In Fire – Review – Athinorama.gr

In 1993, the 30-year-old Franco-Vietnamese Tran An Hung we were strongly introduced to it “Scent of Green Papaya”, a delicate, visceral drama, which won the Cannes Camera d’Or, the César for first-time director, and eventually a foreign-language Oscar nomination. Continued just as impressively as the “Boy with the Carriage” (1995), a modern Vietnamese-style “Bicycle Thief”, which triumphed at the Venice Film Festival (Golden Lion and critics’ prize). The four films that followed, among them the “Norwegian Wood” from Haruki Murakami’s novel, disappointed his fans, until the film adaptation of the book “La vie et la passion de Dodin-Bouffant, gourmet” by Marcel Rouf brought him back to the Croisette festival, where he was honored with the director’s prize.

THE Doden Jacket he is a well-to-do gourmet, who at the end of the 19th century lives in a mansion in the Loire Valley. THE Ozeni she is an inspired cook, who has been preparing his food every day for two decades. Their shared passion and mutual respect have turned their partnership into a love affair, which he wants to formalize with a wedding. Ozeni politely but persistently refuses, until Doden decides to cook for her.

Marcel Rufus writes at a time (at the beginning of the last century) in which the pursuit of pleasure in food is no longer stigmatized as a sin (a consequence of the original), but begins to be treated as an “art”; as a special language of human communication, which may express unspoken, repressed or undefined feelings. Ozeni serves them to Doden’s table regularly and generously and now it is the latter’s turn to “respond” appropriately to win what he desires. Tran An Hung directs this tender and deeply romantic dialogue like a moving painting full of colors, flavors and rushing passions. An elegant, precise, as well as melancholic choreography of light is performed in Doden’s kitchen, but also in front of our eyes, giving a classy interpretation of “the way to the heart is through the stomach”. Except that “In Fire” takes this exciting route even further. When Doden is called upon to face the games of a fate he cannot keep away from his isolated paradise, the stomach will be the one to show him the way again towards oneself, towards other people and towards the passion for life.

France, Belgium. 2023. Duration: 145′. Distribution: ROSEBUD.21