Film review: A chef serves up a revolution in Délicieux at Rendez-Vous French Film Festival
Grégory Gadebois plays Pierre Manceron, a chef in demand by royalty
Délicieux.
Rendez-Vous French Film Festival runs in person and online from February 18 to March 31.
Délicieux
By Eric Besnard (France), in French with English subtitles, on February 20 at 2:30 pm at SFU Woodward’s.
FRENCH CUISINE MIGHT be widely considered among the globe’s most popular, but back in the 18th century, delicious food was an indulgence reserved strictly for the noble class while common folk barely had enough to eat. And it was practically unheard of for people to dine outside of the home.
Director Eric Besnard’s Délicieux is set in 1789 France, the year the Revolution began—and before restaurants had been invented. Grégory Gadebois plays Pierre Manceron, a brilliant, portly chef who’s fired by his master for taking creative licence and who retreats to his countryside inn, despondent. A determined woman named Louise (Isabelle Carré) shows up at his door, begging to be his apprentice. Although it wasn’t acceptable for women to be chefs at the time, the two become a creative team when faced with his greatest culinary challenge ever. In designing an “eating room”, Manceron and his protégé throw a revolution of their own.
The feature-length film serves up sumptuous scenes of food and cooking (plus a nod to the French fry, or, rather, Louise’s “potato stick”, which gets a cool reception from her mentor), but it’s not just a flick for foodies. It’s for anyone who’s longing for a taste of France (and who wants a peek inside the dazzling Palais de Versailles); fans of period dramas who will eat up the costumes, makeup, and pouffe-style hairdos of so many marquis and marquises; and people who appreciate gorgeous cinematography of feasts and fields, some shots so artful they evoke masterful still-life paintings. Délicieux is a satisfying pick to sink your teeth into.
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