RICHARD’S BLOG

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I became a playwright in 1996, having been an avid theatregoer throughout my life (averaging around 120 plays a year – watching, not writing!) I semi-retired from my day job shortly thereafter and for the next 25 years I worked only part-time, allowing me time to write. I ventured briefly into the world of television and wrote a couple of screenplays, although this pretty much came to nothing, except for TAPS making a short film of one of my scripts starring (a virtually unknown) Benedict Cumberbatch and Georgia Mackenzie, which was cool, and sufficient to get me BAFTA membership. Since the pandemic, theatre in the UK has never really found its way back to what it used to be, and so my attention has drifted more towards film. I am now fully retired from my day job and whilst I still visit the theatre two or three times a month, I now watch upwards of 500 films a year (crazy, but true!) Since I watch so many films and can write, I decided to create a blog – it seemed a very 21st-Century thing to do.
  • REVIEW: When Autumn Falls ★★★★☆

    REVIEW: When Autumn Falls ★★★★☆

    Yesterday I went to see Francois Ozon’s latest film When Autumn Falls, which was released in the UK a week last Friday. I had seen the film before, at the London Film Festival in October, however five months have past since then, so I felt it was worth another viewing.

    I first came across Ozon with Frantz, strongly recommended by Mark Kermode, and since then he has become one of my favourite directors – I have seen all his subsequent work and tracked down virtually all of his earlier films on DVD. He has been criticised for not having a consistent style, but to me that is one of his strengths – he rarely fails to both surprise and delight. Sometimes I think Ozon makes films which emulate and celebrate those of other film-makers he admires, consider 8 Women as his Jacques Demy film. To me, When Autumn Falls feels like a Claude Chabrol plot as realised by Eric Rohmer – praise indeed!

    The film tells the story of two lifelong friends, Michelle and Marie-Claude, enjoying their peaceful retirement in a quaint Burgundy village, far-removed from Paris where, in another lifetime, they were somewhat unconventional ‘work-colleagues’. Michelle loves her quiet routine, though looks forward to the visits of her young grandson, Lucas. However, her relationship with Lucas’s mother, her only daughter Valérie, leaves much to be desired and when Michelle accidentally hospitalises Valérie, having picked the wrong mushrooms, that relationship is stretched beyond breaking point.

    At about this time Marie-Claude’s only son Vincent is released from prison for a crime which is never disclosed to us and Michelle helps him out by offering to pay him for working in her garden.

    Michelle grieves for the loss of her relationship with her grandson; Vincent is grateful to her and wants to help; Marie-Claude looks on with a sense of foreboding. The stage is set, but I cannot reveal anything further without spoiling this beautifully-crafted plot.

    What I love about the film, in addition to the story we are told, is the details it keeps to itself – basically the who knows what and when. This is never quite revealed to us, and in particular, we leave the cinema wondering just how much Michelle knew and/or suspected.

    Ozon, who not only directs but wrote and produced the film, has brought together a cast who he previously used in supporting roles in By the Grace of God in 2019. In occupying the role of Michelle, Hélène Vincent gives the performance of a lifetime: a masterclass in understatement; and Josiane Balasko is just right in the supporting role of her friend Marie-Claude. Between the two of them, they have over one hundred years of filmmaking experience. Pierre Lottin as Vincent adds an air of the unknown to this quietly smouldering thriller – why was he in prison and just what is he capable of?

    I whole-heartedly recommend this film. I very much enjoyed spending time with these fascinating characters, with their long-buried secret, rather disreputable, pasts and I love films that leave me wondering what really happened.

