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New York Film Festival 2023
Last edited by Chris Knipp; Today at 12:14 PM.
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MENUS PLAISIRS-LES TROIGROOS (Frederick Wiseman)
FREDERICK WISEMAN: MENUS PLASIRS-LES TROIGROS (2023)
CHEESE RIPENING PLANT SHOWN IN MENUS PLASIRS-LES TROIGROS
A great French restaurant gets the Wiseman treatment
The meticulous observational documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman has lived in France lately, and since the nineties made films in France - where it turns out he developed a connection living for two years when quite young, after military service. Is he, in his early nineties, going to defect, like Eugène Green? The most memorable Americans who appear in this four-hour film about the legendary three-star Michelin restaurant Maison Troigros in Roanne, near Lyon, are an absurdly pretentious group of youngish men holding forth about wine with adjectives the French don't use.
But there is no rancor here, and this is a quietly admiring portrait of a social institution one can't but admire: in French there is a saying, "À bien manger, le sage met sa gloire." Roughly, it means, For the wise man, eating well is a big deal." Eating chez Troigros, or any restaurant like that, which will set you back in the vicinity of four hundred dollars per person per meal, not counting wine or the fee for a room at the posh adjoining inn, is a very big deal. But eating is also one of the most fundamental human pleasures. At best, eating at such a place is a wonderful experience, worth the time, attention, and financial outlay. The presence of many return customers is evidence of this. But it is also a great luxury, an outrageous self-indulgence. Such restaurants are very costly and labor-intensive to run; the bill is not actually a ripoff. I at least however, toward the end of the four hours, began to long for a hot dog, in a crisp roll, with a dash of mustard, and a Coke. You may remember that the way high-end dining can tilt toward the absurd, even the nightmarish, was exploited in Mark Mylood's recent feature The Menu.
This is, naturally, being from Wiseman, an intensive account of its subject, to the point at times even of being a bit repetitive. "Menus Plaisirs" means "small pleasures" but also was the rather ironic name for a department of service to the French king in the ancien régime, besides punning on "menu" (not the French word for that, which is "carte.") This reminds one of an earlier documentary about a similarly elite and fanatical and impressive French Michelin starred restaurant, Paul Lacoste's 2011 Entre les Bras, also a punning title, since it refers to passing on control of the establishment but also to the name of the family, Bras. (The English title achieved a pun too with Step Up to the Plate.)
Lacoste's film is austere, but more focused. It defines the plant-based focus of the dishes, focused on fresh herbs and edible flowers, and also delves in depth into the personalities of the father and son chefs and carefully details the difficult process of passing on responsibility for running the Bras restaurant - almost like pulling teeth. There is a hint of that, but only a hint, when Michel Troigros, the father and current scion of the restaurant here, tells a customer, a retired vigneron who has completely turned over independent control of his winery to his sons, that he doesn't find it so easy to do that, even though one son is officially in charge of the kitchen.
Like Lacoste's film, this one begins with buying fresh food in the local market. It is a truism that the quality of what goes on the plate of a restaurant begins with the local, seasonal freshness of ingredients. The film then focuses on many aspects of the restaurant. A lot of time is spent on such things as briefing servers on the day's menu; the importance of draining the blood from brains before cooking; creating new dishes and debating their combination of ingredients and sauces; the somelier's discussion of new wine stock, presold bottles for up to 15,000 euros, very high prices of even recent vintages for prestigious labels; coaching staff to treat other employees more fairly and equally and avoid teasing and using mocking names; the open design of the kitchen (a very interesting aspect), which Michel says means César, his son, can therefore control activity without shouting, because everyone is in sight.
An engrossing side issue is the suppliers. There are informational meetings with several livestock farmers who explain their natural and earth-preserving methods, free of fertilizer and pesticides. For me the most surprising digression is a visit to a cheese-ripening center. Who knew that many of the famous (and not so known) cheeses of France, soft and hard, large and small, offered on a big cart to diners, are skillfully ripened not at home where produced, but in this hand work factory where they are washed, scraped, chilled, and moved about to the exact point when they need to be sold.
