Soul Food

Big Mama: Soul food cooking is about cooking from the heart.

Ahmad: Now I understand what soul food was all about. See, during slavery us black folks didn’t have a whole lot to celebrate. So cooking became the way we expressed our love for one another. And that’s what those Sunday dinners meant to us. More than just eating, it was a time for sharing our joys and sorrows. Something the old folks say is missing from today’s families.

Though set in Chicago, Soul Food features a feast of mouth-watering Southern dishes: baked ham with pineapple, mustard greens with hot sauce, ham hocks, fish cakes, sweet cornbread, fried chicken, sweet potatoes, biscuits, black-eyed peas, egg pie, lima beans, hot cakes, corn on the cob, lettuce and tomato salad, dumplings, deep-fried catfish, macaroni and cheese, chitlins, pigs’ feet, string beans, and sweet potato pie. Those are quite the Sunday dinners!

Released 1997
Written and directed by George Tillman, Jr.

Starring Vanessa Williams as Teri, Vivica A. Fox as Maxine, Nia Long as Robin/“Bird,” Michael Beach as Miles, Mekhi Phifer as Lem, Brandon Hammond as Ahmad, Jeffrey D. Sams as Kenny, Gina Ravera as Faith, Irma P. Hall as Mother Joe, Carl Wright as Reverend Williams, and Mel Jackson as Simuel

Awards: 1998 Acapulco Black Film Festival Award for Best Actress (Fox) and Best Film; 1998 Image Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture (Williams), Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture (Hall), and Outstanding Youth Actor (Hammond)

Sex and Breakfast

Ellis (ordering): I’ll have the Denver omelet and go easy on the spit.
Betty: I’ll see what I can do.
-----
James: I just always end up getting the club sandwich.
Ellis: Safe choice.

Two couples with relationship troubles seek out a sex therapist who books them for a session of group sex. Unbeknownst to all, the couples breakfast at the same restaurant—and run into one another the morning after their session. Despite the film’s title, the movie features little in the way of food—toast with jelly, pancakes with syrup, classic club sandwich with fries, Denver omelet, coffee—nothing too out-of-the-ordinary, a reflection of the young people’s ultimate decision to opt for traditional sexual roles and relationships and leave the experimenting to their elders—except for Heather (Dziena), whose experience does not dampen her desire to branch out sexually, and who orders the Greek omelet with sourdough toast and hash browns.

Released 2006
Written and directed by Miles Brandman
Starring Macaulay Culkin as James, Kuno Becker as Ellis, Eliza Dushku as Renee, Alexis Dziena as Heather, Joanna Miles as Dr. Wellbridge, Eric Lively as Charlie, Jaime Ray Newman as Betty, and Tracie Thoms as Sarah

Sabrina

Cooking instructor: And now, mesdames et messieurs, soon we will see how you have learned the lesson of the soufflé. The soufflé, it must be…gay. Gay! Like two butterflies dancing the waltz in the summer breeze.

Baron Saint Fontenelle: A woman happily in love, she burns the soufflé. A woman unhappily in love, she forgets to turn on the oven.

Sabrina is a bit of a “Cinderella” story: working-class girl grows up in love with wealthy heir; girl is transformed into a “princess”; heir falls in love; all live happily ever after. In this case, the twist is that as she matures, the girl finds that her first love, the handsome playboy heir, fails to maintain her interest, and she falls for the older, respectable brother.

To help his daughter overcome her unreachable love for wealthy David Larrabee (Holden), chauffeur Fairchild (Williams) sends his daughter, Sabrina (Hepburn), to Paris for a two-year cooking degree. While cooking thus plays a pivotal role in the film, the movie has only a few scenes involving food. At the cooking school in Paris, Sabrina begins at the very beginning: she learns the “correct way” to boil water. The next day, she learns how to crack an egg; in the words of the instructor, “An egg is not a stone. It is not made of wood. It is a living thing. It has a heart. So when we crack it, we must not torment it. We must be merciful and execute it quickly, like with the guillotine.” Although she forgets to turn on the oven to bake her soufflé, she does finally put aside her unrequited love sufficiently to finish the course. As she explains to Linus Larrabee (Bogart) when preparing to make dinner out of the meager supplies in his office kitchen, “I’m a graduate cook, you know. I have a diploma.” Although she shows him the proper way to crack an egg, she never does cook for Linus.

