With the curiosity that drives a good cook, Juliette Binoche entered the kitchens of the Basque Culinary Center as soon as she arrived to remember those smells of the stews that are cooked over low heat, the same ones that she prepared as Eugénie, the protagonist of her latest film La passion de Dodin Bouffant (A slow fire). “I didn’t take cooking classes before filming, but I didn’t need to, I’ve been cooking all my life,” the actress joked. Wearing an elegant black suit and as if she were just another slut, she greeted the center’s students, who together with chefs Sébastien Zozaya and Fabien Feldmann prepared a delicacy inspired by the film and in honor of one of the most beloved actresses at the festival. Saint Sebastian.
Before the diners sat down and aware that all eyes were focused on her, she calmly walked around a table converted on Friday into a period banquet for the closing of the culinary section of the festival and claimed the cuisine and the stories. that are born from sincerity: “For me, what interests me most in life is the truth and, of course, telling stories, and those two qualities were brought together by Tran Anh Hung’s project.”
After winning the best director award at Cannes, the Vietnamese brought his latest film to Zinemaldia and, with it, won the Best Culinary Zinema Film award last night. “Every director considers showing an artistic discipline throughout his life: I decided to portray culinary art,” explains the filmmaker in conversation with La Vanguardia. “In the place where I grew up everything was very ugly, the only beauty I saw was in the dishes my mother cooked.”
That beauty and that passion for cooking is what he has tried to convey in the film set in the 19th century, which will represent France at the Oscars and which shows a story of love but above all of admiration between a cook and a gourmet from the era (played by Benoît Magimel).
Culinary Zinema combined cinema and gastronomy with four other screenings, each accompanied by a themed dinner linked to the films. This 13th edition opened on Monday with the world premiere of the Argentine miniseries Nada, by directors Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, which features a special appearance by Robert De Niro. Asian flavors came with Xiao Haiping and his feature film Nan fang nan fang (Back to the south) and then it was the turn of the documentaries: Pachacútec – La Escuela Improbable, by director Mariano Carranza, which tells the emotional story of three Peruvian chefs who were allowed to succeed by a cooking school (founded by renowned chef Gastón Acurio) in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Lima; and the daily life of a young woman who passes as a stagier in some of the most prestigious restaurants in the world, which Melanie Liebheit and Gereon Wetzel collect in She Chef.
The possibility of going beyond the screen and entering the narrative universe of the film through its cuisine has made this one of the public’s favorite sections: tickets (80 euros) were sold out in just six minutes. “Reasonable, considering you dine with the stars,” says a diner, pointing at Binoche with her gaze.
