Blog 8

Liam Breslin 
Dr. Esa
4/6/20
Reel Food
Blog 9
Have you ever had a Sunday dinner with your family? No no, I don't mean microwaving something then eating in front of the TV. I mean a REAL Sunday dinner, eating food freshly cooked with your family with “good manners and pleasant conversation”.Both Eat Drink Man Woman and Tortilla Soup are similar films in both cinematography as well as plot, as one is based on the other. Food is also an important tool to tell the story of both of these films. Although they are different films in
various areas, both feature a Sunday dinner within the beginning of each film. 
Both Tortilla Soup and EDMW feature what we see as a family of 3-4, having a single father who is a revered chef that works at a high end restaurant with his (mainly) 3 daughters. Each daughter in both films is living a different life from her sisters and has a different focus/perspective as the movie progresses. However, in the beginning of each film, as each daughter is doing their own thing outside their respective homes, they are all scrambling to make it back to their fathers who are making Sunday dinner at their homes. Although the dish is indeed different, depending on the film, its initial preparation is portrayed in a very beautiful and fluent way in terms of cinematography. Both films feature various shots of the father preparing the food from various angles, more than often only showing the fathers hand. However, EDMW features a few more shots of the fathers face while cooking and the home the characters live in as opposed to Tortilla Soup which has more emphasis on the father's hand. I think the initial message within the idea of Sunday Dinner in both films is a message that is often related within this class: food is a unifier. It's obvious that each sister is going a different path of various things throughout the film, such as religious passion or work related moving, often with different men being revolved around by the sisters at various times throughout the film. Even though the dinner ended up being somewhat divided as the father was called to work, the initial message is the same. The food, right from the start, brought the family back together, unifying the characters in both films and their various differences in what they were doing all united. So, next time you eat a very nice Sunday dinner with your family, try and take the time to really enjoy the food, and indeed with “good manners and pleasant conversation”. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog 9

Image
Liam Breslin  Dr. Esa 4/12/20 Reel Food Blog 9 Where are you from? Yes, your town or the country you’re family is from are fine answers each. Is there anything specific you can remember that trademarks the place you are from or even trademarks your own family. Culture is mainly propelled by influences of where people are from and their family (biological or chosen). Within both films, Once Upon a Time and Soul Food, the audience is shown, in specific instances, culture being shared amongst groups of African-American people in various periods. At the start, both films feature a more or less scattered family that the story ultimately gravitates around. However, as the film progresses, sometimes subtly, we see more of the family/group come together, especially in accordance with food.  In an article from Reel Food, Balthrope describes various elements about the significance of food within both films. One of these elements is the sense of community large meal...
Read more

Blog 2

Liam Breslin Dr. Esa Reel Food: Blog 2 2/9/20 Blog 2 Within the film, Babettes Feast, several instances and conflations of both food and faith are explored. The people of the island have been faithful people for as long as the movie exposes, in this case from when Martine and Fillipa were younger, as in the present time within the film they are elderly.  However, we see this concept of faith and religion more subtly implemented in accordance with the themes and uses of food in the film. When Babette shows up in Denmark from France, we know little about her aside from the fact she is a French Chef and what her family story is, but not about her ability to cook or what she cooks. In fact, before the feast itself, the citizens of the small Danish island are appalled even by the thought of Babette's cooking and vow not to say a word since they anticipate how poor the food will be. This is simply because through their protestant isolation, the people of the islan...
Read more