Episode Transcripts
Spiderman 2
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Spiderman 2.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
If Peter Park through high school was hard, he was in for a rude awakening when he got to the real world of Manhattan and college. Juggling not only his class work, a part time job, and of course his busy crime fighting schedule, there’s also romance, family and fending off a mad scientist with 4 extra arms. Spiderman might be working on fighting crime, but Peter Parker can’t win.
Directed by Sam Raimi, the sequel’s blend of action, comedy, and suspense put this installment of Spiderman’s tale at the top of the list of best superhero films ever made. The quick camera movements and exaggerated transitions combined with some seriously dramatic character building and story development elevated what the superhero films could be and continue to be to this day.
One of the main themes of this story is balance. What does it mean to accept responsibilities and how can we manage the commitments we make without losing ourselves in the process? Spiderman is learning what it means to want to save the world, but Peter Parker is the one facing the consequences of his alter egos actions. Bad guys don’t make appointments and they certainly don’t care that Peter should be in class or delivering a pizza in 29 minutes or less, guaranteed. While Spiderman is protecting the city to his best ability, Peter is becoming more and more unreliable to his friends and family.
Before we get into story, I want to talk a little bit about the rule of 3. Now that’s not the rule of thirds, where a camera frame is split into 3 for positioning subjects in the frame, the rule of 3 is a story telling tool, especially prevalent in comedy. This rule uses emphasis and timing to surprise and delight an audience with a build up to a final punch line. Often the third action in the sequence breaks the pattern of action or ups the ante by doubling down on the action. The tension breaking results in, hopefully, laughter from the audience.
The first time we see this rule is in the first sequence of the film. First, Peter is fired by his pizza delivery job. Then he is fired by the Daily Bugle. Finally, he misses his university class and is threatened with expulsion. There’s no comedy here, but the audience is being primed for later actions on screen.
Peter has been fighting car jackers, Doc Ock, and the alienation of his loved ones when he is hired as a photographer for a high society event hosted by J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle. The party is fancy and has wait staff carrying trays of passed hors d'oeuvres, and guests are taking the small bites from their place of offer. Just as Peter goes to take the last appetizer, it is snatched from his hand.
Mary Jane enters with her new beau and after staring at her, Peter again goes to grab the last hors d’oeuvre from a passed tray. Once again, the morsel is scooped from the tray before he can grab it. Peter has a brief encounter with Mary Jane who tells him she has no room for someone as unreliable as him in her life. In a moment of despair, Peter goes to grab a yellow umbrellaed drink off a passing tray. This time he manages to grab it in time, but he finds that it is empty. Once again, he is too late.
Peter’s inability to grab the things he wants without some sort of distraction or disturbance is a direct reflection of what’s been happening in his life. He wants to be a good friend, a good grandson, a good student, but being Spiderman has gotten in the way of those things. He can’t be everywhere at once and he must decide what he wants most in this life: To be the superhero New York needs or to be Peter Parker. Can he have both? What is he willing to sacrifice?
The stress of that decision, the choice, causes Peter to lose his powers and he throws the suit away, taking a step back from crime fighting and superheroing to just be a regular guy. To the tune of Englebert Humperdinck we watch Peter go to class, do his homework, and even see Mary Jane’s play. He has no constraints on his time and can enjoy a hot dog at his leisure and eat cake with his neighbor and have tea with Aunt May.
What he can’t do is ignore the way the people of New York still need Spiderman.
He makes a decision. Missing out on an appetizer or on a class might be terrible but letting the citizens of New York fall prey to criminals and super powered lunatics is too big of a price to pay. Peter Parker can afford some loneliness, but Spiderman can’t afford to let his responsibilities fall to the wayside. He loves his city and the city, as fickle as it may be, needs him
A train of people saved, using his power as Peter Parker to persuade Doc Ock to do the right thing, and revealing his secret to Mary Jane all take a little bit of pressure off Peter, but in the end as he says he “will always be Spiderman”. It’s not perfect, and it’s not easy, but it is the right thing to do. The brave thing to do. And as Uncle Ben says “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
We would also like to thank Shure for providing the MV7 Podcast Mic this season. Check out Shure.com for all your audio needs!
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Spiderman (2002)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Spiderman.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
A dozen actors have played Superman, 6 have portrayed Batman, but only 3 have starred as Spiderman, the nerdy teen Peter Parker turned human arachnid, a staple of the Marvel Comics pantheon of Heroes. 3 actors, 8 stand-alone films, and 2 decades of fans watching a kid from Queens attempt to save New York and the world. Recently all 3 of the Peters joined forces in Spiderman: No Way Home, and we’ll get to that, but each of their runs have iconic moments pulled straight from the pages of comics dating back to 1962
High school is hard enough without the onset of superpowers, and Peter Parker is dealing with bullies, hormones, and Spidey senses in the first installment of Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy. The roll of Peter Parker has been recast a handful of times, but each story sees Spiderman as he comes of age within himself and the wider world of villains and heroes.
Directed by Sam Raimi, king of horror, this foray into the superhero world would set the bar for superhero film making and forge a path that would lead to 2008’s Iron Man and its unexpected success.
Starring Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, JK Simmons, and Kirsten Dunst, Spiderman introduced audiences to a studious photographer, Parker, who is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains superhuman strengths and traits of several spider species.
Teen movies, especially ones that take place inside of high schools, rely on tropes that have been a part of storytelling for decades. The jock, the nerd, the loner, the princess, we’ve seen them all in other films featured on Eat the Pictures. When we meet Peter, he’s running to catch up to a bus. He’s laughed at by all his peers and even the bus driver before Mary Jane gets the driver to stop and let him on. He’s tripped by another student and even the other nerds want nothing to do with him. The audience is shown just how much of an outcast Peter is within the first 5 minutes of him being on screen. He’s the underdog in every way.
After he is bitten, Peter finds his eyesight is better, his body is stronger, and his reflexes are faster than ever. His hand sticks to a sign on the side of the bus which he shakes off, but it’s a warning of what’s to come. In the cafeteria, he senses that Mary Jane is going to slip in some juice and moves quickly to catch her and all the contents of her lunch tray. All the items on the tray are solid. An apple, a sandwich, a bowl of green jello; these items land hard, emphasizing the impressive feat that it is with sound.
He sits back down to realize a fork is stuck to his hand, and when he pulls at it, a web like substance is pulled away along with it. He moves his hand and another strand of web shoots out, this time grabbing onto a tray of half-eaten school lunch. Everything on this tray is loose or liquid, corn, spaghetti, salad, so when it flings back over Peter’s head it makes a large splattering mess on the head of the school bully.
The two lunch trays both help to emphasize the action in the scene by making the reaction have a greater impact. Mary Jane is impressed with Peter’s quick reflexes, but the bully is enraged when he is the target of Peter’s lack of control.
We’ve seen two flying lunches so far. The bully chases after Peter to beat him up for his “prank”. Peter’s newfound reflexes and power help him first to dodge the bully’s fists and then the fight back with some blows of his own. The fight comes to a finish with a final punch from Peter that throughs the bully down the hall to the feet of a teacher carrying, you guested it, a lunch tray full of food. This tray it then spilled, a combination of the foods we’ve already seen and an added splat of chocolate pudding, the bully’s proverbial just desserts.
In all the iterations of Spiderman, Peter Parker starts out as a skinny geek against the world who just happens to get superpowers from an unexpected place. Showing Peter as a teenager, dealing with high school issues and self-esteem problems has made him relatable to decades of comic readers, so it only makes sense to start his cinema journey there as well. No matter what stereotype you belonged to as a teen, relating to Peter’s struggle to make friends, get the girl, or even stand up for himself is something any viewer can connect to. The circumstances that make Peter super, just build on what was already inside of him.
Whether we are nerds, jocks, princesses, or freaks watching our tormentors get what’s coming to them is always satisfying though not always the way things turn out in the real world. We can feel Peter’s triumph just like we can feel the humiliation he has endured, and when that pudding lands in the face of the bully our empathy makes the splat even more satisfying.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
We would also like to thank Shure for providing the MV7 Podcast Mic this season. Check out Shure.com for all your audio needs!
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Captain America : The First Avenger
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Captain America: The First Avenger.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
What makes a Super Hero? Is it where they’re from? Their powers? Their strength of character? That’s a question posed by today’s hero. A sick boy from Brooklyn, who’s own allergies and physical health rendered him unsuitable for war. Today’s Super Food is much like our hero, rare.
Captain America: The First Avenger, directed by Joe Johnston, introduced movie audiences to Steve Rogers, a man desperate to do his part in World War 2 by serving his country. He is a small, sickly thing and though his stature leaves something to be desired, his heart is in the right place. He is chosen as the test subject in an experiment and ends up becoming the first Super Solider, and a war hero.
Starring Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell and Stanley Tucci, the film takes place entirely during the World War 2 era of the 1940’s. The Strategic Scientific Reserve is looking for a secret weapon to help defeat not only the Axis powers but also Hydra, an extremist off shoot intent on conquering not only the free world but the entire world through weaponized science and magic.
Let’s go back to your high school history class. World war 2 began in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. From there the UK and France declared war on Germany and for 2 years fighting ensued throughout Europe and Asia. In December 1941, Japan, who was moving to dominate Asia and the Pacific, executed an aerial attack on Pearl Harbor which caused the US to enter into the war and begin to send troops overseas.
Many of those troops were drafted but some also volunteered, and that is where we first meet Steve Rogers. He has been refused 4 times but his 5th try seems to do the trick when Dr. Abraham Erskine selects him to be a part of a new group of soldiers. He ships out to basic training, and though he is the smallest of the group, he has more bravery and tenacity than even the biggest solider there.
Erskine decides Steve is the right man for his experiment and with the help of a young Howard Stark, they use a special serum and “vita-rays” to turn Steve from a “90-pound asthmatic” to a super soldier. Unfortunately, a hydra spy kills Erskine, making Steve the only proof of his incredible work. One soldier does not an army make, however, so Steve is sent to become propaganda and tour with the USO.
When he finally makes it to Europe in 1943, he learns that the regiment his best friend Bucky is a part of has been taken hostage. He breaks away from the base and goes behind Hydra lines to free not only his friend but 400 US Troops, making a name for himself as Captain America.
Steve goes on to lead a team to destroy Hydra bases and try to defeat the Hydra leader Johann Schmidt and his henchman Arnim Zola. They capture Zola, but not before Schmidt escapes.