    Incidentally, I am sixty-five years old today, and so might be considered to be entering my own Autumn years; indeed, just a few weeks ago I wrote a poem entitled Autumn. In case anyone is interested, here it is:

    Autumn

    It is not the things we did together that I shall miss, 
         but the things we never got around to doing
    Not the places that we visited en famille, 
         but the places we shall never get to share
    Not trekking through Paris, family in tow, 
         but taking morning coffee à deux, at a little tabac in a Gallic village square
    Not beer and crisps on the Yorkshire riviera, 
         but leisurely chiantis on the terrace as the sun sets over Capri
    Yes, I shall still do New England in the fall, 
         but with some or other friend; it will not be as imagined
    No, it’s not the moments burned into my memory that I shall miss, 
         but our hopes and dreams, as they slowly ebb away
  • My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films about Food

    My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films about Food

    My original title was: My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films for which food forms an integral part of the plot – more accurate, but not so catchy!

    I decided to make my first post a list. I intend to make two lists each month of my favourite films on specific themes, in addition to commenting on the new films that I see. And I thought films about food would be a good start – that has to be easy, right?

    So here I am a week on, having watched/rewatched a veritable smorgasbord of food-related films, trying to determine what ‘about food’ means. Because virtually none of my chosen films are about food: they are about love and family and loneliness and a host of other things. So my definition is films for which food is an integral part of the film.

    Having managed that, now for my Top 7. Why seven? Well, everyone does five, or ten or twenty or fifty… I just wanted to be different. But actually, it was not that easy. First, I watched a lot more than seven really good films, and I found discounting some of them just too difficult to do. Also I wanted to recommend more than seven films because I want you to watch them – they are really, really good!

    So, here are my Top 3 films for which food is an integral part of the plot together with a small group of films you really should watch just as soon as you possibly can!

    (1)        The Taste of Things (The Pot-au-Feu)

    In this 2023 French historical romantic drama, live-in cook Eugénie prepares the meals for gourmand Dodin Bouffant (and his friends) on his country estate in the late nineteenth century. Both middle-aged, they are also in a long-term romantic relationship, but maintain separate bedrooms: he has repeatedly proposed marriage, but she declines, preferring what they have. Then following a health scare, she agrees to marry him in what he refers to as ‘the autumn of their lives’. The simple joy they find in developing new recipes and preparations together makes this gentle ever-so-slow-burning film whatever is the film equivalent of unputdownable, and the fact that the lovers are played by Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, themselves once a couple, adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the film. It is described on Rotten Tomatoes as “an exquisite seven-course love story for the soul” – I can’t beat that! Please be warned – you will probably cry.

    (2)        The Lunchbox

    This 2013 drama, written and directed by Ritesh Batra, tells the story of Ila, a young housewife, who is seeking to bring some romance back into her marriage by cooking delicious lunches for her wayward husband. However, after a mix-up in the complex lunch delivery system in Mumbai (the dabbawalas), Ila’s lunch is delivered in error to Saajan, a middle-aged accountant approaching retirement, rather than to her husband. Each day, the error is repeated. Ila and Saajan begin to correspond through little notes passed via the lunchbox and gradually develop a friendship, sharing events and stories from their own lives. Finally they arrange to meet, however he loses confidence, at the last moment: she is so young, and he is ready for retirement. This is a beautiful, sad story told through the care she puts into preparing the lunches and the tenderness he puts into his notes.

    (3)        Eat Drink Man Woman

    This 1994 comedy-drama directed by Ang Lee had somehow passed me by. I discovered it only when researching for this list, however I have now purchased the whole Father Knows Best trilogy on DVD, so I will be able to revisit it over and over again. The film follows the members of the Zhu family as they navigate the challenges of love, life and family whilst they undergo the transition from tradition to modernity in Taiwan. Every Sunday evening, semi-retired chef and widower Zhu prepares a sumptuous feast for his three daughters, a tradition which he had assumed would continue in perpetuity. But his daughters’ own personal lives intervene.

    And the Honourable Mentions …

    The following six films are those that came very, very close to making the top 3, but did not quite get there, listed in alphabetical order:

    Babette’s Feast

    This 1987 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel is based on a short story by Karen Blixen, better known perhaps for Out of Africa. One day Babette Hersant, a French refugee, turns up at the home of two elderly and pious Protestant sisters in a remote Jutland village. She brings a recommendation as a housekeeper from an old suitor of one of the sisters. They cannot afford to employ her, but she volunteers to work for free and for fourteen years she serves them and the strange community over which they preside. Then Babette comes into some money and decides to show her appreciation to the sisters by paying for and preparing a ‘real French dinner’ on their deceased father’s hundredth birthday. However, the earthly pleasures Babette prepares clash with the harsh protestant values of the congregation.

