The cook and the president
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The cook and the president |
| Original title | Les saveurs du palais |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 0 JMK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Christian Vincent |
| script |
Etienne Comar Christian Vincent |
| production | Etienne Comar Philippe Rousselet |
| music | Gabriel Yared |
| camera | Laurent Dailland |
| cut | Monica Coleman |
| occupation | |
| |
Haute Cuisine is a French film directed by Christian Vincent from the year 2012 .
action
Hortense Laborie works as a cook for a research station on the remote Archipelago de Crozet in the southern Indian Ocean. She is the only woman among the workers and is therefore noticed by an Australian film team who want to shoot a documentary in the archipelago. The journalist Mary and her cameraman John are told that Hortense is highly respected as she used to cook for the President of France. However, Hortense does not want to talk about this time, about which there are numerous rumors, and avoids the film crew.
A flashback shows Hortense being picked up from her property in Périgord four years earlier . The famous cook has been recommended to a minister as a cook. Only on the way to Paris does Hortense find out that she has been hired as a private cook for the president. At the Élysée Palace , she is briefed and familiarized with the etiquette, but after a while wonders what the president likes to eat. When she is only vaguely told that he likes simple cuisine like his mother's, she starts with down-to-earth, but refined dishes. The empty plates that are brought back to the kitchen convince her that she is on the right track. One day Hortense gets lost in the palace and suddenly faces the president. However, he means to her that he cannot receive her yet and allows her to be removed. Only a few days later does the President receive them for an audience. Although he actually only has ten minutes and has to be at the airport soon, he ends up talking to Hortense about the meal for over half an hour. Both discover that they have read cookbooks since childhood, and the president recommends his favorite cookbook. He also makes it clear that he would like dishes to be as simple as possible, but still want to see the best of France on the plate.
Hortense, who previously processed ingredients that the large kitchen of the Élysée Palace used, now organizes the ingredients for the President's meals herself. She receives rare ingredients through her private contacts, and has family members collect mushrooms and bring them to Paris. She begins to cook dishes from the President's favorite cookbook. When she was asked to set the menu for a big family celebration of the head of state, she decided on the theme The Loire and its tributaries with numerous fish and cheese variations. The President is happy because the dishes bring back old childhood memories.
The president's personal physicians who put him on a strict diet are not enthusiastic. He is not allowed to consume any cheese, heavy sauces and hardly any animal fats. Hortense is forced to discuss all menu plans with the doctors beforehand. Often she has to make compromises. There are further problems: The central kitchen feels that Hortense has curtailed its authority and hinders its work. Her nickname Dubarry will later be rumored that she had an affair with the president. The financial audit again criticized Hortense's high food costs and unnecessary trips to the ingredients organization. Even though the president even comes into her kitchen one day and shows sympathy for the difficulties she is having, nothing can change the situation. A fatigue fracture in the leg, the central kitchen's apparently inability to compromise and a meal that was canceled at short notice ultimately lead Hortense to give up. After almost two years, she submits her resignation and the central kitchen triumphs.
Hortense reports as a cook on the Archipelago de Crozet, thousands of kilometers from Paris. She works here for a year and is now holding her farewell party with a large meal. She will retreat to New Zealand , where she acquired land to grow truffles .
production
The cook and the president is loosely based on the biography Mes carnets de cuisine. Du Périgord à l'Elysées by Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch , who cooked for François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1990 . The name of the head of state is never mentioned in the film; the president was portrayed by the writer Jean d'Ormesson, who thus took on his first role in a movie. The cook and the president was filmed in Périgord and Paris, among others. The archipelago was found in the Icelandic island of Reykhólar .
The film premiered on August 26, 2012 at the Festival d'Angoulême and was released in French cinemas on September 19, 2012. In Germany, the film opened in cinemas on December 20, 2012 and was released on DVD in May 2013.
criticism
The film service found that The Cook and the President was a sympathetic film that celebrated “the enjoyment of food and the interpersonal warmth that developed with it”. "A delicious treat for those who are hungry for a movie in between," wrote Cinema . For Der Spiegel , The Cook and the President was "harmless but light-footed fun with a stunning leading actress and an endless, almost lasciviously staged parade of delicacies."
Awards
Catherine Frot received a César nomination in the category Best Actress in 2013 for her portrayal of the cook Hortense Laborie .
Web links
- Haute Cuisine in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of release for the cook and the president . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2012 (PDF; test number: 135 721 K).
- ↑ Age rating for the cook and the president . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ The cook and the president. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ See cinema.de
- ^ New Films in December: The Cook and the President . In: KulturSpiegel , No. 12, 2012, p. 53.