Here we see the meat and potatoes, literally, of the meal in this film. During World War 2, rationing of things like milk, eggs, sugar and meat was one way the European governments kept their soldiers and citizens fed. This began with petrol rationing, so that planes and army vehicles could continue to operate and then expanded to food stuffs as the shortage of more and more items became apparent.
Meat was a commodity and during rationing the amount of protein each man or woman could have weekly went down to 2.5 pounds a week, just under 6oz per day, and what was available consisted mainly of organs and off cuts that were of no use to the military. Though the availability of certain items fluctuated throughout the war era, meat was consistently scarce.
US troops during this time were given C Rations, or C-Rats, that consisted of approximately 3600 calories or 3 meals and were disliked by soldiers across all combat fields. One example of a C-Rat contained franks and beans, canned fruit, chewing gum, chocolate, coffee, and cigarettes with the occasional processed cheese and cracker to mix things up.
Zola is brought to the army base where Colonel Phillips, the head of the super solider project, prepares to interrogate him. The room where Zola waits is dark and small, with a dripping water faucet and blood on the floor that indicates what is in store for him if he doesn’t cooperate.
Phillips enters with a tray. On it sits a glass of milk, a filet, a baked potato, and broccoli: a traditional American steak dinner. Both of these men have been in combat for close to 5 years, and the idea of a steak dinner must seem like an oasis in a desert of tinned meat.
A filet cut of beef is approximately 6 ounces of meat. Compare this amount in one meal to the ration amount of 6 ounces per day, and viewers can see that this meal is close to extravagant by war time standards. Offering this meal to a prisoner of war seems like an obvious bribe, but Zola refuses it. He doesn’t eat meat.
Phillips turns the plate back to himself, and begins to enjoy the steak. He eats, fork and knife in hand, an innocent act that somehow becomes a threat. This man controls an army, he can obtain the nearly unobtainable, and he holds Zola’s fate in his hands. He continues to chew thoughtfully as he asks about Schmidt’s plan of attack, nonchalant almost as he speaks about the inevitable acts of violence still to come.
Eating this steak, in this setting, gives Phillips something only two other people in this film have, a super power. While Steve and Schmidt have Erskine’s serum running through their veins, and the strength of that serum making them borderline invincible, Phillips is just a man. He somehow translates all the power he holds as a colonel into this one meal.
He can offer sustenance and safety but he can also take both of those things away with a blink of an eye, or in this case the slice of a steak knife. His word can cost Zola his life or save it. He doesn’t need the serum, he has the power of bureaucracy, international cooperation and the Allied forces behind him.
Using something as simple as a choice cut of meat to give a character tangible power is ingenious. The audience can see the dish, an overall unimpressive image, but they can also see the longing in the eyes of the prisoner. They can watch Phillips eat and see his casual demeanor as a show of power in a loaded situation.
Of course, in the end, Steve falls defeating Schmidt and saving the world only to be found 70 years later frozen in the Arctic. This moment with Phillips and Zola passes by and can be forgotten until later films, when the scene is recalled.
Yes, this scene is a display of power from Phillips, but it’s also an exchange of power. Phillips gives Zola a choice in the moment, give him all the secrets and get refuge or don’t and be fed to the wolves. Phillips holds the knife and the power, but he’s giving Zola an unexpected opening to take it back. When we next see Zola, he’s infiltrated one of the most covert agencies in the world and used his deal with Phillips as an in to take back the power he lost, but that is a story for another episode.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://www.history.com/news/soldier-wartime-food-rations-battle-napoleon-vietnam
Iron Man
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Iron Man.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Superfoods: Yogurt, Brussels sprouts, almonds, kale. Foods that can boost your health, make you stronger, but what I want to talk about are Super foods, food consumed onscreen by our heroes as they prepare for an epic fight or come down from a harsh battle. Superfoods for superheroes, and you won’t find any Brussels sprouts here.
Long before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe, there was Iron Man. The first film, direct by Jon Favreau, introduced millions to Tony Stark and his debonair life of technology and debauchery. It was the film that launched a thousand ships, or at least the 27 Marvel films that have made up the MCU thus far.
Starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard, Iron Man begins in the desert. In 2008, war in Iraq and other areas in the middle east was a concept fresh in the minds of many Americans. To put Tony Stark, a new protagonist, into this landscape that most viewers had seen in the news gave a secure foundation to build the story
Tony Stark, weapons manufacturer and technological genius, is in the Afghan desert demonstrating his latest prototype weapons for government agencies. He is arrogant and suave, dressed in an expensive suit among soldiers. The missile he is testing is the definition of over kill but he treats the moment like its detonation is a firework display on the fourth of July.
When it comes time to return to his private plane, the convoy of Humvees is hit by an IED and, while trying to reach safety, Tony takes the brunt of an explosion caused by one of his own weapons.
Until this point, Tony has had the upper hand. When he wakes, he finds himself captive, not only to his kidnappers but also to his own body, as his shrapnel wound threatens his life. Yensin, another prisoner, creates an electromagnet to protect Tony’s heart and keep him alive.
The only way out of this dire situation is to play along with the demands of his captors as he builds a suit of armor to escape in.
At the start of the film, Tony’s life is full of glamour and wealth. He gambles at the high stakes table in Vegas, has a mansion overlooking the Pacific and a private plane at his beck and call. He can buy priceless pieces of art to store in a vault and he can drink expensive whiskey even in the desert.
He makes his living off of military contracts, selling weapons to the powerful in exchange for billions of dollars and infinite influence. He’s a celebrity, and his life is a show for everyone to watch.
It’s not until he almost dies at the impact of his own missile that he sees what is happening just out of sight. Young men and women, soldiers, dying at the hands of his tech. The explosion not only injures Tony’s heart and body, but it wakes something inside of him, a need to fix a problem that he was complicit in creating. He was held captive for 3 months, and Tony has had a change of heart, literally and figuratively.
Once Tony is rescued, he returns to the states and his first matter of business when back on the ground is an American Cheeseburger.
The origin of the traditional American Hamburger is widely disputed. What you believe generally depends on where you come from, but what isn’t arguable is the hamburger’s popularity. American’s consume approximately 14 Billion burgers a year and there are almost 50,000 burger joints in America alone. To say the burger is popular is an understatement.
Tony has been held against his will in the Afghan desert. He has had little choice in what he eats, striving to stay alive in a foreign and violent situation. Though Tony is a fictional character, for members of the military being deployed overseas for extended periods of time is a reality many face: being separated from family and friends, not knowing when or if you will return. The comforts of home seem like they are on a different planet, not just a different continent.
Tony has had his entire life plated in gold. He had all the comforts one man could think of. He never wanted for anything material. When those things are stripped down to nothing, what is left? A man. Just a man. One with basic needs and basic instincts.
What Tony needs is familiarity, comfort, the feeling of home. The cheeseburger, wrapped in wax paper, pulled from a brown paper bag. It’s a familiar gesture to most Americans. The late-night drive thru for cheap eats or the long-distance car ride, peppered with stops for greasy snacks to keep the energy up. We can relate to Tony’s cravings because on one occasion or another, each of us has had a craving for something familiar.
The cheeseburger is also a visual representation of the power Tony had lost in the desert. For 3 months, Tony had no rights. He came and went at the pleasure of his captors, he lived in fear for his life and the life of his companion. When he finally returns to American soil, his home base, he returns to his personal freedom and power. He wants a cheeseburger? He gets the cheeseburger. He wants to change the face of his company and the impact that company has on the world? He can do that too.
Tony left California on a private plane, and came back in the cargo hold of a military jet. He left drinking whiskey and came back to a paper bag full of cheeseburgers. At the core, this story is about deciding what’s important and figuring out how to fight for it.
A cheeseburger is a small ask for someone who could have the world at his fingertips with a snap. It’s also one of the things that makes Tony one of the most beloved characters in cinema. He went to war, not just against his kidnappers but with himself, and came out the other side with a new perspective.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/11-burger-stats-will-blow-your-mind-slideshow/slide-3
Heathers
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Today’s show features talk of self harm and school violence. If these topics are triggering to you, please be aware.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Heathers.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
The late 80’s and early 90’s were full of teen movie classics. John Hughes was having his heyday, the brat pack dominated the silver screen, and adolescents lived at the mall. In the midst of all that hairspray and consumerism, a dark comedy like Heathers was a commercial flop, but in the decades that have followed, this film has gained cult renown and been adapted into a successful stage musical and television series.
Directed by Michael Lehmann, Heathers enters the world of a stereotypical school where popularity, bullying and desperation have combined to create a toxic cloud that surrounds all the students of Westerburg High. The cliques are abusing their power and the “losers” have no choice other than to bow and scrape, but one It Girl has had enough.
Starring Christian Slater, Shannon Doherty and Winona Ryder, Heather Chandler, Heather McNamara, Heather Duke, and Veronica Sawyer make up the most powerful clique at Westerburg High. The girls want to be them and the boys want to be with them, even though they aren’t the nicest of people to their peers. They dominate the halls and the cafeteria, treating their classmates like second class citizens, existing only for their entertainment through humiliation.
The cafeteria is an essential tool in the teen movie handbook. It’s the best way to see the ecosystem where the story takes place and it allows the director to introduce a large number of characters with little effort. This crowded room is a hub for these students, whose lives exist inside of this building until they graduate. The power structure here is obvious, but each student is eating a similar meal of milk, pot pie, mashed potatoes, peas and jello. Though they see each other as less than or greater than, the status quo doesn’t differentiate between popular or loser. They all have to eat the same state mandated lunch. The cafeteria and its cookie cutter trays of mediocrity don’t care who’s at the top of the food chain, at the end of the day, it all gets dumped into the same disgusting pile of garbage.
Just like the cafeteria’s monotonous meals, Veronica’s parents have a routine of afternoon snacks and conversation. Pate and pickles on little toast slices, the exact opposite of the lunch time offerings, but still just as repetitive. Even the conversations they have together seem to illicit deja vu. Veronica’s world bores her, and though she thought she wanted popularity the reality is she misses her less shiny friends. It’s not surprising that JD, a new student, catches her eye.
When I say connivence store, what comes to mind? Linoleum floors that are a little sticky, refrigerator cases full of soda, a wall of colorful frozen drinks? The Snappy Snack Shack is all of these things and more. JD has moved and traveled all over the country, but in every city the Snappy Snack Shack is the constant. From Vegas to Boston, patrons can get a turbo dog or a super-chug, the little bit of familiarity in a world that is ever changing.
JD and Veronica are both looking for something, stability and change, to make an impact in a way that makes them feel important. They are both bored with their lives, and long for a comfort they cannot find. When he climbs through her bedroom window, they are pulled into a relationship of mutual destruction.
