French Oscar selection, Trần Anh Hùng’s “The Taste of Things,” was released today in France. The reviews have been fairly average, not much glowing praise.
“The Taste of Things” currently has a 3.1 score on AlloCine, France’s equivalent to Rotten Tomatoes. Whereas, “Anatomy of A Fall” had an impressive 4.4 score in September— its one of the best reviewed films in France this year.
As Les Inrockuptibles writes, ‘Taste of Things’ is an “Inflated celebration of the myth of French gastronomy, where food porn intersects with a rancid conservatism.” They go on to criticize the Oscar selection committee, but most of the reviews I’m reading today are doing that.
The film was hammered with backlash in France after it was chosen as that country’s Oscar selection for Best International Film. A Palme d’Or winner, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” was right there, and the reviews for that film were much better.
French critics were very angry by the selection and showed their dissatisfaction via numerous think pieces. Triet also seemed none too pleased. She ended up reposting a bunch of messages on Instagram that criticized the snub, some even hinting at a political decision, punishment for her Cannes speech where she criticized the politics of the Macron government.
Don’t get me wrong, I really liked “The Taste of Things” (originally titled “The Pot-Au-Feu”) but Triet’s film won the Palme d’Or and was the clear critical favorite. Hùng’s film might still get nominated, it’s a rousing crowd-pleaser and US critics seem to like it much much more than the French.
The Vietnamese-born Hùng won best director at Cannes for his cinematic foodie delight, which stars Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, the period film was bought by IFC Films and Sapan Studios and is being released next month.