Hi Dr. Mark,



Ironically, while Michael Fassbender was appearing in the film 'Hunger', I ate at his parents restaurant.



But to get to the point.

I really hate it in a film scene when people don't eat and they're supposed. The meal is in front of them and they just play with the food waiting to say their lines.



Don't they think we'll notice!



I know we shouldn't talk with our mouths full, but you'd think they'd give it a try once and a while.

How about the scene in the third Lord of the Rings when the Steward Denethor is disgustingly gorging himself while his men ride off to virtually-certain death? Very evocative, with Merry's singing being the only musical accompaniment.

Can't wait to hear your 'The Human Centipede' review. :D

Dear Dr.



I was eating pasta with pesto, i am no longer doing that. cheers

Urgh. Like the good Dr., I'd rather watch a film about cooking, and my favourite of the genre (?) has to be Big Night (1996). I don't remember a single Eating scene in there - it's all about the kitchen, and the chefs fighting over a particular dish: Phyllis (Minnie Driver).

For a while I was worried that The Cook the Thief... wasn't going to make the list. It's one of my favorite endings of all-time. Where do you stand on Greenaway in general? My relationship with him is a bit like your relationship with Lars von Trier: He stands on whether or not his ideas are engaging and entertaining in some way (e.g. Cook Thief, Zed & Two Noughts), which admittedly he's been incapable of doing for about 15 years.

What about the erotic potential for eating in films. There is the infamous 91 /2 weeks kitchen scene or my particular favourite the one in Tampopo where the man puts a live crayfish on his lovers belly to make her squirm after feeding her everything from a raw egg to sushi. That scene was both hilarious and sexy. There are so many examples of food being used for seduction. Often in a really cliche's way. Anyone else have a favourite food seduction scene.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the fetus eating moment in Anthropophagus, Dr K, surely the scene was worthy of it?

Just thought of another good one: Withnail & I. Although it's a brief moment, even egg lovers can't help but squirm when the old pensioner takes a bite of the squirting egg sandwich in the mere second scene.

Personally I am a bit uneasy about taking my daughter to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as the trailer makes me queasy. Any time food is flying through the air and landing on people en masse its gravol time. Likewise the kitchen full of rats at the end of Ratatouille gave me the heebie jeebies for days.

Pulp Fiction Big Kahuna Burger and Sprite is a great scene.

What about Cool Hand Luke, Delicatessen, Silence of the Lambs, Alive: The Miracle of the Andes, Sweeney Todd and arguably the Exorcist (what can she have been eating?)?



A couple of films about food that I really liked: "Babette's Feast" and "A Big Night" (the excellent Stanley Tucci was in that as well as Julie & Julia and if you don't know who Julia Child was, it's your own fault! I bet we don't get that sort of excuse from Roger Ebert when he reviews The Damned United)



Actually the documentary "Food, Inc." is far more potent than Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize me". It makes the latter seem like ... a picnic. It nearly turned me into a vegetarian.

Oh, and the food scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The scene of the critic eating at the restaurant in Ratatouille left me cold.. lauded by critics, but, in my opinion a dull, weak device that added nothing to the film except a rather banal turnaround.



coupled with the incredible cliche of the dead friend/guide figure... overrated film.

Dear Doc Mark,

My first post!

So glad you've not given up your job!



In your film list you forgot A Boute de Souffle (a food based joke), Hannibal and Oldboy (where he eats that life octopus)!

What about the superb Oldboy and the live eating of a squid...or was it an octopus. Get's me every time.

Totally agree with 'Dumplings', that film mad me feel rather unwell.

It might be a first, but I actually felt like going to McDonald's right after seeing Super Size Me (I could virtually smell the chips all the way through the film). I suppose for me, the big burger barf just didn't make much of an impact ...

Completely agree with your view on Dumplings. I had trouble finding deeper meaning in the storyline while holding my breath and waiting for the horror to be over. The cracking/crunching sound still haunts me whenever I remember that particular viewing experience.

Entertaing and quesy at the same time, point acheived there dr., i can take all of those films but the one that still gives me nightmare's is mr creosote exploding everywhere, one of the most stomach churning things i've ever seen and not really funny even though it was sussposed to be.

I was expecting you to include the vomit ingesting scene from Bad Taste, but did it not qualify as technically they're drinking it?

Actually, the Japanese film "Tampopo" is a really really good film about food (and eating). Although I normally don't like films about food, "Tampopo" is really interesting. It's a hilarious satire of Japanese culture AND spaghetti-westerns, amongst other things. Funny and bizarre. If you haven't seen it, Mark I strongly recommend it.

My favourite food scene in Tampopo and there are many is when the young woman brings up a fesh oyster and feeds it to a man onshore. This must have been a really good film as I remember so many of the scenes in vivid detail and it came out a really long time ago. The one where a group of Japanese ladies are being taught to eat spaghetti like "polite" Americans is hillarious.

two scenes from goodfellas which always pop up in my head when i am either cutting garlic (a) or a friends mom cooks dinner for us late at night (b) > okay, i admit, b only happened once.



a)

the wise guys enjoy some fine italian cooking in prison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQhBfRDd6GM&feature=related



b)

de niro, liotta and pesci have a nice and quiet dinner with mama scorsese, while frank vincent lies cut up in the trunk of the car outside, waiting for his death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABfDK1ludng&feature=related

I agree with the first post about people not eating when they've got food in front of them in films. What really annoys me is when you have a scene in a restaurant and a characters orders something, then either leaves straight away or as soon as his order has arrived. I can never tell if the characters actually don't really care about what they've ordered, or whether it's meant to be some sort of metaphorical film-time, like we're supposed to imagine the scene or the conversation took the course of the whole meal but we're getting an impressionistic condensed version of it.

What about FEED; the victims are force-fed until they reach enormous size and unsurprisingly die - it later turns out they were being force-fed the boiled up body fat from the previous victim!! Try eating pork scratchings through that one :)

'big night'

'eat drink man women'

dear good doctor and good friend,

i completely agree that eating in films, even when not intended to be, is an uncomfortable experience. however i think you're underestimating the scene in the sushi bar from Oldboy. gorging yourself on your own intestines is all well and good, but Oh Dae Su forcing a live squid down his gullet is probably one of the most graphic things I've ever seen. apart from anything, the sqid actually seems to writhe in pain... one for the RSPCA i guess



with respect, your enigmatic godson

I'm sure I'm not the only person who's noticed that in the Ocean's films, Rusty (Brad Pitt) is nearly always either eating or drinking something. Especially pertinent in Ocean's 11 & 13, since food and drink are a vital part of the casino experience. A man after my own heart. Also, how could you omit the original 1971 Willy Wonka film? The Burton remake was a little too glossy to be really appetising, but in both cases the chocolate river turned my stomach.

Tampopo Tampopo Tampopo duh!