After a night of drinking, JD and Veronica go to Heather Chandler’s home to play a prank on her and make her sick. Veronica wants to give her a cup of milk mixed with orange juice but JD jokingly suggests they give her drain cleaner instead. Veronica refuses, but mixes up the glasses and JD gives the poison cocktail to Heather who downs it and promptly drops dead. Milk and OJ is a mildly disgusting combination but the lethal blue liquid drain cleaner is downright lethal. Veronica is just toying with the idea of harming her friends while JD has already charged head first into the violence.
They stage her suicide to escape the blame and trigger a surprising out pouring of empathy from their fellow students who see the prose-like suicide note as an indicator of Heather’s untapped depth.
Veronica and the other Heather’s are free of their tyrant leader, but cannot escape her shadow. Heather Duke, who has bulimia, is shown wantonly eating a chicken leg, no longer worried about Heather Chandler’s criticism. She uses the death and attention to make a play for control of the clique, while JD plans another murder.
After the deaths of two more classmates, we return to the cafeteria. This time the students clasp hands, a gesture orchestrated for news cameras and internal optics. No more trays of food, but the performative actions of their administrators and the attention of the outside world. Heather Duke becomes the new queen bee. Even the regular charcuterie with Veronica’s parents no longer has its quaint conversation with pate spread. Everyone seems to be spinning out of control.
Heathers has been analyzed within an inch of its life. Whether it's a Marxist metaphor, an analogy for 80’s politics, or a parable about the lack of critical thinking, every frame and costume has been pulled apart by viewers. The use of food in this film is peripheral but its presence, or lack there of informs the viewer of the progression of chaos from the opening frames to the explosive finale. The Cafeteria and its uniform lunches, The Snappy Snack Shack and its dazzling array of slushies, a tray of expensive Hors D’ouvres, all symbols of the status quo, the naivety of youth. All disappear as the story moves forward, getting progressively more unhinged until JD’s ultimate plan for destruction is set in motion.
This film is problematic for current viewers, who have been exposed to the horrors of violence in schools, trauma that theater audiences might not have had. Regardless of era or age the terror of this story comes from chaos, control, the impulse to not ask questions or be influenced by imposing personalities, themes that are still relevant today.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health, thoughts of violence, or self harm, please contact NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness, for resources or help in crisis.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
The Princess and the Frog
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is The Princess and the Frog.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, The Princess and the Frog takes viewers to the heart of New Orleans after the first world war. Tiana is a dreamer and a master chef, and she is saving her pennies to buy the restaurant she and her father had wanted so badly before he passed away.
Starring Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Jennifer Lewis and John Goodman, the food of New Orleans becomes a main character in this retelling of the classic frog prince tale. From gumbo to beignets, Tiana can make it all and she plans to once she signs the papers to buy her new restaurant.
When we first meet our heroine, she is a little girl and cooking with her father is the highlight of her day. They make Gumbo for their entire neighborhood, and Tiana’s father shares his dream of owning a restaurant with his small family. After her father passes away Tiana carries his dream forward, working hard to save for a down payment on a space for her restaurant, Tiana’s Place.
She works several jobs as a waitress and cook, preparing beignets for the people of New Orleans. She has no time for anything else, as her friends remind her when she refuses to go out with them so she can work to add to her restaurant fund. When her friend Lottie asks her to make 500 beignets for a party, Tiana believes her dream really has come true.
The space she wants to rent is a little run down, but Tiana only sees possibilities. Gourmet dishes made with love in the Gumbo pot used by her father, a glittering crystal chandelier, and a corp of choreographed waiters, Tiana’s dream has it all. She is dedicated to making her father proud, though her mother only wishes she had time for her own happiness.
Tiana’s father was a generous and hard working man, and Tiana embodies those qualities. She wants to feed her friends and neighbors just as her father did, and she will follow his lead by working hard until that dream can become a reality.
At Lottie’s party, Tiana discovers that she has been outbid on her restaurant space and in her distress she topples her table of beignets. Defeated, she lets Lottie dress her as a princess and makes a wish on the evening star for her dream to come true. Instead she is greeted by a talking frog who claims to be the visiting prince of Maldonia, Naveen, who has been cursed by the Shadow Man. She kisses him to break the spell but instead becomes a frog herself.
They are chased out of the party and into the Bayou where they meet Louis, an alligator who wishes he was human so he could play trumpet in a jazz band. He offers to take them to Mama Odie, whose magic might be able to fix the spell. On the way, their frog instincts take hold and both Tiana and Naveen attempt to eat bugs, something Tiana finds revolting. Their tongues get tangled and a lightning bug called Ray unties them and offers to lead the way to Mama Odie’s.
As they journey, Tiana makes swamp gumbo, a blend of her culinary talents and foraged items found in the Bayou. She makes a knife from a rock and teaches Naveen how to chop. He has never been self sufficient, so her life lessons seem like a gift. In Tiana’s world, food is how she cares for those she loves, and cooking for her new friends seems like a natural action. She uses a wild gourd as a caldron and feeds Louis, Naveen, and Ray, the only way she knows how: with an efficient gourmet hand, and the recipes her father taught her.
When they reach Mama Odie, she knows exactly what they’re looking for. She’s a little eccentric, very blind, and sharper than a tack. Her bathtub of gumbo and her snake, make the group ask exactly what they are looking for in life. Is it to just go back to where and who they were or to dig deeper and discover what will truly make them happy, human or not? Naveen has to learn to be selfless, and Tiana has to learn to be vulnerable.
To break the spell, Naveen must kiss a princess, Lottie, before midnight. When they arrive back in the city, Naveen is kidnapped by the Shadow Man and Tiana mistakingly believes he has left her. Ray frees the real Naveen, and they steal the source of the Shadow Man’s spell, but Ray is squashed as he fights off the dark spirits.
When the Shadow Man offers to make all of Tiana’s wishes come true with magic, she realizes that her dream has changed. Yes, her father didn’t get the restaurant before he passed, but he had everything he needed in his family and the love for his community. Even if she doesn’t get her restaurant, she’ll have her family and her love.
The kiss doesn’t work, and Tiana and Naveen decide to stay together as frogs, but when Mama Odie marries them their kiss breaks the spell. Tiana is truly a princess and with Naveen’s help she transforms the restaurant building into the restaurant of her dreams. It’s perfect because all the people she loves, even Louis, are present and celebrating together.
For Tiana, food is family, food is community and most importantly food is love. Her father never saw his dream come to fruition, but he never let that discourage him from encouraging his daughter to do her best. He knew, as Tiana learns, that love is the motivation for most dreams, and no matter what the outcome, they would have that love to celebrate.
Naveen, Louis, Lottie, all have important rolls in Tiana’s life, and all support her and her journey, gumbo and beignets or froggy mucus aside. She thought her father had taught her about hard work and perseverance, but the root of those things was always love.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Little Italy
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Little Italy.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
If you knew me in real life, you would learn very quickly of my varied viewing habits. As I write this episode I am in the thick of a period piece telenovela, half way through at least 2 documentaries, and waiting for a new episode of Dateline to come on the true crime channel app. I will and have watched anything and everything. The Oscar contenders of any given year, a foreign language crime thriller, an animated movie from 1995, there is no limit to what I will press play on. That includes things that are objectively not good.
Directed by Donald Petrie, a prolific rom com auteur, Little Italy had a real chance to succeed. The Romeo and Juliet of Ontario Canada, separated by parental feud, the characters of this movie are archetypal Italian stereotypes. Where My Big Fat Greek Wedding embraced the cultural quirks of the films characters, Little Italy inflates it’s casts New York - esque accents and hand gestures to a caricature of what a Canadian Italian might be if he was drawn from cast offs of a Godfather themed dinner theater performance.
Starring Emma Roberts, Hayden Christensen, Alyssa Milano, and Danny Aiello, Little Italy tells the story of Leo and Nikki, two kids of rival pizza makers, both looking to make their own paths in the culinary world. Leo stayed close to home, still working in his families pizza joint, while Nikki went abroad to study under the master chefs of Europe. When Nikki has to return to Canada to renew her Visa, she and Leo reconnect, their pizza oven baked romance reigniting, despite their family’s disagreements.
This story is not ground breaking or new. It’s an old stand by with a fresh layer of mozzarella, cheesy as ever. But where the storyline and acting lacks, the use of food is stand out. Two pizza parlors, both alike in dignity. One makes a mouth watering sauce, the other a toothsome crust, two integral pieces of a good pizza. The patriarchs fight, go their separate ways, but continue to hurl insults at each other over the property line of their a-joined restaurants and during a standing yelling match at the neighborhood bar.
Leo and Nikki, however grow closer, and learn to collaborate. One evening as Leo cooks dinner, pizza of course, Nikki suggests some new ingredients from lessons learned as she honed her skills at Culinary School. He is open to her new point of view, telling her that he has been trying to add new ingredients to the menu at his restaurant. Where their fathers are stuck in the past, these two are moving forward into the future and all its possibilities, creating something together in a way their father’s have forgotten.
Leo says the thing that makes him happy is family, and in this story family and food go hand in hand. These two characters falling in love over pizza slices and farmers market vegetables makes sense. Nikki’s grandmother likens tomato prep as squeezing the love out of each red sphere, their respective parents live and love over hot pizza ovens, and both Leo and Nikki turn to the kitchen for respite.
Italian culture is often pictured as genial grandmothers stirring bubble pots and curmudgeonly uncles arguing with wild gestures, and while there is a lot of that the real piece of this story is the scene that shows a street festival. Grills covered in sausages, bottles of olive oil, piles of cannoli, this is where the citizens convene, eating together and sharing those memories of a childhood spent watching those same grandmothers and uncles heap plates of pasta and crusty bread onto a table surrounded by family. Though that isn’t featured here on screen, it alludes to a time when the two warring families were once united in their craft.
When we finally do see the families together at the table, the fighting is so intense no food is even served. Instead a gauntlet is thrown. Leo and Nikki will compete in their fathers’ place in a pizza contest, whomever has the best pie stays and the losers close their doors. This is the same contest that started the feud in the first place and it’s fitting that the this will be the final showdown in a long war.
Leo brings his family’s dough and his own special ingredients, organic herbs and spices, while Nikki brings her family’s signature sauce and her practiced culinary technique. While Leo is throwing his dough, Nikki swaps their sauces, effectively letting Leo win. She knows she can’t stay in Little Italy with the way that things are, and she knows he would never leave. She knows that her sauce and his crust is a sure thing when put together.
