Vegetable pie, consommé, roast beef, stuffed green peppers, turkey with truffles, baked turbot, flambéed pie with ice cream inside… A fuego lento passes between delicious dishes that were cooked at the end of the 19th century and four hands the Eugenie and Dodin, the main couple of the tender culinary film directed by Tran Anh Hung that has reached the Spanish screens.
The stove of A fuego lento also served to cook the reconciliation between Juliette Binoche and the father of her daughter, Benoît Magimel, after many years of estrangement. “It’s a long story”, says Binoche in an interview with La Vanguardia. And then he begins to explain how his participation in this film came about, which has led to the recovery of his friendship with his ex-partner.
“Tran Anh Hung suggested I read the story, I wanted to work with him, but I felt that my role was not developed enough. He rewrote it and sent it to me after a while and I loved it, because in the new script there was a real relationship between a man and a woman”, recalls the French actress.
But, paradoxically, the changes slowed down the project, because the potential male protagonists believed that his role was a bit blurred compared to that of Binoche: “The actor who was initially attached to the project left because he considered that my character was more developed than his. Therefore, they hired another protagonist, who was in the film for six months, but when there were a few weeks left to start shooting, he also left.”
The director thought that Magimel was perfect for the role and “asked me if I thought it would be good for him to join the project”, remembers Binoche. “I told him that I agreed, but I was convinced that he would refuse the job, because, although we have a daughter together, we had been separated for many years and had no contact. Against all odds, he said yes.”
Magimel’s acceptance made Binoche “happy”, because “this meant we could see each other and talk”. “It was the film of reconciliation”, he says. Juliette and Benoît are friends again, and this is reflected in the complicity they show in A fuego lento, in which they play Eugenie and Dodin, a couple of cooks who have been in a relationship for years but are not married , because she has never wanted to lose her freedom.
Dodin is famous throughout France, but Eugenie is not. “The film is set in 1885 and then the world was very sexist. Now, even though we have made progress, it is still the case, and the field of gastronomy is one of the prime examples. Women cook nowadays, but the great chefs, with very few exceptions, are men”, reasons Binoche, who adds that “changes towards equality take time”.
Binoche is not included among the women who cook every day. He admits that he doesn’t usually stand in front of the stove, so to prepare for the role he took a course in which he learned, among other things, how to “cut onions, which involves a very specific movement of the wrist”. It’s a task that can end in tears, but the actress avoided tears, because “I put on my diving goggles in rehearsals”, and she also learned another trick, “let the water run and get your eyes very close to the open tap”.
It is one thing not to cook and quite another not to be seduced by the wonderful dishes that Michel Nave, Pierre Gagnaire’s right-hand man, devised for A fuego lento, which has been selected by France to compete in the race of the Oscars. “I tasted all the dishes and loved them all. It’s my problem, that I like everything”, says the actress, who at the age of 59 has a boyfriend because she maintains “a healthy relationship with food”.
Binoche has been eating “organic products since she was 10, because my mother liked them”, she stays away from hamburgers, sandwiches and coke and “I take my time to eat”. On Sunday mornings he tries to go to the market “to buy quality products and, if I’m moving somewhere far from home for a shoot, I try to find local farmers who grow organic products.”
Although if there’s one thing he really likes, it’s Donostia cuisine. The actress explains that “I have just bought a property near Sant Sebastià, an hour’s drive away, which I think is fantastic, because I will be able to travel to Spain regularly”. As long as his intense work schedule allows it. The actress has filmed a television series for Apple, shot a film in London under the direction of Lance Hammer and another in Rome, The return, directed by Uberto Pasolini and with Ralph Fiennes, in which the actors play Penelope and Odysseus
