Celluloid Flavours. A Brief History of Food in Film

Abstract

The aim of the essay is to analyse selected images and the ways in which food functions in films. The author attempts to demonstrate how durable and intense are the connections between food and film. The text constitutes a type of a catalogue presenting examples of culinary meanings in film, which are as diverse as possible, although the provided examples certainly do not exhaust the topic and their selection is to some extent subjective. The text is written from the perspective of film studies, with some important consequences thereof. Primarily, description decidedly dominates over analysis and interpretation, the possible directions of which are only signalled. The author demonstrates that culinary issues in films often carry a metaphorical and symbolic potential, thus becoming a carrier of information regarding the cultural and socio-political context in which the film was made. As a film specialist, she is interested in the manner in which culinary themes (i.e. food and various actions related to it) constitute an element of a film’s narration by defining the presented world, providing the characterisation of the protagonists and their interrelationships, creating moods, evoking emotions etc. Both types of filmic culinaries, i.e. those inside and outside the film itself, are described and signalled in the context of concrete films (or scenes).