArtScience Museum, 6 Bayfront Avenue
MRT: Bayfront
When: March 24 and 30, 2pm
Admission: $12 for standard ticket price
Info: str.sg/k5Sa
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (G)
103 minutes, opens at The Projector on March 28
In late 2022, knowing that time was short, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto asked his son, film-maker Neo Sora, to direct a concert film for him. The following year, on March 28, Sakamoto would die of cancer at the age of 71.
This is the document that Sakamoto requested and it stands as his final concert film. Shot in black and white at the NHK Studio in Tokyo, it features the composer and pianist by himself, seated at a Yamaha grand.
His career spanned over 40 years and the playlist includes music from his time with the electronic outfit Yellow Magic Orchestra, as well as when he was composing for films such as Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983, in which Sakamoto also acted, opposite musician and actor David Bowie) and The Last Emperor (1987).
The New York Times calls the film “a gift from a master” and an “intensely moving experience”.
Where: 05-00 Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road
MRT: Nicoll Highway
When: From March 28, various times
Admission: $15 for standard ticket
Info: str.sg/DqtJ