    Big Night

    Big Night (1995) was co-directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci (who also co-wrote and stars in the film). The film follows two Italian immigrant brothers, Primo (the chef) and Secondo (the businessman), as they host an evening of free food at their restaurant in a last-ditch attempt to gain publicity and build up patronage before their bank loans fall due for repayment and foreclosure beckons. Primo serves up the finest feast I will never get to partake in however the brothers have been double-crossed by their friend and business competitor Pascal (played magnificently by Ian Holm), and things do not go according to plan. The final scene of this film is quite brilliant.

    The Cakemaker

    This is the debut film of Israeli writer/director Ofir Raul Graizer. Thomas, a young German baker, learning of the death of his Israeli male lover Oren, who he sees only periodically when he visits Germany on business, decides to travel to Israel as part of his grieving process. Here he discovers, and forges a relationship with, Oren’s widow and young son. Told with intelligence and restraint, the story is beautifully crafted, and the characters are wonderfully drawn.

    Couscous (The Secret of the Grain)

    A delightful film made in 2007 by Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche (perhaps better known for his Palm D’Or winning Blue is the Warmest Colour). Set in the French Mediterranean city of Sete, it tells the story of Slimane Beiji, the head of a Franco-Arabic family who, having lost his job at a local shipyard, sets out to leave a legacy for his large and disparate family by converting a dilapidated boat into a family restaurant which will specialise in his ex-wife’s ‘famous’ fish couscous.

    Like Water for Chocolate

    This 1992 romantic-drama film, directed by Alfonso Arau, is all about tradition and gender roles in a Mexican family. It takes as its starting point the not uncommon tradition which forbids the youngest daughter from marrying, so that she will be free to take care of her mother as she ages. However, this youngest daughter, Tita, makes the mistake of falling in love, and so begins a complex series of events, both comic and tragic, involving all the members of the de la Garza family. The film, which uses magic-realism to great effect, is wonderfully punctuated by Tita’s mouthwatering cooking.

    Tampopo

    This 1985 Japanese comedy film, written and directed by Juzo Itami, is a kind of love letter to the Japanese tradition of Ramen. A truck driver, Gorō, calls in at Tampopo’s roadside ramen noodle shop for his dinner. There is an altercation with another customer, and he steps in and helps Tampopo. He stays the night and next morning, as she gives him his breakfast, she asks him what he thinks of her Ramen. It is not good. The rest of the film is, effectively, the search for the perfect Ramen, with many side-nods to the importance of food in Japanese culture thrown in.

    And so my Top 7 was stretched and shrunk and pulled this way and that, but finally became my definitive list. Except…

    And the rest…

    What about the films that were wonderful but couldn’t be included because although on the face of it food was going to be key, it turned out to be not quite key enough. A big round of applause please for Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet (1993) and My Favourite Cake (2024) co-directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha. I heartily recommend both of these films.

    And finally what else did I watch/rewatch in reaching my list? These films were also considered and were generally very enjoyable fodder, although fell just a little short of my à la carte selection:

    • The Chef
    • Chocolat
    • The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover
    • Eating Raoul
    • Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistle Stop Café)
    • The Green Butchers
    • The Hundred-Foot Journey
    • Mid-August Lunch
    • My Dinner with Andre
    • Ratatouille
    • Soursweet

    Just to say, I had a great week, still a bit hungry, but that is only to be expected. I now need a rest from food films; however I will be back in a fortnight with films about drink and drinking – it seems a sensible place to go.

    I am sure I have missed films, so if you have anything you think I should watch or that may deserve a place in the “Top 3 and a Few More” please let me know. As I think you will probably have gathered, whatever you recommend I will endeavour to find and watch.