Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film

ISBN 10: 041597111X / ISBN 13: 9780415971119

Published by Routledge, 2004

About this Item

This book is devoted to food as a key element of film. The contributors draw attention to the various ways in which food is employed to make meaning in film and their essays are collected here. Editor(s): Bower, Anne L. Num Pages: 364 pages. BIC Classification: APF; WB. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 229 x 152 x 20. Weight in Grams: 521. . 2004. 1st Edition. paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780415971119

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film
• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 041597111X
• ISBN 13: 9780415971119
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This is the first book devoted to food as a vibrant and evocative element of film. It reads various films through their uses of Food - from major "food films" like Babette's Feast and Big Night - to less obvious choices including The Godfather trilogy and The Matrix. The contributors draw attention to the various ways in which food is employed to make meaning in film. In some cases, such as Soul Food and Tortilla Soup, food is used to represent racial and ethnic identities. In other cases, such as Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate, food plays a role in gender and sexual politics. And, of course, there is also discussion of the centrality of popcorn to the movie-going experience. This book is a feast for scholars, "foodies," and cinema buffs. It will be of major interest to anyone working in popular culture, film studies, and food studies, at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Anne Bower's Reel Food is an intellectual feast, where each essay serves a delicious new course filled with meaty morsels and delightful aromas. It provides thoughtful lenses in which to view the culinary dimensions of all films, but be prepared to reexamine the taste sensations of traditional food movies, such as Chocolat, Babette's Feast, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Tortilla Soup. I ignored the incessant urge to put the book down and head to out to the video rental store to pick up the films devoured in this book. I'll never look at a movie without seeing its culinary dimensions in new ways. So, make some popcorn and settle down in your easy chair-you're headed for a great read |o Andrew F. Smith, editor-in-chief, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America From sci-fi to horror, from romance to adventure, the films discussed in this collection are enriched by cogent analyses of the ways food is used to signal issues of cultural identity, assimilation, and conflict.

About the Author

Anne L. Bower is Associate Professor of English at Ohio State University, Marion. She is author of EpistolaryResponses: The Letter in 20th-Century American Fictionand Criticism and editor of Recipes for Reading:Community Cookbooks, Stories, Histories.