Pre-Thanksgiving OT – The Inevitable Food and Festivities Post

Feasts, gatherings and get-togethers, and food. I remember tossing the old pigskin around with my dad while turkey and sundry sides were being prepared. A few years later we learned that in the US, a "pigskin" was slang for an oblate spheroid. Chagrined, we threw out the old ratty skin and bought a football. It wasn't the same, and a tight spiral was an impossibility for a middle-aged dude who grew up in a baseball loving country. I figured it out, but that only discouraged him further.

Lee Haven Jones's The Welsh Are Trolling Us! (Gwledd!) (2021)

That memory is 100% real. As are these non-holiday-specific movies with spectacular set pieces celebrating unrestrained consumption, memorable foods, delightful or tragic gatherings. It's sort of a random, off-the-top-of-my-head list lazily categorized for reasons which maybe only exist in my own mind.

Martin Scorsese's No Elbows on the Table! (1993)

There's a lot of overlap obviously, but I liked the movies for certain elements (that I might be misremembering) and categorized them according to whichever muse [Julia Childs turkey .gif] fills me at this moment.

Francis Ford Coppola's Elbows on the Table! (1972)
Director's Cut (2020) – Corleone's Clone Eats Cannoli Alone!

Bolded movie titles are ones I liked in particular and would watch again. Unbolded just means I have no plans to watch them again, but I liked them fine. I didn't include the ones in the images above because while I respect the filmmakers, I never really like those films very much.* he said as though anyone gives the littlest fuck.

FEASTS

Pan’s Labyrinth – Guillermo del Toro (2006) The Pale Man scene

The Company of Wolves – Neil Jordan (1984) The nobles' transformation

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover – Peter Greenaway (1989) Roasted Michael

The Menu – Mark Mylod (2022) The whole damn thing

The Platform – Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia (2019) Violence is a side dish

Big Night – Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott (1996) This is the perfect Thanksgiving movie

Peter Greenaway's Robocop 2! (1989)

GATHERINGS

The Exterminating Angel – Luis Buñuel (1962) Parties are hell

My Dinner with Andre – Louis Malle (1981) Intimate dinners are heaven

The Feast  – Lee Haven Jones (2021) Everyone is complicit and needs to die

Neil Jordan's Guess WhooOOoooOoo's Coming to Dinner! (1984)

FOOD

Parasite – Bong Joon-ho (2019) Ramyeon with fancy beef

Like Water for Chocolate – Alfonso Arau (1992) Matches

Eating Raoul – Paul Bartel (1982) Raoul

Tampopo – Juzo Itami (1985) Ramen, ramen, ramen, etc.

Get Out – Jordan Peele (2017) Milk and Froot Loops

Jordan Peele's romcom, Cereal and Milk! (2017) I only mention this one because a certain character drinks

(white) milk and nibbles on (colored) cereal separately. What a weirdo. I assume everyone's seen it, and most 

of you probably noticed this odd scene, but maybe not because the movie is stressful at this juncture. Peele 

made an obvious point and then pointed at it and kept on pointing until you laughed. Which you did, grimly.

I've got The Company of Wolves, Get Out, and Big Night cued up here in case anyone wants to watch with me. How about you? There are thousands of movies with memorable foods or festivities, terrific meal scenes. Any favorites?

*favorite Scorsese films in no order: After Hours, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver 

favorite FF Coppola, directed by or about: The Conversation, The Outsiders, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. As executive producer: Kagemusha, Paper Moon, Koyaanisqatsi, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters