Author Archives: taniyamccoy

I learned a lot in this class, about film techniques, film review and most importantly, the different ways that food is used in film. One of the ways that food is used in film that I found most interesting was as a way to critique technology and human reliance on it. In science fiction films like “Soylent Green” I found it interesting how food became less about the passionContinue reading “Entry 12”

Big Night is about two brothers who are first generation immigrants from Italy trying to run a successful restaurant in America. Dinner Rush is about a successful Italian restaurant run by an Italian American man who is trying to distance himself from the Mafia and permanently quit bookmaking.  There are a lot of similarities between Big Night and Dinner Rush. The first is that the older Italian men want the restaurants to be authentically Italian. Primo,Continue reading “Entry 11”

The film Big Night is about two brothers Primo and Segundo who came to open an Italian restaurant in America. However, they aren’t finding success because the American public doesn’t want American food, they want the Americanized version, like spaghetti with meatballs. Primo doesn’t want to give in to what the people want, while Segundo doesContinue reading “Entry 10”

Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored is a movie set in 1946 about an boy who grows up in a small town in Mississippi being raised by several family members in his community like his Mama Pearl, his grandfather and his Aunt. The other movie, Soul Food is about a woman named Big Mama who had Sunday dinners with her family,Continue reading “Entry 9”

The Chinese film Eat Drink Man Woman is about a semi-retired professional chef with three adult daughters, and every Sunday he enforces a dinner so that they may all spend time together. The American remake Tortilla Soup focuses on the same family dynamics, except the family is Latino instead of Chinese.   The opening sequences in both movies have a lot of similarities. It starts with shotsContinue reading “Entry 8”

The film Chocolat is about a woman named Vianne and her daughter Anouk who are nomadic and help people along the way. The film takes place in a small village in France where Vianne and her daughter have stopped to open up a chocolate shop. They are initially met with resistance from the town but over time people come to love her chocolateContinue reading “Entry 7”

The film “What’s Cooking?” follows four families, who happen to be neighbors, from different ethnic and racial backgrounds in LA as they each prepare a thanksgiving meal. In the film, there is the Latino family (The Avila’s), the Black family (The William’s), the Asian family (The Nguyen’s), and the Jewish family (The Seelig’s).  The film deals with tradition in two ways, there are the traditions that everyoneContinue reading “Entry 6”

The film Como Agua para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) is a frame story about a girl, Tita, who is forced to never marry or have children in order to take care of her mother, Mamá Elena. Tita uses the kitchen in the house as her safe haven and a place to express her creativity and emotion, something Mamá Elena doesn’t allow. As a result of Tita being in the kitchen for mostContinue reading “Entry 5”

The modernist film Soylent Green is about how society has become overcrowded and the people barely have any resources to survive, most don’t have a home, electricity, or running water, and because of food shortages, the poor must eat the chemically processed “soylent”.  However, the rich get portions of real food that they purchase from food stores called “food inventories”. TheContinue reading “Entry 4”

In Mostly Martha, the main character is a particularly uptight woman who is stuck in her ways. Food is everything for Martha, her job, her life, and the ideal way to express herself. In this film food plays a big role in revealing character traits, motivations, and feelings. Food is constantly used to reflect Martha’s mindset and opinions. When it comesContinue reading “Entry 3”