When talking about food as metaphor, sometimes it’s deep, milk as a symbol of innocence or apples as an indicator of evil, but there’s no rule that says it has to be that. Some times it’s as simple as the ingredients that make up a pizza. Leo is the crust, his families recipe, the steadfast foundation of a life that expands and rises as it sits over the fire. Nikki, the sauce, a secret that makes you wonder what goes into something so rich and strong. Separate they are good, but together they are great.
Is this movie one that will be remembered as a work of art? Maybe not. But even movies that don’t make us think about the meaning of life can have successful pieces. The pizza in the this film is gorgeous and the way its parts are used to tell the story of two young lovers is accessible to any viewer. What is a pizza? Cheese, sauce, crust, at its simplest. Take away one of those pieces and the complete picture is fractured just as the two families in this story have fractured. Of course, this is a love story so in the end the two chefs come together to create something even better than the original. A blend of their two unique styles with the foundation of those pizza basics.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Star Wars Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Star Wars Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Intrigue, romance, clones: Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones has all that and more. The 5th film but second chapter in the Skywalker saga finds Anakin, now Obi Wan’s padawan apprentice, as he reconnects with Padme Amidala and finds himself torn between his feelings and the force.
Directed by George Lucas, this installment shows the softer side of Star Wars. Romance isn’t a foreign element in these films, Leia and Han Solo meet and fall in love in the original trilogy, but that aspect isn’t as well explored as the relationship between Anakin and Padme.
Starring Hayden Christianson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson, a mysterious villain tries to assassinate Senator Padme Amidala, and when no answers can be found, the senator is asked to return to Naboo for her own safety with young Anakin by her side.
10 years have passed since they last saw each other, and both have grown into their new roles. While Padme flourishes as the senator for her home planet, Anakin struggles to find his path as a jedi. He is plagued with dreams of his mother and of Padme herself, tearing his focus away from his training and onto his emotions.
Padme, Anakin and R2D2 travel to Naboo in secret, hoping to avoid alerting any enemies. When they arrive, the current queen and her council meet to discuss the best way to address this mounting threat on Padme’s life. They decide to journey to the River country, so they can lay low from anyone who might be searching for the senator.
While there, Anakin and Padme connect more than ever. They tell each other stories of adventures in the years they were apart, and though Jedi are not supposed to have emotional entanglements, Anakin falls even more deeply in love with Padme.
They dine together, and when Padme attempts to cut a pear served to her, Anakin uses the force to move the pear onto his own plate and slice it for her. He then uses the force to move the slices through the air for her to catch on her fork.
This interaction is a small moment, but it showcases Anakin’s will to disregard the rules that govern the Jedi. He uses his force abilities for frivolous things, just to impress the object of his affections. He makes a connection to her that is outlawed, but he doesn’t care. He would rather use his power to care for and feed Padme instead of the peace keeping duties he dedicated his life to.
The romance in this film is very off kilter, and it’s not a secret that Anakin has some pretty severe mommy issues, but the way this scene plays out highlights not only Anakin’s willingness to break rules but also that he doesn’t fear the consequences of his own actions.
Later, we won’t be surprised that this young jedi disobeys Obi Wan and the Jedi council to rescue his mother whom he has vowed to leave behind. She is in danger, and in a dream, Anakin sees her suffering. He cannot stop himself from traveling to her aid. He and Padme return to Tatooine, where they discover Anakin’s mother Shmi was sold, married, set free and then captured by sand people.
He finds her, the sand people’s hostage, and when she dies, he slaughters the entire tribe, men, women, and children. The affectionate lover who fed Padme pears is gone and in his place is a man who feels little regret for his own actions.
The people around Anakin want him to remain the child he was when he was found by Quigon Jinn a decade before. Obi Wan sees him as his ward, Padme sees him as the boy who shivered in cold space, but to Anakin’s mind he has seen a lifetime. He wants to care for those he loves, but knows he isn’t supposed to love at all. He wants to punish those who wrong him but knows he cannot inflict harm per the Jedi Code. He is in constant conflict with his own feelings.
The conflict in him is what leads to his future transformation, straddling the line between dark and light, Love and kindness, anger and hate. This one meal, this one interaction with Padme, sets forth a path walked by a boy who cannot handle not only his own grief and the abandonment he has felt his entire life.
The ways of the jedi are strict and focused on not being clouded by emotional turmoil, but as Anakin grows the emotions sown through him strengthen and threaten his standing as a jedi and breakdown his ability to see wrong from right. The further he strays down the path of darkness, the easier it is to believe that one day this young jedi will become the greatest villain the galaxy has ever seen.
There is no food featured in Revenge of the Sith, and that is why I have added it to this podcast as a coda. While we have watched Young Anakin welcome new friends into his mother’s home, Padawan Anakin feed his lover, in the final act of this trilogy we must watch all that work be undone with violence and hate, perpetuated by the lies of the Dark side.
In this film we see Anakin kill younglings and devote himself to Darth Sidious in the hopes that he might learn a way to save Padme from death and in fact vanquish death all together. Though we know he does not succeed, the poisoned words he has been fed by the Sith fester inside of him and turn the love he felt for both Padme and Obi Wan into an anger no one in the galaxy can escape.
When we look back at the other scenes, at the way Anakin turned from loving boy to feared villain, we might ask ourselves if evil is nature vs. nurture. Though the boy was raised by a mother who loved him in enslavement, he was separated from that love and instilled with values that made him feel isolated and alone. It’s not hard to imagine being driven to madness with the desire to save the ones we love from pain or death, but to watch it unfold inside of this young Jedi is almost unbearable.
We know what happens to Darth Vader, he is saved by the light and good inside of his own son, and it is with that thought we conclude the prequel trilogy.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Scooby Doo
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Scooby Doo.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
The cartoon legacy of Scooby Doo and Mystery Inc., spans decades. The Hanna Barbera classic premiered in September of 1969 and has been recreated and rebooted in various forms to give the mystery solving teens and their faithful dog, Scooby Doo, pop culture immortality. 1969 was the height of the psychedelic, the summer love had just passed and the hippy movement was coming into its prime and along with it a culture of recreational use of marijuana and sometimes LSD.
To link this popular culture to the culture of the parents who let their children watch Saturday morning cartoons, the teen protagonists each had an archetype. Fred, the dumb-ish jock, Daphne, the damsel in distress, Velma, the glasses wearing brain, and Shaggy, the slightly uninformed hippy. And of course, their scary- cat dog, Scooby doo. Putting a hippy character into the story, gave the show a silly side and a great opportunity to create drug related metaphors to slip past the TV censors of the time.
Directed by James Gunn, this iteration of the classic cartoon brings the characters to life in a live action adaptation. The Mystery Inc. gang don their classic looks on screen and even though this version was produced in the early 2000’s, the metaphors and sight gags don’t disappoint.
Starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini and Matthew Lillard, the gang is at a crossroads as the film begins. Though their mystery solving prowess is still noteworthy, their relationships are becoming strained. Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby all go their separate ways, shuttering Mystery Inc. and in turn their friendships.
Two years later, the camera pans down a plume of smoke to the iconic blue, green and orange Mystery Machine. It looks like someone is hot boxing the van, a common visual, and we hear the voice of Shaggy drop a common phrase for being inebriated “toasted”. The reveal of a portable grill and some steaming slices of eggplant is a fun gag. No, they aren’t smoking, they’re snacking, the favorite pastime of these silly buds.
The duo is known for eating, usually messily, as an indication of their gluttony or laziness, a common stereotype for someone who smokes weed. Though they don’t come out and say it, in this film the winks towards marijuana are obvious with a character named Mary-Jane as a standout flag to catch the informed viewers eye and ear.
A messenger knocks on the van door and offers Shaggy and Scooby an all you can eat trip to Spooky Island to help solve a mystery for Emile Mondavarious. When they arrive at the airport, the other members of Mystery Inc. are there, having received the same offer. On the plane, Shaggy meets Mary-Jane and ethereal vegetarian with a bag of Scooby snacks, a favorite treat of both Shaggy and Scooby. The snacks are for dogs but are all vegetarian, and a trademark part of the Scooby Doo cartoon.
Scooby Snacks are a motivator of both Scooby, named for the treats, and Shaggy, encouraging both of them to be brave in the face of danger or to get them to calm down after a particularly scary encounter with a dastardly villain. Scooby snacks has also become a popular name for some cannabinoids and other substances like MDMA or mushrooms.
The Guests of Spooky Island are turning into zombie-like versions of themselves and Mondavarious believes they are cursed. Fred, Velma, and Daphne all vow to solve the mystery alone, but they can’t help running into each other on the small island.
It’s not long before a breed of monsters starts attacking the gang and the other guests on the island. Slowly all the guests are possessed by the creatures, except Shaggy and Scooby who must solve the mystery without the help of their other friends.
The most used visual of food associated with Scooby Doo is the Sandwich. It’s featured several times in the film and was highly featured in the previous cartoons. Shaggy has a languid walk and a meandering tone of voice, and he always seems to have the munchies a well-known symptom of some types of weed. Though the creators of the cartoon have never fully acknowledged the double meaning of sandwich as veiled drugs, the implications are unmistakable and have become notorious over the decades since the characters premiered.
Scooby and Shaggy eat some comically large sandwiches, made of what appears to be full baguettes, and though Shaggy is a vegetarian, Scooby inhales his lunch meats like a vacuum. The thinly disguised references of “inhaling” “getting the munchies” and “being obsessed with Mary-Jane” are like a neon sign pointing to the Cheech and Chong of it all. This version of the cartoon duo doesn’t shrug from the implications of recreational drug use, rather it embraces that long held theory and uses it to further a story about body stealing monsters.
The food is what draws Shaggy and Scooby to the island, to reunite with their friends and to discover that their arch nemesis Scrappy Do is really behind all the craziness and body snatching. Though these two friends are a little clumsy and a little dopey, they have hearts of gold and stomachs of cast iron.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Monsters, Inc.
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Monsters Inc.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
World building with food is an art form. The way characters eat, and what, can tell an audience so many things about the world around them, especially when that world is a brand-new creation from the mind of the storyteller. In a world where all the elements are born from someone’s imagination, food can make the bigger elements seem a little closer to home.
Pixar films often ask the question “what if?” What if your toys came alive when you left the room? What if cars were sentient beings? What if the monsters in your closet were really just working their 9-5?
Directed by Pete Docter, the idea of Monsters Inc. came shortly after the release of Toy Story. Children all over the world can believe in monsters, and the idea that those monsters have their own stories to tell outside of just being scary in a cramped closet led to a world of new characters and locations to live in.
Starring Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, and James Coburn, the employees of the Monsters Incorporated power company use the screams of children to power the grid of Monstropolis, the city where monsters of all kinds live and work.
James P. Sullivan, Sulley, and Mike Wazowski, scarer and scare coach respectively, are the leaders on the scare score board and well respected by their peers. We see the unlikely friends walk through the streets and pass a bodega where a many armed monster is stocking his shelves with alien looking fruits. The fruit stand can be found in cities and towns all over the world, and this small moment makes Monstropolis come to life.
One evening while Mike is on a date, Sulley encounters a small girl on the scare floor. Monsters believe that children can be deadly and are taught to avoid them at all costs, so when the child won’t return to her room, Sulley sets out to find Mike for help.
At this point in the story, the audience has seen monsters work, commute, and gab by the coffee machine, so when the characters arrive at a restaurant it’s no surprise that like many humans these characters dine on sushi, prepared by a tentacled monster behind a traditional sushi bar. Harryhausen’s is reminiscent of any number of sushi restaurants with Japanese style paper walls, and deep red and black accents. The dishes are served Sashimi and traditional Sushi styles from the tentacled chef. Though the plated foods are not immediately namable, they reference foods we can recognize like shrimp or salmon. Sushi is often draw in cartoon form in anime, so there is another level of reference here. The rolls and nigiri have a general look with black nori wrappers and white rice, decorated with different kinds of fish. In this restaurant, the fish is swapped with grubs or even eyeballs, but the concept is still the same.
Though this world was created entirely for this film, the use of details we can relate to or recognize makes connecting to the new elements of the story easier and even unconscious to the viewer. Most people can remember a time when they and their partners or families have gone to a special restaurant to celebrate an anniversary or birthday. It’s a fairly common occurrence, so seeing these unusual characters having regular evening dates or workplace disputes makes them more accessible.
The film uses other easily relatable or adaptable story elements, like doors as portals or known myths to connect the human and monster worlds. After the dastardly plan of Mr. Waternoose has come light, Sulley and Mike are banished to the Himalayas and meet the Abominable Snowman. Many know the legends of the Yeti or the Abominable Snowman, so making him a real character here, one with excellent hosting abilities, the audience can place this reality in parallel to the reality they know.
Outside of this film, the Monsters Inc universe has expanded with a prequel and a sequel series that take place in the Monstropolis bubble. There are sodas with names like Drooler Coolers and vending machines filled with Hot Snots. The monsters in this world eat and snack just like humans do even if the names are a little bit gross. They even have donuts from Krispy Screams, a wink and nod to a popular real-life brand.
Abominable, or Adorable, Snowman makes Sulley and Mike lemon snow cones when they end up in the Himalayas and guests at Disney’s California Adventure can try his cool concoctions at Pixar Pier, an even greater invitation to believe these monsters have come off your screen and into your favorite theme park.
The monsters in this story are so real and the way they eat is just one reason that we can relate to the connections they have to each other and to the world that was created for them by the brilliant minds at Pixar. Cartoon food is a strange beast, but when we see characters snacking and dining the way we are so used to doing in our day to day lives, we can see ourselves looking back at us from the silver screen. With maybe less tentacles? Who knows.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Star Wars Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
After Return of the Jedi there was a 15-year lull in Star Wars content. Fans read extended universe books and comics to get their fill of Jedi stories, but the theaters were absent a cosmic presence until George Lucas returned to the Director’s seat and invited audiences back out into the galaxy.
Directed by George Lucas, Phantom Menance is the 4th film, but 1st chapter of the Skywalker saga. It brought the story of Darth Vader back to its beginning, taking place before the Clone Wars, before the empire and far before Luke Skywalker.
Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Jake Lloyd, the film is not held in high esteem among the other Star Wars offerings, but it gave audiences who were desperate for any kind of Star Wars content something to watch and discuss for years.
Nothing says exciting space opera like senatorial disagreements and trade embargoes. This is where we are introduced to Qui-Gon Jinn and a young Obi-Wan Kenobi, two jedi dispatched to mediate a galactic conflict between the planet Naboo and the Trade Federation. When the Viceroy of the Trade Federation realizes Jedi have boarded his ship, he contacts his Sith benefactor, Darth Sidious, who orders the Jedi be killed.
They escape to Naboo and with the help of a local, Jar Jar Binks, they make it through the planet core to the capital city, Theed, where the Queen and her council are being held captive. They escape the planet, barely, but their ship is damaged in the rescue effort. They land on Tatooine, a planet outside of the Republic’s reach.
Tatooine is a familiar locale to any Star Wars fan. It’s a desert planet where in the future a boy called Luke will discover his true path. When the ship lands on the outskirts of Mos Espa, Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, R2D2, and Padme, a handmaiden of the queen, venture into the city to try and find the parts needed to repair their ship.
Mos Espa is full of scoundrels and rogues, who make their living by selling junk, or people, or by dealing with the Hutt clan of gangsters and their gambling racket. The people are poor, most are enslaved, and work for junk dealers or other peddlers in the scorching twin suns of the desert planet. It’s a place where people go to disappear.
Qui-Gon, Padme, Jar Jar and R2D2 find a shop owned by Watto, the Toydarian, who has what they want but won’t take their offered Republic credits as payment. In his shop they meet Anakin, a 9-year-old enslaved boy with a gift for engineering. He’s enchanted by Padme and tells her about his life as a pilot and observer, learning from the travelers who pass through the city.
The small group searches the city for what they need until Jar Jar tries to eat some street snacks and gets into an altercation with a local. Anakin steps in to diffuse the situation, and when a storm begins to brew, he invites them back to his home for safety.
The small dwelling is cramped but cozy for Anakin and his mother Shmi, who welcome the newcomers to their sanctuary. They sit to eat together at the small dining table, and Shmi tells Qui-Gon and Padme about their lives as enslaved people. They have so little but are so giving to the strangers and will help them get the parts they need by racing in the Boonta Eve Classic.
While they eat, Jar Jar darts his lizard tongue out to pull items from a bowl into his mouth. The second time this happens, Qui-Gon catches his tongue and reprimands him. This is a demonstration of Qui-Gon’s Jedi reflexes for Ani and a small laugh for the audience in a scene that is heavy with talk of oppression.
Shmi pours water for each of the table’s occupants. This is a contrast to the blue milk served down the road in Mos Eisley. They have more access here, but they aren’t free to work their own land or farm their own moisture. This life is so different from the one Luke will live, in a home with the freedom to roam and dream. Anakin is so young but has a sense of duty in him, to Shmi, to his new friends, for a boy who has never seen the world beyond his own backyard.
This meal, one with new friends who are searching for aid, and the one I touched on in a New Hope, have something in common. In both, a young son shares his dream, his goals, his hopes with the people he loves. It doesn’t matter if the table is overflowing or half empty, both Luke and Anakin have greater potential that they need to fulfill. Both late discoveries of the Jedi way, both with guardians who don’t know exactly how to deal with them.
The difference is that while Uncle Owen wanted Luke to stay close to home, Shmi wants Anakin to leave Tatooine and find happiness elsewhere with people who can show him the way down his destined path.
There’s not a lot of space cuisine to choose from in this film, but I think the comparison between the meal here and the meal from A New Hope both give viewers a better look at the boy who will become the hero. There is so much to learn from the way a child treats his loved ones, and through Anakin’s actions we can see where his passions could have led in the future. Of course, we know that his boy becomes the most feared villain in sci-fi history, but this moment draws us in and makes us think he might be able to save the galaxy.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Milk in the Movies
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to a very special episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Milk in the Movies.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
To celebrate our 50th episode, I wanted to take a look at one of the biggest visual food symbols used on screen: Milk. No matter what the genre, milk has been used to build character foundations, give audiences cognitive cues, and manipulate perceptions to build suspense.
Milk has been used as a symbol across literature and myth. From the Greek calling the heavens “Galaxias Kyklos” or milky circle, to Lady Macbeth’s reference to milk when proclaiming her readiness to kill her own child, milk has been endowed with powerful imagery and metaphorical significance.
When we read or think of milk, there are some common ideas that can be portrayed. When a mammal is born, human or animal, the first nourishment a child receives is milk. This ancient need has instilled milk with an important job, to give the foundational nourishment so that a child might grow healthy and flourish. That idea also manifests as a mother’s love, as the milk from mother to child resonates with an inherent idea of care giving.
By relating milk primarily to babies, there is also a tendency to corollate milk with innocence. A newborn child has no record of cruelty or anger, just a fresh slate to learn and be nurtured. They have no idea of the condition of man, and therefore are free of any prejudice or hate.
Maternal nourishment and abundance through milk has also led to milk references in religious texts. Hindu and Christian mythology both reference milk in relation to godliness or the delivery of care to people who celebrate those gods.
On the other end of this spectrum, milk has also been used as an identifier of white supremacy or racial inequality. White supremacists have used milk as a symbol of white superiority, based on over 100 years of dairy propaganda and the obvious color correlation. While most of the world cannot digest milk regularly, these people identify as lactose-tolerant, a thinly veiled euphemism for racism or xenophobia.
When we see milk on screen it, more often than not, is a misdirection. We see the white liquid as the nourishment for babies or as the gift from the gods and associate that image with goodness or purity. We step into the trap.
You might remember we spoke about this on a Halloween episode about 1979’s Alien. Ash, the secret android, bled the milk he consumed aboard the Nostromo. His actions bred trust and a sense of reliability in both his crewmates and the audience. He drank milk, a picture of calm, letting us associate him with innocence and naivety. This made his betrayal even more crushing. His actions put not only his crewmates in danger but are also absent of the consideration of human life.
The milk he drank became the very blood inside of his robotic body when he is killed and sprays the lab as an open vein might. He was full of lies, and now the remainder of the Nostromo crew must deal with his deceit. Taking this character as a base line, let’s look as some other characters who use milk as a smoke screen, misdirection, or powerplay.
I would call Alfred Hitchcock the king of misdirection. He knows how to get you to believe one thing so fully that when the truth is relayed, it is shocking on every viewing. In his 1941 film, Suspicion, Cary Grant plays a con artist gambler who convinces a naïve Joan Fontaine into marrying him. He is after her father’s money but when he dies and leaves her nothing, Grant goes to exceedingly extreme lengths to get cash.
After the death of his close friend, Fontaine is sure Grant is going to kill her to access her life insurance. Grant brings her a glass of milk before bed, but without clarity on his intentions, Fontaine is too frightened to drink it. We don’t know if Grant is guilty, or still just a doting husband and that glass of milk further clouds the truth. Is he being kind or is that innocent glass full of poison?