Paris, of course, teaches Sabrina more than just how to cook; in her own words, “I have learned so many things, Father—not just how to make vichyssoise or calf’s head with sauce vinaigrette, but a much more important recipe. I have learned how to live, how to be in the world and of the world…and not just to stand aside and watch. And I will never, never again run away from life…or from love, either.” Engaged to be married for the fourth time, David nevertheless falls madly in love with Sabrina upon her return, though she is so changed that he doesn’t recognize her at first. And she pursues him with all the enthusiasm of having loved him since she was a child, despite her father’s admonitions. Older brother Linus, however, interferes to keep David’s engagement—and the planned business merger to result from the wedding—on track. In the end, Linus and Sabrina are surprised to find themselves falling in love; according to the standard Hollywood romance formula, they of course follow their heartstrings and, in the end, set sail together for Parisian adventures.

Released 1954
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder, Samuel Taylor, and Ernest Lehman, from the play by Samuel Taylor

Starring Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina Fairchild, Humphrey Bogart as Linus Larrabee, William Holden as David Larrabee, Walter Hampden as Oliver Larrabee, and John Williams as Thomas Fairchild

Awards: 1955 Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black and White; 1955 Golden Globe for Best Screenplay; 1954 National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor (Williams); 2002 National Film Registry; 1955 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy

Room Service

Davis: I’m weak. If I don’t get something to eat pretty soon I’m gonna collapse.
Binelli: Say, we’re just as hungry as you are.
Davis: Yeah, but you fellas are used to it. I’ve never gone without food for eighteen hours before.
Miller: It’s all a matter of willpower if you just make up your mind.
Davis: I can make up my mind alright, but I can’t do anything with my stomach.

Binelli: I’m so hungry I see spots before my eyes.
Davis: Me too.
Binelli: Mine are beginning to look like hamburgers.
Miller: If you see one with onions, save it for me.

Davis: You mean you promised him the part just to get a meal out of him?
Miller: No, that’s not quite true. When I made that offer I was prepared to go through with it. But now that I’ve eaten I see things in a little different light.

Another wonderful Marx Brothers farce, Room Service features some wonderful comedic performances by Groucho, Chico, and Harpo as well as Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, and Frank Albertson. The story centers on Miller (Groucho), a producer without backers, and his attempts to get out of paying the White Way Hotel for the rooms and meals of his twenty aspiring actors. Miller relies upon the loyalties of his brother-in-law, the hotel manager, until a corporate “suit,” Wagner (MacBride), shows up to investigate the hotel’s losses. To delay eviction, Miller has the playwright, Davis (Albertson), feign measles, a tapeworm, and suicide.
At one point, Wagner has the house detectives trap Miller, Davis, Binelli (Chico), and Faker (Harpo) in their room, without room service, for eighteen hours. Light-headed with hunger, Miller convinces the Russian waiter, Sasha (Asro), to bring “the right meal to the wrong room,” and the four men are finally able to ease their hunger pangs with a large breakfast, of which toast, coffee or tea, and bananas are the most prominent menu items.

Released 1938
Directed by William A. Seiter
Written by Allen Boretz and John Murray (play) and Morrie Ryskind
Starring: Groucho Marx as Gordon Miller, Chico Marx as Harry Binelli, Harpo Marx as Faker Englund, Lucille Ball as Christine Marlowe, Ann Miller as Hilda Manny, Frank Albertson as Leo Davis, Cliff Dunstan as Joseph Gribble, Donald MacBride as Gregory Wagner, Philip Loeb as Timothy Hogarth, Philip Wood as Simon Jenkins, Alexander Asro as Sasha Smirnoff, and Charles Halton as Dr. Glass

