The Passion of Dodin Bouffant: a noise of pots and pans at the Oscars

We were expecting Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet's Palme d'Or, but it was The Passion of Dodin Bouffant by Tran Anh Hung, winner of the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival this year, which was chosen to represent France at the Oscars. The announcement was made by the National Center for Cinematography. The film will be released in theaters on November 8. During his presentation on the Croisette, he hardly convinced us.

There are in fact no recipes for making a three-star film that evokes cuisine. We can achieve this in the light manner of Catherine Deneuve in Peau d'âne, “prepare, prepare your dough…”, or in the masterful manner of Stéphane Audran in Babette's Feast. In 1993 in Cannes, the Franco-Vietnamese Trân Anh Hung seemed to have found it. He won the Golden Camera, which rewards a first film in all sections. The Smell of Green Papaya delighted the public with its story of a young servant who arrived in a family in Saigon and got to know it by cooking for its members. Thirty years later, the scene has changed. Burgundy replaced Saigon. The expensive one is less digestible. Vols-au-vent and Norwegian omelettes, bourguignotte sauce and ortolan are prepared there.

In Dodin Bouffant's pretty kitchen, as if taken from an Éditions du Chêne recipe book (we think of Proust's La Cuisine nouvelle), we whisk, we pluck, we sear, we clamp, we reduce, we flavor. Even the broth is no exception. Clarified, it will be better. Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel and the plumpness that befits the role) is a stickler for recipes. A very informed amateur, a self-proclaimed epicurean, he likes to invite his bourgeois friends to his table. His faithful cook Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) anticipates his orders. She knows how to do everything wonderfully. He has a crush on her (and not just crayfish). In the evening, he joins her in her room. She refused his hand but he will try to convince her by serving her a wonderful meal.

Pierre Gagnaire is the gastronomic director of the film. Yum ! That immediately sounds better than an intimacy coordinator. The dishes have the most beautiful role. They are magnificent in their finery of puff pastry and golden meringue. Even braised lettuce is photogenic. In this Vermeer-style setting, Juliette Binoche avoids the dairy side. She reigns over her kitchen with quiet confidence, flanked by a clever little girl who follows in her footsteps. Things get tougher when Magimel appears. He speaks as if in a copy dated from the beginnings of Cuisine et vins de France. The aphorisms abound. The platitudes too (“I’m going to make the dumplings”). Why did you stick a bunch of such stupid friends with him? These are the local notables. They wiggle like maniacs under their towels while swallowing the ortolans. The actors are content to recite a bombastic text, without flavor or spice. Maïté returns!

Tran Anh Hung undoubtedly did not succeed in detaching himself sufficiently from Marcel Rouff's novel, The Life and Passion of Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet. The founder of the Academy of Gastronomes wrote it in 1924. And if he contributed to rehabilitating the pot-au-feu (The pot-au-feu is the title of the film in English) well before Camdeborde, his writing also fits the era, emphatic and heavy-handed. The film suffers the effects. It will undoubtedly delight amateur gourmets, France has plenty of them. We wish him the best. Movie buffs will be left wanting more.

The Note of Figaro: 1/4

“The Passion of Dodin Bouffant”. Drama by Tran Anh Hung. With Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Emmanuel Salinger

Duration: 2h14. Theatrical release November 8