In 1955, Rebel Without a Cause debuted a mere weeks after the tragic death of James Dean, in which he plays a troubled teen who faces conflict within himself and his family. Alongside Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, Dean’s character deals with school violence, familial in fighting, and falling in love all while facing the consequences of actions they are too young to comprehend.
In the film, a student is killed in a chicken race against Dean, plummeting over a cliff in his car. The characters of this film act as if they are adults but in reality, they are still juvenile. We see Dean drinking milk from the bottle, an action that echoes his true emotional state, even after we see him swinging whiskey from a similar bottle. These kids want to be seen and act as adults, but they do not have the wisdom that often comes with age. Dealing with death is hard enough for a full grown person but watching Dean drink and weep over his guilt further reinforces his immaturity.
In 1971’s A Clockwork Orange, Alex and his band of Droogs drink milk laced with drugs. We know milk is a symbol of youthful innocence, but in this case, it represents the immaturity of those who drink it. The State is a controlling entity, bent on order and submission and the milk clues the viewer into the helplessness of these citizens.
The milk itself lends to virtue, though the irony of lacing something meant to be homogenized with drugs is not lost. These teens will go on to do horrific things to their peers and neighbors and are not as innocent as their milk might lead you to think.
Leon: The Professional is about another kind of killer. In Luc Besson’s 1994 thriller Jean Reno plays the titular cleaner who meets Natalie Portman’s Mathilda after her entire family is murdered by corrupt DEA agents. He takes her in and trains her as an assassin, while she cares for him in a domestic way. Throughout the film Leon drinks quarts of milk, a strange visual for such a large man who can kill a dozen foes with ease.
The milk here again shows the immaturity of the character, but unlike Alex who is filled with violence, Leon is truly underdeveloped. He cannot read, he is entertained by simple things, he is more childlike than Mathilda herself, who has seen a slew of terrible things. Though he is a hit man, Leon takes a parental role in Mathilda’s life, and the milk is symbolic of that ability.
His experience is limited, from his first kill as a teen to running away, to becoming a cleaner. Leon hasn’t changed, and one lingering thing from childhood is the drinking of milk as a source of vitamins for a growing boy. The use of milk here to highlight the similarities of the two opposite characters shows the relationship between Leon and Mathilda grow.
In No Country for Old Men, the Coen brother’s use milk to deepen the discerning line between the two main characters. Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh and Tommy Lee Jones’ Tom Bell. Using a reflection in a television we first see Bardem’s silhouette, stoic and unmoving. He holds a bottle of milk but does not drink from it on screen. His presence is looming here as it is throughout the film.
A few moments later, Bell sits in the same place, pouring himself a glass of the milk and drinking it. The reflection again showing an imposing man repeating the actions of his prey before him. There is no innocence here, the milk is an awkward flag waving to indicate this contradiction not only of the action but also of the repetitive motions of villain and hero. The similarities are unavoidable.
In Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris, a photographer who goes to meet the family of his white girlfriend Rose. He is hypnotized by Rose’s mother and learns that the family performs brain transplants on unsuspecting victims, giving the family members a twisted version of immortal life. We believe that Rose isn’t complicit in these acts, but she is the recruiter of these victims, seducing them into the strange and violent surgeries.
We know Rose is deranged. She has no remorse for her actions and helps the cult of her family torture innocent victims. The thing that really cements Rose as unhinged however, isn’t her recruitment actions but the way she snacks. The audience watches her eat dry Froot Loops and drink milk separately through a straw. We are used to seeing violence on screen already but watching her quietly listen to music and eat the deconstructed breakfast is almost more jarring.
She drinks the milk and eats sugary cereal like a child who is completely free of guilt. We as the audience know she has probably led 20 people to their deaths. The milk here is a direct reference to Rose’s emotional stunting, she will always be the little girl doing her families bidding, having an after-action nosh while she trolls for her next kill.
Shortly after Get Out debuted, white supremacists took to the streets, guzzling milk while proclaiming their power, digestive or otherwise. It was a strangely timed act of defiance, that highlighted the true horror of not only milk as symbolism but milk in general. The whole thing is terrifying and disgusting.
Milk. Nourishment. Innocence. Immaturity. Sinister. Violent. The full spectrum covered by one liquid that has seeped from the page to the screen and into the zeitgeist. We can see the many ways individual story tellers take this basic element and turn it into a beacon of violence or a blanket of maternal comfort. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as I’m sure some of you are telling my disembodied voice I forgot Mad Max or Inglorious Basterds. We’ll get there, I have to save some stories for another day.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
If you’re looking for other great shows on storytelling, food, or entertainment, check out my friends over at Skull Rock Podcast or Dining at Disney, with new episodes every week.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://theconversation.com/milk-a-symbol-of-neo-nazi-hate-83292
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2338749
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/clockworkorange/symbols/
https://the-take.com/watch/in-leon-the-professional-why-do-they-drink-so-much-milk
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/english/s1101/client_edit/wine_milk2.pdf
https://medium.com/@oeg35229/wait-for-the-cream-6b6b2dc68734
Hellboy (2004)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Hellboy.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Comic book movies are a huge commercial success, but there aren’t many that cross over into the realm of horror. The ones that do are often revered as cult classics or underground favorites. What’s not to like about comic book vibrance meeting the creatures and gore of a horror film?
Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy was based off a beloved Dark Horse Comic of the same name. Hellboy is a demon, who arrives through a portal opened by Nazi Occultists during World War 2. He is adopted by a young scientist and grows to work with the FBI to fight supernatural enemies.
Starring Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, Jeffery Tambor and John Hurt, FBI agent John Myers arrives at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. He meets Doctor Broom, the department head, Abe Sapien, an amphibious humanoid, and Hellboy.
When Myers meets both Abe and Hellboy the first things he learns are about their eating habits. Abe spends most of his time in a water tank eating rotten eggs. Hellboy is kept behind a vault door, and when another FBI agent, Clay, introduces them it is with a cart full of food. He eats 6 times a day, mashed potatoes and steak, mountain dew, light beers, Hellboy has been living an average American life out of sight. He also has a sweet tooth for Baby Ruth candy bars, the connection that brought him and Broom together during World War 2.
Though Hellboy has been on Earth for 60 years, he ages very slow and is, for all intents and purposes, still a juvenile. He has the habits of a child and the palette of one as well.
When the team is called to a museum, Hellboy fights a creature called Samael, who was summoned by a reincarnated Rasputin, the very person who brought Hellboy to this world in the 40’s. Abe shows Broom exactly what happened: Rasputin made the creature doubly dangerous with a hydra like reincarnation ability. They can only be destroyed by fire.
Hellboy is in love with a pyrokinetic named Liz, who has checked herself into an institution to protect herself and others from her own abilities. One night she is visited by Rasputin and sets the hospital a blaze. She is traumatized by a previous accident and cannot forgive herself.
Myers wheels another cart of food into Hellboy’s room, this time full of “pamcakes” Hellboy’s affectionate name for flap jacks. He is angry about Liz and his containment, and sands down his horns in a fit. Another example of his childishness. He hates to be told no, what to do but still needs to be cooked for and cared for.
Unknown to Hellboy, Dr Broom is dying, and he has trusted Hellboy’s coming of age to Myers, whom he believes will support Hellboys development after he is gone. Hellboy is immature, still a child in the eyes of his adoptive father and through his behavior.
Another Samael attack leaves Abe injured and several agents dead. Director Manning of the FBI comes to pay a visit and clashes with Hellboy. They are both reactive and impulsive, butting heads on all fronts. The mission was technically a success, but Manning won’t be happy until even Hellboy is gone.
Liz goes for coffee with Myers and Hellboy follows, watching from afar. He runs into a boy, and then watch together as Hellboy stress eats the kid’s cookies and milk. Milk and cookies are inherently juvenile and watching this giant red creature binge while he laments his consequences of his own actions might remind the viewer of a person binging sweets after a breakup.
Hellboy is at rock bottom here, or so he thinks, so his actions seem extreme, almost desperate. Stalking his ex, eating his feelings, he’s 60 years old but still acting like a big baby.
Broom is killed by Rasputin, and his death leads the team to Moscow, the location of Rasputin’s mausoleum. With Abe still out of commission, Liz goes along as well as Manning. Liz uses her powers to incinerate all the eggs of Samael, saving a fireproof Hellboy and defeating the creature but Rasputin captures them and uses Hellboy to summon a giant universe destroying monster.
Though Hellboy was desperate to save Liz, he remembers what his father taught him and instead uses his horns to kill Rasputin and then sacrifices himself to the beast with a belt full of grenades. The beast eats Hellboy, who detonates the bombs and is engulfed in fire.
Throughout the film we have watched Hellboy be served extreme amounts of food. His hunger for food and freedom are extreme and unending. His need for sugar, tobacco, alcohol, driving his existence. Until Liz is put in the balance, until the world is put in the balance. Then this man child finds his true calling, to defend what cannot defend itself. To grow into the fully formed man his father always wanted him to be.
Hellboy survives. He’s fireproof, remember? He learned the lesson his father wanted him to learn, to become a true hero and the man ultimately worthy of the power he possesses. Sure, he might still be a 6 meals a day kind of guy but more importantly he knows how to feed himself emotionally. He can move forward, assured of his own power and ability to do the right thing.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://www.theoystereater.com/portfolio/food-in-guillermo-del-toros-hellboy
Legally Blonde
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to a brand-new season of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Legally Blonde.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
The way we watch movies has been evolving since the invention of the motion picture. From silent films to 3D extravaganza’s, live orchestra to home theaters, movies have brought audiences together for over 100 years. As we age and look back at the way movies have changed, revisiting old favorites and the stories we loved can be emotional, comical, or even painful. Somethings age well, somethings do not, but age they will along with our perceptions.
Directed by Robert Luketic, Legally Blonde introduced the world to an unexpected hero, Elle Woods. Her pink façade and permanently positive outlook made her an easily underestimated character, but the determined sorority president took that drive all the way to law school and a big box office return. Elle Woods took the blonde character archetype and flipped it, using her knowledge of beauty and fashion to change opinions and win cases.
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, and Jennifer Coolidge, 2001 was ripe with raunchy comedies and simpering romances. Both subgenres were unkind to feminist ideas and brimming with misogyny, but this film gave new light to gender equality and the power of cooperation instead of competition between strong women. Looking back, the glaring lack of diversity, and the problematic privilege of all the characters, aged poorly but for the time, it was radical to question a woman’s place or to give that woman a chance to shine in a male dominated world.
