I know it's not quite an "eating" scene, but it has stuck in my mind since i first saw Beetlejuice aged 5 in 1988, the scene where the Deetz's and their dinner guests are temporarily possesed and made to mime "Day-O" by Harry Belafonti and are then attacked by their meal, which i presume is some form of fish.

The same is true of drinks and - in older movies - cigarettes too. I have watched a lot of Hitchcock and Bogart movies recently, and characters are continuously pouring drinks and lighting cigarettes only to put them down or stub them out almost immediately. And the chicken scene in Meatballs was deeply unsettling. To be honest, most of the second half of the film was, I laughed a lot, but I'm not sure I'd want to see it again.

Yeh I don't quite think the not-wanting-to-get-fat-after-ten-takes thing really covers it though. The trouble I have is I never know whether the way a character leaves without waiting for or eating their meal is supposed to be, as you say, a different temporal system, or whether it says something about the character or their mood. Ok in most cases it's probably the 'film-time' thing, but it's still annoying!



I'll tell you what though, I don't envy stage actors who perform in a play that involves them having to eat something on stage every night.

You also missed off the carriage sequence in Fistful of Dynamite (Duck You Sucka) where Leone makes even eating a cherry seem gross.

Within the vast array of Jackie Chan films, is there not one that features Chan's character being repeatedly prevented from eating and thus left hungry throughout?



(sorry for the vague-ness!)

I know its television but there is an episode of seinfeld where George starts food into the bedroom with him surely that counts.

surely one of the greatest eating scenes is from episode 3 of Twin Peaks, with the Horne brothers consuming their bree baguettes, complete with indecipherable dialogue? Classic.

Actor's will eat anything. I once made a tray of styrofoam pastries for a play that looked so real they took bites out of them. No mean feat since they were hot glued to the tray.

OK the promo shot of Meryl Streep as Julia Child holding a raw chicken has thrown me into full blown chicken post traumatic stress disorder. Yes I took my child to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (highly recommend it) and yes the 3 dimensional oven roasted chickens are haunting my nightmares not to mention the dam busting pile of leftovers. My daughter walked out of the film and immediately burst into a resounding chorus of "Helvetica" from Shorts and said "remember when she ate the goldfish" I am clearly going to have to watch what she eats.

Not erotic I know so I am going to think about the rather sweet scene in Armegeddon (not high art I know) where Ben Afleck's character eats Animal Crackers with Liv Tyler before going off to save the planet.

The other thing I think off when I think of erotic food is vampire bites. The sexy arty ones with shots of poetical blood drips running down a pale throat. The Hunger and Interview with a Vampire have some disturbingly toe curling ones. I wholeheartely agree that eating sick is never funny.

Whenever discussion of food being used erotically in films comes up, I find myself drawn to the sequence in Tony Richardson's 'Tom Jones', in which Albert Finney, as the eponymous hero, engages in a playful, lustful and delightfully lurid seduction scene with Mrs. Waters (Joyce Redman), in which their carnal desires are expressed through eating. It's completely ridiculous, but it's also unforgettable.

How about the meatball scene from 'The Lady And The Tramp'? (Which in turn reminds me of the restaurant scene from Hot Shots Part Deux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMGw9EOS9_U )

Off topic, but i've just noticed that the volume control on the videos goes up to 11. Awesome.

Who can forget the brain eating scene in Hannibal. I think Ridley Scott made a decent and stylist stab at the story by adopting a Grand Guignol style, especially when considering the ludicrous nature of the plot.

I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned already.



It may not strictly classified as a "seduction" scene, but it has all the esesntial elements: it's set in a cinema, it has Mickey Rourke and it involves the "sexiest" of all foods: Popcorn. The film? Diner

I'm glad someone noticed this subject on not eating food in films, this has irked for years, sorry but normal people like to enjoy a good meal and aren't worried about their being thin and beautiful.



Its on odd choice but i like a small scene near the end of The Nightporter in which Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde engage in a fight for the remaining food in their apartment due to Bogarde's war crimes hence they can't leave the apartment. Rampling has jam smeared seductivley around her mouth and passionatley kisses Bogarde, sex thus occuring making the whole encounter quite disturbing and sensual.

Does the butter scene in Last Tango in Paris count as a food seduction scene??

...how has no one mentioned Alex being fed the egg at the end of Clockwork Orange?

Two banquets: the final reel of Carry On Up The Khyber while the residence is falling to pieces, and the "icky foreign food" gag repeated far too often in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom.

Michael bay has no back bone, can we eat him on film?



I don't know if these have been mentioned, but how about;

A) That mad fox eating itself in Von trier's Antichrist?

B) Indiana & co eating those monkey brains in Temple of Doom?

C) Lector serving up the brains of the guy out of Goodfella's to Julianne Moore in Hannibal?



Plus, I think you can spot the good actors when they eat 'normally' in a scene, it shows they're serious about making the scene real.

"Within the vast array of Jackie Chan films, is there not one that features Chan's character being repeatedly prevented from eating and thus left hungry throughout?



(sorry for the vague-ness!)"



