Part of the magic of cinema is how, in spite of only engaging two of our senses, it can evoke all of them. Food makes this abundantly clear: Cinematic stories about cooking and eating can bring about sensory bliss, bringing us home with a few shots and sounds of a beloved dish, or somewhere entirely new with the same.
The Taste of Things, the French historical romance from director Trân Anh Hùng, is one of the latest films to conjure up the magic of food on screen. A love story between a chef and gourmet, it’s out to inspire more than hunger in viewers, but you’ll be hard-pressed to not hit a restaurant on your way home. It’s a good a time as any to celebrate some of our favorite cinematic feasts, a small menu of films that we love in part for how hungry they left us as the credits rolled.
The Taste of Things
Photo: Stéphanie Branchu/IFC Films
Where to watch: In theaters
The Taste of Things opens with its central found family of cooks and gourmets preparing a feast for — well, it’s not clear for whom at first. With these cooks, the point — as words give way to the clinking of cookery — is the process. Vegetables freshly plucked from the garden and perfectly carved fish filets get lowered into basins and covered in oil, herbs, and creams. Midday sunlight flickers across the rural French estate’s kitchen (romantically set-dressed for the cusp of the 20th century), basting a sizzling slab of beef.
As one dish prep gives way to another, and the scene extends so far that you wonder if this is the whole movie, it feels — magically! — as if there might be no guests for this meal. That the spread isn’t being made to be savored by some refined aristocrat that will enter stage right, but to be devoured by the eyes of us stuck gobbling stale popcorn in the cold, dark theater. —Christopher Plante
Tampopo
Image: Janus/Everett Collection
Where to watch: Max, Criterion Channel, or for digital rental/purchase on Apple TV
There are many movies with great food in them, but few weave it into their narrative quite like Tampopo.
A pair of truck drivers (including a very young Ken Watanabe) stop at a run-down ramen shop, and decide to help the widowed owner turn it into the best little ramen shop it could be. It’s the perfect setup for tons of mouthwatering dishes, which are shot gorgeously and with attention to detail by director Juzo Itami and cinematographer Masaki Tamura — in cooking, the process is just as important as the end result. The ramen in Tampopo looks so good that it won’t just convince you to find a great ramen spot — it will convince you to try and make the perfect ramen dish yourself. —Pete Volk
The Platform
Image: Netflix
Where to watch: Netflix
The entire point of the bleak Spanish sci-fi nightmare The Platform is the food metaphor: Inmates in a vertical prison are offered a vast feast, descending from level to level, which the prisoners on the top levels greedily despoil, leaving picked-over scraps (or nothing at all) for the people below them. But for the metaphor about wealth inequity and human greed and malice to really land, the food has to be sumptuous and expansive, representing all the bounty the world can offer. The opening sequences of the feast being made, plated, and laid out in an immaculate kitchen are mouthwatering and compelling, just as the sequences of that feast being despoiled are disgusting and a bit depressing. It almost makes going to that awful prison seem tempting, just for a shot at that meal. —Tasha Robinson
Phantom Thread
Image: Focus Features
Where to watch: Netflix, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon and Apple TV
Paul Thomas Anderson’s depiction of a celebrated dressmaker delights in details, in clean lines and sharp cuts. It’s a delicious film, but one more interested in fabric than food. However, when it does stop for a meal — a noisy piece of toast, an ostentatious pub order for a “hungry boy” — it’s delectable. No disrespect to my friends and colleagues across the pond, but I’ve never seen British cuisine look so appealing. —Joshua Rivera
Big Night
Image: Samuel Goldwyn Films/Everett Collection
Where to watch: For free with a library card on Hoopla, for free with ads on Pluto TV
One of the all-time great foodie movies, Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci’s 1996 drama Big Night centers on a lavish meal, made with equal layers of love, ambition, and cheese. Two Italian immigrant brothers (played by Tucci and Tony Shaloub) argue over how to wring success from their American restaurant, but eventually come together to prepare a reputation-making meal for musician Louis Prima. The preparation and consumption of that feast are the centerpiece of the movie, and it’s all meant to convey how much sensual enjoyment and communal energy goes into good cooking and the celebration around it. Just be warned that this isn’t exactly a feel-good movie, in spite of everything about it worth savoring. —TR
Bonus: Studio Ghibli
Image: Studio Ghibli
Where to watch: Most are available on Max
Even a casual sampling of the medium will show that anime stories of all stripes absolutely luxuriate in food, and few do it better than Studio Ghibli. If you want a testament to the power of skilled animators to connect with audience on a visceral level, look no further than these loving depictions of food, which are just as mouthwatering as the real deal. —JR