Elle Woods, college senior and sorority leader, is dumped by her boyfriend, Warner, unexpectedly. He tells her he needs to date someone serious while he goes off to law school and Elle is not that woman. She decides to apply to Harvard Law to follow Warner and win him back by showing him she is just as serious as he is. While her application is unorthodox, Elle is accepted and, against the advice of both her parents and friends, heads off to Harvard.
When she arrives, Elle’s pink clothes and accessories make her stand out in the crowd of navy and black. She’s not used to being the odd girl out and doesn’t understand why people are being mean to her. Her outlook stays positive until she realizes that Warner had gotten engaged to another woman, Vivian, Elle’s opposite in every way. They clash in class, when Elle tries to join her study group and at a party on campus. The women are openly hostile to each other, but it is Warner’s condescending words that spur Elle into motion.
She begins to study hard and work harder to prove herself to not only Warner but to her peers and teachers. One of her professors, Callahan, selects Elle to be one of his interns on a murder trial, a huge win for Elle and a surprise to her classmates.
Office dynamics are a nuanced story element. You can tell a lot about a character by what they eat and how. For example, if a character brings in cupcakes for the office, they might be lighthearted and generous. If another character sticks a finger in all the cupcakes, making them inedible, they might be cruel or mean spirited. In Callahan’s law office the team of lawyers eat together in two scenes.
In the first, they are discussing the motive of their alleged murderer. The characters gesture with chopsticks and take out containers, eating as they speculate what might have happened at the scene of the crime. In the room there are 8 people, 5 men and 3 women. Elle is especially vocal in her defense of their client, another sorority sister, Brook. While they eat Callahan goes out of his way to rudely demand Vivian fetch him plum sauce. No please or thank you, just a curt instruction and dismissal in one.
In the second scene, the team is doing research and as Callahan enters, he tells Vivian to fetch him some coffee. He again doesn’t ask, rather demands, and again Vivian does what she’s told. The power dynamic in the room is obvious, with the men being more valued than any of the 3 women but with Vivian being at the very bottom of the totem pole.
Later Elle is in her room when Vivian comes to get documents from her. They commiserate over the helplessness of the men on their team, how Callahan never asks them to get his coffee or do any other demeaning tasks. It becomes a sort of joke which Vivian references again later when Callahan asks to see Elle in his office. The older lawyer and professor makes an inappropriate advance on Elle, his student and intern, which Vivian sees and takes out of context.
Instead of a comrade in arms, Vivian’s perception changes to one of anger and disgust, thinking Elle has been sleeping her way into favor. This man has driven a wedge between the colleagues without ever treating them like valuable members of the team. The very idea of his power, eliminates Elle’s ability to stand up for herself and gives Vivian fuel for her jealousy. Though he believes he holds their futures in his hands, he has made the mistake of underestimating Elle’s drive to succeed and the support system she has created.
Though food isn’t a huge component in this film, the small places where it is featured are impactful. They highlight the hierarchy in the room, the roles of each team member, and the gender bias of the professor. Callahan is the character in the breakroom, sticking his finger in all the cupcakes, ruining things for everyone with his conceit and malice. He treats the women in his circle as second class citizens, errand runners, who don’t rate in his eyes.
In a movie that focuses on the power of women and their independence from stereotypical treatment, using food, a traditionally female aspect, to highlight the misogyny of a male character is subtle but effective. We can see that Callahan is awful but forgive it until he crosses a line that he has highlighted repeatedly by harassing Vivian. When he harasses Elle, Callahan doubles down on the power he thinks he has. What he doesn’t realize is that Elle has her own power and won’t fold or abandon her morals for anyone.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://www.filminquiry.com/legally-blonde-feminist-film-2001/
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
It has all led to this. The Deathly Hallows, the 7th chapter, parts 1 and 2, take the character building from the previous 6 films and put the plot peddle to the floor, racing into the final story arch for Harry Potter and his friends. We know these characters, lived with them, and watched them grow, so the character building that food so often facilitates is not as heavily present in the final acts of Harry’s journey.
I’ve combined the last 2 films for that reason, as they are two parts of a whole and as the meal, I want to talk to talk mainly about is missing, never seen on screen, though heavily implied.
Directed by David Yates, this final adventure sees Harry forgo his final year at Hogwarts and work toward destroying Voldemort’s Horcruxes with the help of Ron and Hermione, and a host of other familiar characters along the way.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Alan Rickman, the wizarding world is reeling from the death of Albus Dumbledore and numerous attacks from Voldemort’s supporters who are rising in numbers and power. After a harrowing aerial battle, Harry and the Order of the Phoenix arrive at the Burrow to begin preparations for Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour’s impending wedding.
In Harry’s 6th year, the Burrow was burned by Death Eaters, and rebuilt. The Weasley family home is a mishmash of pieces built on one another, expanded when needed for more children or guests. It’s a hub for the Order, and for Harry whose own home was never welcoming or warm.
Arriving at the Burrow is usually a joyous occasion, a reunion with friends and found family, but this evening with the deaths of two of the team and the threat of more danger, even joy will have to wait. Harry can’t stand the idea of anyone dying for him, so he decides to leave before any more harm can come to his friends. Ron stops him, ever the faithful companion, reminding him of his other commitments, of his vulnerability.
The ones who did make it back in one piece work together to ready the Burrow for wedding guests, adding protections to keep the festivities safe. They raise a tent and dress in their best robes. They dance and celebrate the love of two of their own.
There is no feast on screen, but the tables are laid and champagne cups sparkle with bubbly. Dessert platters are on every table, piled high with sweets and fruit, and a wedding cake gleams bright white in the lamp light.
This missing meal is still present in spirit. The merriment of the group is a welcome pause from the unrelenting fight these wizards are a part of. Harry says he doesn’t care about the wedding, anyone’s wedding. Nothing is as important as the fight. But even soldiers need a break from fighting and this moment of happiness is one of the last they will all have together.
Harry’s secret for survival isn’t locked in his spell efficiency or his combat skills. His mother’s love was what saved him as an infant from Voldemort. His love for his friends and the love they return to him has kept him safe for all his years at Hogwarts. So, to celebrate love on what could be the eve of the end of the world seems appropriate.
Harry isn’t a Weasley by blood, but he has been taken in by the family and made to feel as a part of a whole, something he never got from his own family. Watching that found family experience a joy so great even in the darkest of times, is a reminder not only of Harry’s own humanity but of the words of Albus Dumbledore himself: “Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
The Ministry falls, and the Death Eaters take control, breaking up the party with fire. The party guests scatter, and the trio disapparate away for safety. The hunt for the remaining Horcruxes has begun.
Over the next many months, Harry, Ron, and Hermione search for any trace of objects that could be important to Voldemort, including the real locket, a golden cup, and the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. After their intense journey all over the British Countryside, from the ministry itself to the Forest of Dean, the Boy who Lived realizes that the solutions to their remaining problems end where they began, at Hogwarts.
They apparate into Hogsmeade Village and set off sensor spells, alerting the Death Eaters of their presence but are hidden by a bar keep who turns out to be Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth. He feeds them, bread and cheese, and while Hermione and Ron eat, Harry focuses on what Aberforth has to say.
At this point in the story, the characters are approaching their final act at a breakneck speed. They don’t have time to eat or even collect their thoughts before Neville and Seamus appear in a portrait via secret passage to help them sneak into Hogwarts.
The meals at Hogwarts were always so extravagant. Course upon course of meats and puddings, surrounded by the other students, talking and studying, living their lives as children. These three are no longer children, they have no time to waste. They can’t sit to eat or drink; they can barely stop moving to sleep.
Gone are the days of leisurely adolescence, now there is only the race to the end, to defeat the dark magic and its dark lord is the most important mission any of them have faced. The future of the wizarding world is in their hands and on their minds, they are the only ones who can save the world.
And they do. With the help and sacrifice of the Order members, the students and friends, the war ends. Harry and Voldemort face off and Harry prevails, his willingness to die becomes the reason for his survival. The love that they celebrated will continue to grow into marriages and families, and most importantly peace.
The meals and foods in the 8-film cannon helped audiences all over the world form lasting bonds with the characters in these stories. Harry is iconic and his journey is legendary, so much so that Universal Studios created a living environment that guests visit in droves to try butterbeer and eat chocolate frogs and be chosen by a wand. The foods we watched these characters eat have become even more recognizable with time and when we experience eating them, we create our own stories to take with us into our personal journeys forward.
That’s a wrap on 2021. I hope you enjoyed this series and will join us in 2022 for even more delectable movie morsels.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry. Happy New Year!
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Voldemort’s attack on the ministry has finally convinced the wizarding world of his return, and now the Death Eaters act without prejudice, terrorizing wizards and muggles alike in the 6th installment of the Harry Potter franchise.
Directed by David Yates, Harry’s 6th year begins with a trip to Knockturn Alley, the darker side of Diagon Alley, where he, Ron, and Hermione witness Draco Malfoy and his mother meet with known Death Eaters and inspect a cabinet. Though Draco is only a student, Harry believes Voldemort has indoctrinated the young Malfoy into his inner circle.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Alan Rickman, Draco and Harry clash on the train to Hogwarts after Harry sneaks into Draco’s cabin, under his invisibility cloak, to try and spy on the Slytherin’s whom he believes are in league with the other Death Eaters. Draco attacks Harry, petrifying him and leaving him on the train.
It’s a rocky start to the new school year, with Horace Slughorn becoming potions master and Snape taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts. Dumbledore warns the students of impending danger, and both Harry and Draco contemplate his words.
Dumbledore calls upon Harry and shows him memories of Tom Riddle, a young Voldemort. At a young age the boy was troubled, but even Dumbledore couldn’t know what he would become. Riddle had a particularly close relationship to Professor Slughorn and Dumbledore believes he possesses some important information, only Harry can obtain.
Elsewhere in the castle, Draco summons the Room of Requirement where a large cabinet is being hidden. This cabinet looks like the one he was previously seen inspecting. He holds a green apple in his hand, but he does not bite it. The apple is placed in the cabinet, and he whispers an incantation. The apple disappears. He whispers again and the apple reappears, this time with a bite taken out of it.
Over Christmas break, Mr. Weasley informs Harry that the cabinet in Knockturn Alley is a vanishing cabinet, used by dark wizards to hide from authorities in Voldemort’s first rise to power. A wizard must merely step into the cabinet, vanish for a few hours, and then return.