Ratatouille

“Anyone can cook.” So claimed Auguste Gusteau, owner of one of the oldest and most famous restaurants in Paris, the world capital of gourmet cooking. But since his death, his restaurant’s popularity has plummeted, primarily because none of the remaining cooks are great chefs, and the food critic Anton Ego has “made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto.” Seeking sanctuary, a common farm rat named Remy accidentally passes through Gusteau’s kitchen and, on the way, feels compelled to “save” the soup being “cooked” by a young garbage boy named Linguini. The resulting potage is a revelation, and with Remy’s assistance, Linguini is able to return Gusteau’s to its former grandeur. As Anton Ego comments, “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” And the most common of dishes—omelettes, crepes, soups, ratatouille (an ordinary-looking vegetable stew)—can be the most delicious, and the most memorable.

Released June 29, 2007
Directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava
Screenplay by Brad Bird

Starring (as voices) Lou Romano as Linguini, Patton Oswalt as Remy, Janeane Garofalo as Colette, Peter O’Toole as Anton Ego, Brad Garrett as Auguste Gusteau, Ian Holm as Skinner, Brian Dennehy as Django, Peter Sohn as Emile, Will Arnett as Horst

Awards: 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film; 2008 Saturn Awards for Best Animated Film and Best Writing; 2008 Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature, Best Character Animation in a Feature Production, Best Character Design in an Animated Feature Production, Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production, Best Music in an Animated Feature Production, Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production, Best Voice Acting (Holm) in an Animated Feature Production, and Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production; 2008 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film; 2007 BSFC Award for Best Screenplay; 2008 Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics Choice Award for Best Animated Feature; 2007 CFCA Award for Best Animated Feature; 2008 Christopher Award for Feature Films; 2008 Golden Globe for Best Animated Film; 2008 Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media; 2007 LAFCA Award for Best Animation; 2008 Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing; 2007 NBR Award for Best Animated Feature; 2008 PGA Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award for Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures; 2008 Visual Effects Society Awards for Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture, Outstanding Effects in an Animated Motion Picture, and Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture; 2008 Young Artist Award for Best Family Feature Film (Animation); and more!

Fun Fact:
As depicted in the film, the ratatouille dish that Remy prepares for Anton Ego is a variation named confit byaldi, originally created by French chef Michel Guérard and adapted by American chef Thomas Keller, owner of the Napa Valley restaurant “French Laundry.” Instead of being chopped into rough cubes and stewed in a pot to make traditional ratatouille, the vegetables for confit byaldi are sliced into thin rounds, baked covered, then roasted uncovered, and finally served in a fanned-out mound with a vinaigrette garnish. Bell peppers, yellow onions, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, garlic, and a wonderful mélange of garden herbs all go into this most common yet most delicious of dishes.

Raise the Red Lantern (Da hong deng long gao gao gua)

Although not closely depicted visually, the food in Raise the Red Lantern plays an important role in the way life proceeds in the household of Master Chen (Jingwu Ma), a rich merchant of 1920s. While family tradition requires that all four wives dine with the master, the wife most recently favored with his overnight company (as indicated by the illumination of the red lanterns at her house) is allowed to choose the menu for the day. The meals are supposed to be a balance of fan (rice, noodles, or other cereals or starches) and ts’ai (main dishes), jeh (heating) and liang (cooling), sweet and sour, spicy and bland, crisp and soft, dark- and light-colored, boiled and stir-fried, steamed and grilled—that is, the yang and yin of the servings need to be brought into harmony—and excessive consumption of food or drink is forbidden. Songlian (Li Gong), the newest wife, asserts her independence when faced with the first communal meal, refusing to eat any of the meat dishes; when allowed to choose a vegetable dish from the list of offerings—fragrant mushrooms (shiitake) and thrice-fried mushrooms, chrysanthemum moss hair (seaweed with chrysanthemum petals), five-color vegetables (a combination chosen for their variations in color, texture, taste, and hot/cold balance), bird’s nests, hearts of cactus (perhaps dragon fruit), vegetarian hot-pot (allowing diners to cook their own vegetables in the steaming broth placed in the center of the table)—she requests spinach and bean curd (tofu) instead; establishing his ultimate authority, the Master has young bean sprouts (green mung beans or soybeans) added.

