Reel Food & World Cinema

From reading Laurel Forster's "Futuristic Foodways: The Metaphorical Meaning of Food in Science Fiction Film" from Reel Food , I learned that in science fiction films is essentially a metaphor for power held by the "controlling, domineering power of the industrial complex" (Forster 253) Food represents control within ourselves and within society. In the world of Richard Fleischer's Soylent Green , food represents status and purity. People in the wealthy, upper class have access to fresh food and clean water, though still very scarce even for them, while everyone else is left with processed food like Soylent Green which, as we all know, is people. The upper class has the control, which gives them power to run businesses like Soylent Industries, and control half the worlds food supply, while spreading lies about what they're processing. I've been thinking a lot about Soylent Green  since I watched it on Tuesday night. It's such an interesting fi...

In Sandra Nettelbeck's Mostly Martha, love and romance are represented through food and recipes. The films main character, Martha, works as a chef in Hamburg, Germany at a restaurant called Lido. Martha is a closed off woman, who sticks to routine and likes order, despite being desperately lonely. She's seen reaching out to the people around her, her new neighbor and her sister, asking to cook for them. Cooking is seemingly all she knows. Where her skills lack in socializing, they soar in the kitchen. When tragedy strikes, Martha is left in charge of her 8 year old niece, Lina, who's mom was killed in a car crash. The relationship between Martha and Lina starts off strained. Despite being basically the same person, Martha and Lina don't know how to interact with each other. Martha only knows recipes, so she tries to map out blueprints for her relationships as well. She constantly tries to connect with Lina through food, while sort of failing in the other parenting areas...

In Gabriel Axel's  Babette's Feast,  the power of food and the Protestant ethics is especially evident in the 3rd act of the film. After the death of the pastor and the girl's father, the already small conventicle starts to fall apart. There is a lot of tension within the group, with brothers fighting and a lovers quarrel. The group no longer seems tight-knit and focused on religion, and Philippa and Martine aren't their father, so they're at a loss on how to keep the group together. At the same time, their cook of 14 years, the titular character Babette, wins the lottery. With her winnings, Babette offers to cook the members of the conventicle a proper french feast for the pastor's 100th birthday celebration as a sign of appreciation. Philippa and Martine accept Babette's offer. Immediately, they start to suspect ulterior motives from Babette. Their Protestant views start to overshadow this kind act from Babette, and they start to suspect the meal to be ...

 This semester, I chose to take Reel Food and World Cinema because I was very interested in the course description and I'm very interested in expanding my horizons and learning more about different cultures. I feel like for a long time I've lived in a sort of bubble and have only really paid attention to what's happening in front of me. I never really looked beyond that bubble, and it's causes me to become a bit ignorant and uneducated, so I'm ready to explore and see what I've been missing. Earlier last month at the Golden Globes awards, during his acceptance speech,  Parasite  director Bong Joon Ho said, "Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films." I'm trying to live by this quote and I'm excited about the amazing films this class will hopefully introduce me too. Also, I'm a cinema major, so seeing that this class was partially about world cinema, it immediately made me ...