The cheese ripening plant is an enlightenment, but departs from Wiseman's "fly on the wall" style, since we are simply following around a man providing a tour of the place. Wiseman's own editing of the sometimes jumpy camerawork of James Bishop, which gives a vérité effect, leads us from one sequence to the next, hypnotically. This is a talky film, relying very much on explanatory scenes. And yet its best moments are wordless. We are inspired and informed by the sight of the deft, graceful manipulation of tools, the flipping of meat in pans, the folding and smoothing out of sauces, the wordless tap on pieces of meat to assess their consistency. This is where we see how much all this is done carefully by hand, and where cooking enthusiasts and pros may learn things even Escoffier and Larousse Gastronomique, may not cover.
Something that seems new (or risen to a new extreme) is more elaborate catering to whims and needs of diners, whose allergies, intolerances, and preferences are gone into in tireless detail. Hours before the meal, the servers are briefed oh customers, which tables they will be at and which servers will be assigned to them, and all those special needs. This may seem an odd development in a world where the chefs are famous and thought to call the shots. The Triogros family were influential in the development of the "nouvelle cuisine" movement starting in the sixties which revolutionized French cooking style. Now however it seems they must rearrange deserts because someone doesn't like cream, and these special requirements seem to be very numerous indeed. One customer, more down to earth, declares the only thing he's allergic to is the bill.
Something old fashioned that emerges is how male-dominated this whole scene is. Women are there, but very under-represented in key kitchen positions. Mostly they are seen serving at table or making up rooms of the inn (which Michel's daughter, however, runs). Conversations between Michel and customers are man-to-man; any women customers are observers, or just put in a word here and there as the men do the talking. But they talk politely. We see a strong hand, but no tyranny, abuse of underlings or substance, no tirades. Everyone is dedicatedly at work. Professionalism reigns, which is impressive, and suits Wildman's focus on social organisms. But only Michel Troisgros gets enough attention to seem colorful, eating too much of a new dish while repeating the same thing over and over, striving to explain his ideas to American customers and finding his English falls short of the task.
That key fact about Troigros and nouvelle cuisine you will find if you look up the restaurant elsewhere. You will not get it from Wiseman's film. He relies rather heavily here on people explaining things - the farmers describing their methods, the tour guide in the cheese ripening plant, Michel Troigros talking about himself and his sons to customers. It's through the latter that we learn the main current restaurant, known as Le Bois sans feuilles (The Woods Without Leaves), dates only from six years ago, and is in the country, replacing the old one in town - a big shift in style, look, and experience. The look of the new place, more casual than formerly, without white linen, with big windows opening up to landscape and grazing animals, resembles that of the Bras family, and may show its influence.
Watching this film after Paul Lacoste's one can see that Troigros is more "conventional" in serving up lots of meat and fish of many varieties. We learn it departs from old style French cooking in such things as Japanese influence (pioneers in that, Michel Troigros says), use of hot spices and passion fruit. But what distinguishes the Troigros style doesn't emerge. This is a film that has a lot to give us, but still leaves us hungry - as fancy restaurants themselves do.
Menus Plaisirs-Les Troigros, 240 mins., debuted at Venice Sept. 3, 2023, also shown at Toronto, followed by New York. It was screened for this review as part of the NYFF.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; Today at 12:11 PM.
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ALL OF US STRANGERS (Andrew Haigh)
ANDREW HAIGH: ALL OF US STRANGERS (2023)
In The new feature by Andrew Haigh, a screenwriter drawn back to his childhood home enters into a fledgling relationship with a mysterious neighbor as he then discovers his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before. (Telluride Aug. 31.)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:07 PM.
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ANATOMY OF A FALL/ANATOMIE D'UNE CHUTE (Justine Triet 2023)
JUSTINE TRIET: ANATOMY OF A FALL/ANATOMIE D'UNE CHUTE (2023
SANDRA HÜLLER IN ANATOMY OF A FALL
A woman is suspected of her husband's murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness. (Cannes: Palme d'Or.)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:24 PM.