Thus begins the subtle power play: when given the opportunity, Third Wife (Saifei He) has only meat dishes prepared, and Fourth Wife leaves the table without eating. Later, Fourth Wife demands that she and the Master dine in her house, not at the communal table; when the others receive this news, Third Wife indicates that she too will take her meals in her own house when the Master is with her. To further her intrigues, Fourth Wife feigns pregnancy, and her supposed condition gives her a signal privilege: the Master’s constant companionship and the ability to take her meals in bed (lotus-seed soup, for fertility and longevity, fed to her by the spoonful by her maid Yan’er [Lin Kong]). Jealous of her mistress, Yan’er reveals the ruse; the Master is ruthless in his punishment, having Songlian’s red lanterns completely covered in black cloth and consigning her to eat all of her meals alone. When Songlian’s birthday rolls around, she “celebrates” to excess, becoming drunk and speaking aloud other secrets that destroy any remaining balance within the household. Appalled by what has happened, Songlian completes her isolation from her “sisters” by losing herself in insanity.

Released 1992
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Ni Zhen, based on the novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong

Starring Li Gong as Songlian (Fourth Wife), Saifei He as Meishan (Third Wife), Cuifen Cao as Zhuoyan (Second Wife), Shuyuan Jin as Yuru (First Wife), Jingwu Ma as Master Chen, Qi Zhao as Housekeeper, Lin Kong as Yan’er, Zhihgang Cui as Dr. Gao, and Chu Xiao as Feipu

Awards: 1993 Argentinean Film Critics Association Silver Condor Award for Best Foreign Film; 1993 BAFTA Film Award for Best Film not in the English Language; 1992 David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Film; 1993 Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress (Li Gong); 1993 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Film; 1993 London Critics Circle Film Award for Foreign Language Film of the Year; 1992 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography; 1993 National Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film; 1992 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film; 1991 Venice Film Festival Elvira Notari Prize and Silver Lion, both for Zhang Yimou.

The Public Enemy

Ranked as number eight on the American Film Institute’s list of the ten best gangster films, The Public Enemy is an early “talkie” that depicts gangsters as public enemies—threats to moral order and public safety. Set in Prohibition Chicago, the film also made James Cagney one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
As a gangster movie, The Public Enemy depicts very little in the way of food: dinner at the Powers’ home is simple fare, meat and cabbage, though with a keg of beer dominating the table. But it is a breakfast scene, when Powers (Cagney) squishes a grapefruit in the face of his moll, Kitty (Clarke), that has become famous across the decades, not for the depiction of food, of course, but for the movie’s audacity to include a sequence certain to outrage audiences of its day. That brief episode is perhaps the most enduring of any in the film and still has the power to take modern viewers by complete surprise.

Fun Facts:
The well-known breakfast scene in which Tom (Cagney) shoves a grapefruit in the face of his girlfriend, Kitty (Clarke), originated as a practical joke. The two actors wanted to shock the movie’s crew, just to see their reaction, but the director decided it was too good to cut and kept it in the final print. Women’s groups across the country protested against the film because of the depicted abuse of a woman, but for many years afterward, Cagney would receive servings of grapefruit when he dined at restaurants, compliments of his admiring fans.

Released 1931
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Kubec Glasmon and John Bright; screenplay by Harvey F. Thew

Starring James Cagney as Tom Powers, Jean Harlow as Gwen Allen, Edward Woods as Matt Doyle, Joan Blondell as Mamie, Donald Cook as Mike Powers, Leslie Fenton as Nails Nathan, Beryl Mercer as Ma Powers, Robert Emmett O’Connor as Paddy Ryan, Murray Kinnell as Putty Nose, and Mae Clarke as Kitty

Awards: 1998 National Film Registry Award