FilmTheatre The Second Most Pleasurable Thing We Do In The Dark: A Column About Movies Movies About Food And these are for your husband. Unrefined cacao nibs from Guatemala, to awaken his passions. By Michael Sobota - Juliette Binoche as Vianne Rocher, in Chocolat. Chocolat (France, 2000). A woman and her daughter set up a chocolate shop in a small, conventional French village. Everything changes. Blame it on the gorgeous cinematography, literal eye-candy, and the irresistible allure of that dark, semi-sweet substance, which permeates the common villager’s lives. The film features superb performances by Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, and Johnny Depp. Mostly Martha (Germany, 2001). A stern and focused top chef (Martina Gedek) rules her kitchen and everyone around her. Her discipline is shattered, however, when she takes her orphaned niece into her home and a handsome, talented apprentice into her restaurant kitchen. You can tell where this is headed, but the story doesn’t get there easily. And enroute the meals we are treated to are amazing. F ood is featured as a main theme in movies almost as often as love. Sometimes, they compete to be the main course in the same story. And international cuisine has brought forth some of the most satisfying movies to revisit. The best of these in my opinion is Big Night (USA, 1996), given a five-star review in the February 2013 issue of The Walleye. Here is a spe- cial focus on four more worthy of drooling over. Mid-August Lunch (Italy, 2008). A single, middle-aged man looks after his mother in an Italian condo building. Falling behind on his rent payments, he agrees to look after another elderly lady, his landlord’s mother, and her sister, on Ferragosto, the mid-August holiday when most sensible Italians flee Rome for the coolness of the countryside. He accepts still another, his doctor’s mother, and the film settles down to preparing meals in the apartment’s kitchen that is soon as steamy as the gossip the signoras share with each other. And of course, by the end of the holiday weekend, the women don’t want to leave. The Lunchbox (India, 2013). In Mumbai, there is a famous food delivery system wherein housewives in the suburbs prepare meals and place them in intricate four-part conical lunchboxes that are whisked into the city and distributed to office workers by delivery men on cycles. A mistaken delivery sets up an intimate correspondence and a deepening relationship between a married but unsatisfied woman and the lonely man who receives her daily gourmet meals, on the brink of his retirement. The second-best movie about food and love! And here are another five titles to round up an even ten gastronomic appetizers for your eyes: Soylent Green (1973), My Dinner With Andre (1981, wherein the cuisine is the conversation), Eating Raoul (1982), Ratatouille (2007), and Toast (2010). My sleeves are rolled up to work hard for you. Let’s Get Listing! Serving Thunder Bay and area, in the new and resale housing market for over thirty five years. Jim McCullough Broker of Record Cell: (807) 472-6106 Office: (807) 767-3329 Vintage Clothing Sale 2nd floor of The Sov during Lunch, Brunch & Dinner hours May 7 th -9 th 11am - 3pm 4pm - 9pm The Walleye 21