A CHEF IN LOVE
(LES MILLE ET UNE RECETTES DU CUISINIER AMOUREUX)
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
As with most foreign films that are sent here to the States, the story is simple, the pace leisurely, no guns get fired, no one is killed yet the film holds you in its grip. Such a one is A CHEF IN LOVE, the Republic of Georgia's film that was one of the 5 nominees chosen for Academy Award consideration. Georgia was once a part of the USSR.
In keeping with several other foreign films, (Babette's Feast, Eat Drink Man Woman, to name but two), we are treated to a gorgeous spread while the story of the Chef, Pascal Ichac (Pierre Richard, who first became a big star with THE TALL BLOND MAN WITH ONE BLACK SHOE) unfolds.
In 1995, Anton (Jean-Yves Gautier), while arranging for an art exhibition fortuitously meets a photographer, Marcelle (Micheline Presle.) She has with her a manuscript, unpublished, written by her uncle, Pascal, which she would like Anton to read. "Is the name familiar?" It tells of Pascal's last adventure in a wild, exciting life when he returned to the Republic of Georgia. What intrigues Anton, is that his mother, Princess Cecilia Abachidze (Nino Kirtadze) often spoke reverently of the dashing Pascal. The Chef had written a book, 1001 Recipes Of A Chef In Love which Anton now recalls his mother felt was even more important than the Bible.
Thus begins the story. As Anton reads, we are treated to flashbacks to the 1920s of what Anton finds on the manuscript's pages, much of it about food but also about his having met a most beautiful woman, Princess Cecilia, much younger than he, and how they fell in love with each other in a shared cabin on a train headed for Tbilisi. Back and forth in time the flashbacks tell us of the revolution, and how the two lovers are affected while Anton begins to grasp the significance of what he is reading and who his real father may be.
Pierre Richard's performance as the Chef is a delight.
In French, Georgian and Russian with English subtitles.
Ingeniously Directed by Nana Djordjadze
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Ben Hoffman
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