Food In Film

Using an interdisciplinary approach combining film, semiotics, social-anthropology and history, this book examines food sciences in selected films to reveal food's power to direct and impose values and beliefs, to understand how dining venues may become sites of social contests and to reveal how food communicated values and beliefs to individuals, to micro communities and to American Society.

From early cinematic depictions of food as a symbol of ethnic and cultural identity to more complex contemporary portrayals, movies have demonstrated how our ideas about food are always changing. On the big and small screens, representations of addiction, starvation, and even food as fetish reinforce how important food is in our lives and in our culture. In Food on Film: Bringing Something New to the Table, Tom Hertweck brings together innovative viewpoints about a popular, yet understudied, subject in cinema. This collection explores the pervasiveness of food in film, from movies in which meals play a starring role to those that feature food and eating in supporting or cameo appearances. The volume asks provocative questions about food and its relationship with work, urban life, sexual orientation, the family, race, morality, and a wide range of “appetites.” The fourteen essays by international, interdisciplinary scholars offer a wide range of perspectives on such films and television shows as The Color Purple, Do the Right Thing, Ratatouille, The Road, Sex and the City, Twin Peaks, and even Jaws. From first course to last, Food on Film will be of interest to scholars of film and television, sociology, anthropology, and cultural history.

Although food has been part of motion pictures since the silent era, for the most part it has been treated with about as much respect as movie extras: it's always been there on the screen but seldom noticed. For the most part filmmakers have settled on three basic ways to treat food: as a prop in which the food is usually obscured from sight or ignored by the actors; as a transition device to compress time and help advance the plot; as a symbol or metaphor, or in some other meaningful way, to make a dramatic point or to reveal an aspect of an actor's character, mood or thought process. This hugely expanded and revised edition details 400 food scenes, in addition to the 400 films reviewed for the first edition, and an introduction tracing the technical, artistic and cultural forces that contributed to the emergence of food films as a new genre--originated by such films as Tampopo, Babette's Feast and more recently by films like Mostly Martha, No Reservations and Ratatouille. A filmography is included as an appendix.

Using an interdisciplinary approach combining film, semiotics, social-anthropology and history, this book examines food sciences in selected films to reveal food's power to direct and impose values and beliefs, to understand how dining venues may become sites of social contests and to reveal how food communicated values and beliefs to individuals, to micro communities and to American Society.

Culinary imagery, much like sexual and violent imagery, is a key cinematic device used to elicit a sensory response from an audience. In many films, culinary imagery is central enough to constitute a new subgenre, defined by films in which food production, preparation, service, and consumption play a major part in the development of character, structure, or theme. This book defines the food film genre and analyzes the relationship between cinematic food imagery and various cultural constructs, including politics, family, identity, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, and religion. Chapters examine these themes in several well-known food films, such as The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Chocolat, Babette's Feast, and Eat Drink Man Woman, and lesser-known productions, including Felicia's Journey, Kitchen Stories, Magic Kitchen, and Chinese Feast. The work includes a filmography of movies within the food genre. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Recipes recreated from beloved movies and TV shows by the host of one of the most popular food programs on the internet

Reel Food is the first book devoted to food as a vibrant and evocative element of film, featuring original essays by major food studies scholars, among them Carole Counihan and Michael Ashkenazi. This collection reads various films through their uses of food-from major food films like Babette's Feast and Big Night to less obvious choices including The Godfather trilogy and The Matrix. The contributors draw attention to the various ways in which food is employed to make meaning in film. In some cases, such as Soul Food and Tortilla Soup, for example, food is used to represent racial and ethnic identities. In other cases, such as Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate, food plays a role in gender and sexual politics. And, of course, there is also discussion of the centrality of popcorn to the movie-going experience. This book is a feast for scholars, foodies, and cinema buffs. It will be of major interest to anyone working in popular culture, film studies, and food studies, at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

This collection of interdisciplinary essays examines food as it mediates social relationships and self-presentation in a variety of international films and literature. Authors explore the ways that making, eating and thinking about food reveals culture. In doing so the essays highlight how food and foodways become a type of symbolic capital, which influences the larger concern of cultural identity. Essays are organized into three central themes: Culinary Translations of Identity: From Britain to China; Food as Metaphor in Contemporary German Writing; and Love, Feasting and the Symbolic Power of Food in French Writing. Each essay investigates the uses of food as a way to apprehend cultural meaning. The essays presented provide theoretical templates for the study of food in a wide range of international film and literature,