In 1889, Eugénie and Dodin Bouffant (Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel) reach culinary heights and work on their relationship while planning extraordinary dinners at a country estate.

Inspired by a 1920s novel by Marcel Rouff, Tran Anh Hùng crafted a film that is a delight to all senses. It requires from the audience some interest in the art of cooking, as it passionately focuses on the details; all the chopping, slicing and frying will make you hungry, especially because of Jonathan Ricquebourg’s camera.

Most likely, the real-life former relationship between the two leads gives their performances an extra edge.

2023-France. 134 min. Color. Written and directed by Tran Anh Hùng. Cinematography: Jonathan Ricquebourg. Cast: Juliette Binoche (Eugénie), Benoît Magimel (Dodin Bouffant), Emmanuel Salinger (Rabaz), Patrick d’Assumçao, Galatea Bellugi, Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire. 

Trivia: Original title: La passion de Dodin Bouffant. Alternative title: The Pot-au-Feu.

Cannes: Best Director.

Last word: “Normally, I don’t prepare a scene before the day of shooting. I would come to the set and then look at the space and then decide how to shoot the scene. For the pleasure of discovering it and not preparing it before and then trying to get it on the set. But for the cooking scene at the beginning of the movie, I had to prepare with my assistant because it’s so complex. The most complex thing in this scene was, when in the same movement, you show the state of a dish, and you move to another dish, it needs to be in the right state of this dish being prepared. So all of this was quite complex to manage. That’s why I had to prepare beforehand.” (Hùng, The Film Experience)