You would be referring to extremely OTT "City Hunter". At one point, Chan becomes so hungry that he imagines a pair of breasts as two juicy hamburgers - I'm not kidding.



As for the subject of actors playing but not eating their food, I don't think its weight so much as continuity. If you're taking apart the props and ingesting them, it kind of makes it hard to properly re-set the scene...



And speaking of continuity with food, watch the dinner table scene in "Meet the Parents". The food leaps all over the place on its plate.



Finally, the whole idea of ordering something and leaving before it arrives is actually the source of celebrity satire in "Get Shorty", when Danny DeVito's Martin Weir orders somrthing really lavish - and leaves just before it arrives.

Just joshing with you about Roger Ebert and The Damned United. So if you went to your room, you can come out now (unless it was the screening room in which case you have to stay in there until you have seen "Push" like I have been asking you to do. It's my worst film of the year by some distance although I have not and will not see the likes of Bride Wars or Flick Dance for comparison).



No review from Roger yet on the Damned United; the film is out on (very) limited release in the U.S. tomorrow. We will see if Brian Clough's complete lack of notoriety in the US is a barrier to appreciation of the film and Sheen's performance here. Incidentally, David Beckham's universal fame in the soccer agnostic US is not down to playing for L.A. Galaxy or being married to Posh Spice; it all stems back to that certain 2002 indie film's title. I don't recall anybody at the time saying "Who the (deuce) is Beckham?". Er, ... well, they might have, but it wasn't a problem for the film which in turn did wonders for his image and recognition over here.



Julia Child's reputation may not have crossed the Atlantic to the same extent as the current British celebrity chefs' but I would have thought an infrequent visitor to the US of ten or more years ago would inevitably have encountered one of her shows while flicking through the hotel TV channels, in the same way that I sometimes encounter Jamie or Nigella on Letterman or Martha Stewart (she's a sort of American Delia/Nigella who went to prison for... ah, you know who she is). And then, of course, there's that foul-mouthed $%^#&% Gordon $%#^&*@# Ramsay. I don't think there are many $%##@@% %^&&%$$ in America who don't *$%%^$$% $##%# know %%^&&%$@ @##$%#*# ##@ who ##$%#@ %$#%%# donkey #@@$@@*@ he %^&&% is.





Personally, it doesn't bother me that people don't appear to eat on screen. In fact, when they do and try to speak at the same time - like in Julie and Julia - I find it nauseating. There's all those disgusting slurping noises which the sound effects guys either add or enhance.



Along with Big Night and Babette's Feat, Eat Drink Man Woman was another good film that features prominently the presentation of food as was Like Water for Chocolate. I think LWfC includes at least one erotic use of food sequence, too. Hmmm, they are all foreign language films.



Just saw Jenifer's Body (don't ask why). After a night of 'vamping it up', Megan Fox goes around to her friend's house and pulls out some chicken from the fridge, and does a scarf-and-barf with a whole lot of black gunk going all over the floor. So add that one to the list.

Meeting in restaurants and leaving before the meal is finished is purely down to the writer trying to set the scene in a location where two characters could meet and converse without attracting too much attention (or would attract public attention should an argument need to break out).

Restaurants, coffee shops and bars are amongst the most popular of these settings (public libraries present obvious difficulties in being seen as equally good dramatic settings).

One character is usually already sat at a table and may have started eating when the other arrives.



The setting also gives the actors something to do in order to look naturalistic, rather than just stand looking at one another. Waiters give the opportunity for pauses to be introduced; the menu provides small talk, whilst lesser characters can be sitting in the background and so on.

Power relationships can be expressed by discussions as to who pays etc.

If a fight brakes out then there is plenty of scope for mayhem, public responses (Gasp! etc), urgent getaways and so on.



Characters often leave without finishing a meal because the food isn’t the main reason they went in the first place, it was simply a place to meet; settling down for a leisurely meal would indicate a lack pressure or urgency and a friendship between the two protagonists; given demands are often being made, threats issued, arguments started etc this precludes any meal ever being finished.



Favourite eating scene? The seduction in Tom Jones obviously (Woody Allen did something similar in Love and Death). Chaplin eating his own shoes as if they were a banquet, when Michael shoots the corrupt cop in the Godfather, Shifu training Po by duelling with meatballs in Kung Fu Panda and all of Ratatouille.

In The Fisher King there is a scene where Amanda Plummer and Robin Williams tackle slippery dumplings with chopsticks. Sweet, funny, and ever so slightly sexy. I love Terry Gilliam and Amanda Plummer is always oddly fascinating I can't take my eyes off her.

Also I think Woody Allen eating erotically has to be some kind of oxymoron.

One of the more disturbing films with eating as a theme has to be Jan Svankmajers, 'Little Otik'. Even before the stump goes on it's eating rampage the close ups of people eating is frankly stomach churning.

Clearly it is easier to find disturbing images than erotic ones. Hmmm

Kermode, how could you forget not only the Oldboy nod, but the Pink Flamingos mention, where divine eats the dog's anal chocolates?

and then smiles afterward? LOL