HAUTE CUISINE (M) (95 min)
Directed by Christian Vincent. Starring Catherine Frot, Arthur Du Pont
Haute Cuisine is being billed as a comedy, but I think that’s under-selling it a little. Yes, it is a witty film, and there’s probably more laughs to be had here than in most alleged “comedies”, but Haute Cuisine is the far rarer thing – an intelligent and literate drama about likable people with lives that are riven with good humour.
Hortense is a very great chef. But her style is more River Cottage than city-sophisticate, so when she gets a call to become personal chef to the French president, the geese and chooks aren’t the only wearers of ruffled feathers in the palace kitchens.Inter-cut with Hortense’s cooking and internecine battles are scenes from a year or two later, where we find her the much beloved cook at a French Antarctic base.
