Laura's Reel Food and World Cinema Blog

France as a country and French as a language are often viewed by Americans as being a culture of romance. It’s no surprise then that the film Chocolat markets itself as a romantic movie, featuring Vianne (Juliette Binoche) sensually feeding Roux (Johnny Depp) chocolate on the movie poster. With this in mind, I was somewhat surprised to find that Depp’s character isn’t even introduced until halfway through the film, and disappears prior to the finale, only to return in the film's closing scene. This wasn’t exactly a disappointment, as I haven't been a fan of Johnny Depp since Benny and June, but it was a surprise nevertheless. In fact, I was quite delighted to see that the romantic relationship of the main character, Vianne, took a back seat to her relationship with the townsfolk she meets, and the townsfolk' relationships with each other. The aforementioned movie poster clearly leads the viewer to believe that chocolate in the movie is a representation of love....

 In a way, What’s Cooking follows a lot of the patterns of any sitcom’s thanksgiving special. In the show Friend’s, the Thanksgiving episode of the 9th season is involved with the family drama of the secrets that Ross and Monica are hiding from their parents, most prominently the fact that Monia and Chandler are living together. The tension of the episode relies on the things that are not being said; Rachel’s failure of making a trifle, Monica and Chandler’s relationship, Phoebe's weird sex dream about Monica and Ross’s dad, Ross’s constantly downward spiral of a life, etc.  In the sitcom Mad About You, we see the struggle of an interfaith couple, Paul and Jamie, attempting to prove to their respective parents that they can cook a great Thanksgiving meal without their help, and without following their family traditions. Their families are appalled by the ways they break tradition; no canned cranberry sauce, no salad, no marshmallows on the sweet potatoes, and most sho...