Food, Glorious Food

23-25 November 2001 at Lytham

A celebration of the role of food in the movies. As vital to life as love and death, eating is also deeply involved in our social and imaginative lives.  A very varied selection of excellent movies allowed an exploration of almost every aspect of the human condition.

• Big Night (Stanley Tucci, Campbell Scott, USA) deals with Italian immigrants trying to provide food for unsophisticated American palettes but is as much about their brotherly relationship as the superb meals.
• Tampopo (Juzo Itami, Japan) a hilarious demonstration that even Japanese gangsters prize fine noodle soup above everything else.
• Babette's Feast (Gabriel Axel, Denmark) is an Oscar-winning tale of how food can define society and how an outcast can be accepted.
• La Grande Bouffe (Marco Ferreri, France/Italy) deals with a food obsession leading to a four bored gourmands eating themselves to death.
• Chocolat (Lasse Hallstrom, USA) the much feted story of how passions can be liberated with confectionery.
• Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France) shows post-apocalyptic cannibalism - in a comedy!
• Like Water for Chocolate (A. Arau, Mexico) links cooking with human passions.
• Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee, Taiwan) has food as one of its stars in a touching, often amusing drama about a family.

The weekend event was led by Dave Watterson (see cartoon above) and held at the Edenfield Hotel in Lytham on 23rd - 25th November 2001.