Reel Food and World Cinema

Shaman as confectioner - confectioner as shaman. In the film Chocolat , the two vocations are indistinguishable.  James Keller writes that the primary duty of the Shaman is spiritual healing. Whereas a doctor aids in damage to the body, the Shaman seeks to remedy damages to the soul. Various members of the village suffer from varying damage to their soul - and through chocolate, tutelage, and advice, Vianne manages to start each of them on a path towards self-betterment and spiritual growth. Several traditional characteristics of a Shaman are given to Vianne - some literally, and some in sly nods of the head. One such trait is the inheritance of ability through family. Like a Mayan Shaman, who learns their trade through a parent, Vianne’s gifts are acquired hereditarily through her mother - a healer of Central American origins. (Further exemplified by Vianne’s daughter too being a chocolatier legacy.) Vianne’s Shamanistic parallels are further revealed in her near clairvoy...

The United States of America is one of the few countries that never really got the chance to develop its own culinary tradition. It is nearly impossible to define American cuisine when the history of food in this country is influenced by so many other countries. Who’s to say whether the German influenced hamburger is more or less American than the Chinese-American sweet and sour chicken you can find almost anywhere. What the film What’s Cooking does excellently is finding the meal that - perhaps more than any other - defines American cooking: Thanksgiving. Part of what makes Thanksgiving so American is its ability to be interpreted. There are a few agreed upon dishes or ingredients, but there are thousands of ways to interpret those dishes. The cultural divides that permeate What’s Cookin g are least apparent in the food. Even though the food differs drastically across the different households, the care that goes into the food, and the sense of family and ...

As the enigmatic narrator says in Como Agua Para Chocolate , “Just as a poet plays with words, Tita juggled ingredients.” For Tita, cooking is more than a means to an end. Cooking is an artform. And in Tita’s pitiable life as a mere servant to her oppressive mother, cooking is her one and only means of expressing her emotions.  The film is very literal in how it portrays Tita’s cooking as a channel for her interiority. When Tita is heartbroken over her Roasura’s marriage Pedro and cries into the wedding cake batter, the guests have an immediate and visceral reaction wherein they all start crying and throwing up. When Tita concocts the “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce” dish out of sheer passion and desire for Pedro, her eldest sister Gertrudis is overtaken with sexual desire and, after the heat from her body literally catches the showerhouse on fire, flees from the ranch naked on horseback. At the wedding between Alex and Esperanza, Tita’s “Chiles en Nogada” is crafted with...