The sexy comedy about good taste... and bad manners.
Castella (Jean-Pierre Bacri) is a successful suburban businessman caught behind the fast-changing times. More out of boredom than out of interest, he allows his wife Angélique (Christiane Millet) to drag him to a performance of Racine's Bérénice. Much to his surprise, he is overwhelmed by the power and beauty of the lead actress, Clara (Anne Alvaro), who plays the queen. He becomes so infatuated with her that he goes back to the play night after night. Finally, these two polar opposites are forced together when Castella reluctantly tries to learn English for an important business deal and his English teacher turns out to be Clara...
Special Agent Matti
Er... it's not about cannibalism, as you might think, it's about other people's aesthetics, but that doesn't make for a catchy film title.
Having watched The taste of others exactly 24 hours after watching Malèna, I was struck by the contrast between Italian emotionalism and French intellectualism. So much of this film happens in the brain that the connection to the gut is lost. There's too much civilisation, too much thinking, too much use of the consciousness for a real human statement to be made. Or perhaps I am a sentimentalist.
Or, perhaps today's society invests too much in the dictates of logic and laws and rules and regulations and not enough in love and living.
Whatever.
M (Medium level coarse language)
108 minutes (1:48 hours)
Film: 26 October 2001 - Sutherland Shire Film Festival
Film: 1 November 2001 - Melbourne, Sydney
Film: 21 January 2002 - Perth
Film: 11 April 2002 - Brisbane
DVD rental: 19 March 2003
VHS rental: 19 March 2003
