The Taste of Things

Released in 2023, The Taste of Things is the eighth feature by Vietnamese-French director Trần Anh Hùng, who came to international attention in the 1990s with The Scent of Green Papaya and Cyclo. Loosely adapted from Marcel Rouff's 1924 novel The Passionate Epicure, the film premiered in Competition at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where Trần won Best Director. It was selected as France's submission for the 96th Academy Awards Best International Feature race and reached the official shortlist.

Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, once a couple in life, play Eugénie and Dodin: cook and gourmet, partners across a vast belle-époque kitchen. Cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg shoots the cooking sequences in long, mobile takes, gliding around copper pans, fires and dressed game with a patience more often associated with painting than with cinema. The chef Pierre Gagnaire consulted on the dishes, and the film treats the preparation of food with as much narrative weight as the conversations around the table.

French critics responded warmly, with the film winning the Lumière Award for Best Cinematography and gathering César nominations. Internationally, the reception was even more enthusiastic, with American and British reviewers praising the film's restraint and its unfashionable trust in slow craft. The Taste of Things has since become something of a touchstone for a renewed European interest in sensual, materially attentive period cinema, and a high-water mark in the late careers of two of the country's most cherished performers.