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STRANGE WAY OF LIFE /EXTRAÑA FORMA DE VIDA Pedro Almodóvar (2023)
PEDRO ALMODÓVAR: STRANGE WAY OF LIFE/EXTRAÑA FORMA DE VIDA (2023)
This is a short film by Pedro Almodóvar with a gay theme. (Cannes.)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:08 PM.
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THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Jonathan Glazer 2023)
JONATHAN GLAZER: THE ZONE OF INTEREST (2023)
THIS is about the cozy family of the man who runs Hitler's worst extermination camp. With Sandra Hüller. Adapted from the late Martin Amis' novel. Cannes: Grand Jury Award and Fipresci Prize.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:30 PM.
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THE BEAST/LA BÊTE (Bertrand Bonello 2023)
BERTRAND BONELLO: THE BEAST/LA BÊTE (2023)
LÉA SEYDOUX AND GEORGE MCKAY IN LA BÊTE
A man (George McKay) and woman (Léa Seydouz) meet across three eras of time and three moods. Venice.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:09 PM.
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ABOUT DRY GFASSES (Nuri Bilge Ceylan 2023)
NURI BILGE CEYLAN: ABOUT DRY GRASSES (2023)
A school drama about a teacher whose career appears to be imperiled by a sexual abuse charge from a pupil. In Turkish. Cannes, competition: Merve Dizdar, who plays a female colleague and would be girlfriend of the protagonist, won the Best Actress award at Cannes.
"This is Ceylan at his most limber and mischievous, the filmmaking exhibiting a generosity and curiosity that belies the script’s defense of individualist, even isolationist, living, at whatever cost to one’s own happiness."- Guy Lodge, Variety.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:41 PM.
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FALLEN LEAVES KUOLLEET LENDET (Aki Kaurismaaki 2023)
AKI KAURISMAAKI: FALLEN LEAVES/KUOLLEET LENDET (2023)
Two lonely people who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first love of their lives. Cannes.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...e-in-its-heart
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:11 PM.
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ZHANG LU: THE SHADOWLESS TOWER
Film at Lincoln Center
https://www.filmlinc.org › films › the-shadowless-tower
Set in contemporary Beijing, Zhang Lu. Debued at the Berlinale.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:12 PM.
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IN OUR DAY 우리의 하루 (Hong Sang-soo 2023)
HONG SANG-SOO: IN OUR DAY 우리의 하루 (2023) (2023)
Hong's Directors' Fortnight closer seems slender, but encompasses many themes that can be interpreted in relation to his prolific œuvre, in which it is no. 30. Debuted at Cannes.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:14 PM.
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IN WATER 물안에서 (Hong Sang-soo 2023)
HONG SANG-SOO: IN WATER 물안에서 (2023)
Hong's second film for 2023, 61 mibutes, and intentionally out of focus. A young filmmaker prepares to shoot at an off-season island retreat. Debutged at Berlin.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:14 PM.
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RADU JUDE: DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD (2023)
Another tirade from he Rumanian author of the timely and entertaining but scattershot Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.. (Locarno.)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:15 PM.
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CLOSE YOUR EYES/CERRAR LOS OJOS (Victor Erice 2023)
VICTOR ERICE: CLOSE YOUR EYES/CERRAR LOS OJOS (2023)
"In this elegiac personal epic about time, memory, and, of course, the movies, an aging filmmaker named Miguel (Manolo Solo) is reluctantly pulled back into a decades-old mystery connected to his final, unfinished work, titled The Farewell Gaze." "enigmatic tale of disappeared actor." (Cannes.)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:16 PM.
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KIDNAPPED/RAPITO (Marco Bellocchio 2023)
MARCO BELLOCCHIO: KIDNAPED/RAPITO (2023)
Bellocchio recounts a true incident when a Jewish child was kidnapped by the Vatican in the 1850's and converted to Christianity. Cannes in competition.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-15-2023 at 10:18 PM.
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