This apple, green like the Slytherin banners, is a visual cue to the audience. We’ve spoken before about how apples can indicate many things, from innocence to deviance and in this instance the important thing to notice is the bite itself. Draco doesn’t bite the apple; he considers it and then he uses it as a tool to communicate with whomever has the corresponding vanishing cabinet.
Draco wants so badly to live up to his family’s reputation and succeed at the task Voldemort has laid to him. He is still just a child, a pawn in a game he cannot understand. His unbitten apple demonstrates his need to be involved but also his hesitancy to complete the action demanded of him alone. He has hold of the apple, but he cannot consume it, cannot take the final step to fully accept his place at the right hand of Voldemort.
The bitten apple returns in the cabinet, from those who have already taken that step to dedicate their lives to the dark arts, no matter the cost. They have given into the dark arts, the power, the temptation of becoming the ruling class by fight or force. The biter has already taken the steps that Draco cannot.
The cabinet is a gateway, literally and figuratively. Later this is how the Death Eaters will enter the castle to attack Dumbledore, but it is also how Draco commits to the act of helping these evil wizards. His actions allow them to figure out a way passed the safeguards of the Hogwarts grounds. The apple is a key, the initial thing that can unlock this secret to both Draco and the Death Eaters.
The task Draco has been set to complete is to kill Dumbledore, to eliminate him as a barrier to Voldemort taking control again. When the time comes, just like he does not bite the apple, he cannot complete the task. He fails and his act must be completed by Snape, who had made an unbreakable vow with Draco’s mother. Draco could not take the final step, take the last bite, to become a disciple of Voldemort like his father before him.
The use of the apple to show Draco’s hesitancy is a play on the usual use of the apple. Draco is afraid, he looks more and more ill every time he is on screen. The normal arrogance or disregard shown by apple eaters on screen is replaced with trepidation. The focus normally drawn by an apple is pointed to the wardrobe, the main mystery in the scene. The viewer knows what is happening, but the other characters do not.
Slughorn tells Harry Voldemort’s secret: he has split his soul into 7 Horcruxes, confirming Dumbledore’s suspicions and they go in search of one in a dark cave. The cave is enchanted and at the center of it lies a pedestal filled with dark liquid. Dumbledore knows he must drink this to get to the item at the bottom of the basin. He drinks and it at once consumed by pain. He screams and writhes on the stone floor, and Harry realizes what he must do.
Drink by drink he feeds the liquid to Dumbledore, who chokes on his cries and his pain. The liquid is clear like water, the root of life, but it slowly incapacitates the headmaster until he is almost unconscious from his suffering.
Watching this pair make sacrifices to get even an idea of a leg up on this evil that threatens them makes Draco’s actions seem even more cowardly. Harry follows the orders Dumbledore gives and Dumbledore readily sacrifices himself for the good of the rest of the wizarding world. Defeating the evil that looms ahead is all that matters. Not status or respect, not the legacy of any house or family, just the good of the world at large.
Draco is a coward and his inability to commit to any one side is highlighted by his fragile state. He cannot take the apple offered by the snake, and he cannot refuse it either. Two boys, both instructed to do unspeakable things, one motivated by love and the other by fear, neither truly understanding what they are being asked to do.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
The stakes are getting higher in the 5th installment of the Harry Potter story. Through the audience’s adventures with the boy wizard, most of the story aspects have been focused on the Hogwarts experience and how Harry must deal with internal conflicts that have a small amount of outside influence. In this story, we see Harry’s world expand further into the wizard media, political landscape, and life-threatening danger.
Directed by David Yates, Harry is dealing with the aftermath of the TriWizard tournament where he saw his classmate die and the Dark Lord Voldemort return to his human like form. He is plagued with nightmares and visions of death, and his claims are being actively denied by the Ministry of Magic.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Alan Rickman, the relative safety of both Number 4 Privet Drive and Hogwarts becomes a thing of the past, very quickly in this story. After Harry and Dudley are attacked by rogue Dementors, Harry is brought up on charges of Underage Magic Use and called to appear before the Wizengamot Wizard court to defend himself. The actions of the ministry are thinly veiled attempts to further blacken Harry’s name and though he is cleared of the charges, this sets a tone for the action to come.
One of the members of the Wizengamot, and Undersecretary to Minister Fudge, Dolores Umbridge is appointed Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Her presence at Hogwarts is a clear violation, and indicator that the ministry is interfering at the wizarding school.
Umbridge is a toadlike woman, dressed in head-to-toe pink. Her seemingly passive appearance is overpowered by her extreme views and harsh punishments for anyone who doesn’t follow her ridged rules. On her first day as a professor, she insists Harry is a liar and that his stories are the delusions of an attention seeking teenager. She gets progressively more upset as Harry challenges her, and finally gives him detention.
Her office is pink, of course, and covered in moving images of cats and kittens. She pours a cup of tea and spoons 3 heaps of sugar into the small cup. She is a contradiction, pink and feminine on the outside but consumed with pain and suffering, this helping of sugar won’t melt in her mouth. There is nothing sweet about this woman and it’s clear that nothing good will come from her presence in this story.
In another part of the castle, Fred and George Weasley are turning their pranks into a lucrative business venture. Puking Pastilles, Fever Fudge and Nosebleed Nougat are available to students who want to get out of their classroom commitments. Their candies will make you sick enough to get out of class but not enough to actually make you seriously ill. The candies are just one of Fred and George’s many innovations, but they are the most significant to us.
Candy in this magical world can make you roar like a lion, make smoke come out of your ears and heal your spirit, so inventing a product that can make you sick seems like the next likely step, especially for certified mischief makers like the Weasley Twins.
We are about to go on a journey so stay with me.
Umbridge is in pursuit of order, at any cost, and her sugary sweet exterior makes the pain she inflicts that much more terrifying. No amount of sugar in a bitter tea can make it appealing and no number of pink frocks can make an executioner less deadly. Let’s look back at an earlier episode, about sugar making something less than appealing more easily stomached.
In Mary Poppins, a spoonful of sugar helped the Banks children to take their medicine. They were more willing to do something when the reward was worth the work. Umbridge’s orders can’t be punched up with a little, or a lot, of sugar. She’s a torturer, a willing participant in a fraud campaign, and a xenophobe, she could dump a truck load of sugar in her tea, and it wouldn’t make a single difference because she would still be a fascist.
On the other hand, we have the Weasley’s sugary treats. They added a little magic to their candy and their consumers vomit like fountains. This contradiction is fitting. The sugar coating is supposed to make Umbridge’s decrees seem like ruling action instead of hateful restrictions.
Slowly, the candy shell melts until Umbridge is standing in the forbidden forest screaming slurs at centaurs as they carry her away. In the end, the sugar dissolves and leaves the bitter residue behind. It is all a lie put forward to control the narrative in favor of a ministry with less than good intentions.
The Weasley’s candy boxes are straight forward. This one makes you puke, that one makes your glands swell, there is a candy coating to help the potion be consumed but when eaten, the consumer knows what they are in for. The sickness here is temporary and controlled, while the sickness in Umbridge and the Ministry infects, spreads unchecked through the wizarding world.
When Fred and George decide that they have outgrown their place at Hogwarts and fly to freedom, they directly address Umbridge with a firework dragon who literally tears down all the rules she had created. They’ve decided they won’t be taking the abuse lying down, and no matter how many times Umbridge tries to break them, these Weasley’s are made of stronger stuff. They won’t just take their medicine, sugar or no, they’ll dish some out of their own.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
By now, in the world of Harry Potter, plots to maim and kill our protagonist are not new ideas. This, the 4th film in the franchise, puts Harry in an evil plan that hits home, Hogwarts, no safer place, some might say.
Directed by Mike Newell, Harry’s fourth year starts off with a flourish. The TriWizard Tournament has been reestablished and will take place at Hogwarts. The school of witchcraft and wizardry will play host to two other international schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, and a host of unsavory characters who may or may not be in league with Voldemort.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Alan Rickman, the film starts by sending Harry, Ron, Hermione and all the Weasley’s to the Quidditch World Cup. After the match, a hoard of Deatheaters, supporters of Voldemort, storm the campground, destroying anything in their paths. A dark figure casts the Dark Mark into the sky above, claiming this act of violence in Voldemort’s name.
Once back on safe grounds, the Hogwarts school year begins. Mad Eye Moody, a famed Auror (dark wizard hunter), arrives to take the Defense Against the Dark arts position, vacated last year by Remus Lupin. He has a more aggressive approach to teaching, and on day one shows the class of 4th years the Unforgivable Curses, spells that when performed on another wizard or muggle, are met with life sentences in Azkaban Prison.
Moody is famed for his paranoia and extreme tactics. He has an eye that rotates so he can see even behind him. His constant vigilance is renown. He trusts no one and sees Dark Wizards everywhere he looks. He won’t eat anything he hasn’t prepared himself and drinks only from his own hip flask, filled with a mysterious liquid.
The Champions for each school are chosen in a firey ceremony, Fluer Delacour from Beauxbaton, Victor Krum from Durmstrang, and Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts, but at the last moment a 4th name appears, Harry Potter. Harry is too young to official have put his own name in and he denies any foul play on his part. The cup is a binding magical contract, he has no choice but to compete, and act as bait for whomever might be behind this strange occurrence.
Harry writes to Sirius, who is still on the lam, and is instructed to keep his eye on those who were once involved with Voldemort in his hay day: Durmstrang Headmaster Igor Karkaroff, Ministry official Barty Crouch, even Professor Snape are all on the list of likely suspects.
The first two tasks go well, for life threatening feats of magical daring, sending the champions into a dragon’s den and beneath the water of the Black Lake. Moody is the driving force, pushing Harry to learn more and use his wits to get to the third and final task, all the while gulping from his flask.
The third and final task begins, the champions set out into a magical maze that presents them with even harder challenges. Harry and Cedric make it to the final stage and decide to win together, as they had helped each other along the way. They grab the TriWizard Cup and are transported to a desolate graveyard.
From the shadows, Peter Pettigrew appears holding the infant like body of Voldemort. They kill Cedric and then perform a ritual that returns Voldemort to his human form. The Dark Lord summons his followers and they reappear to witness what they think is the murder of Harry Potter. Harry and Voldemort’s wands connect and, in the haze, Harry escapes.
Harry is inconsolable when he arrives back to the Hogwart’s grounds and in the confusion and commotion, Moody takes him away from the scene. They go to his office where he begins to ask questions, more specific than the information Harry has alluded to. He goes to drink from his flask, but it is empty.
Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall burst into the room and subdue Moody, giving him truth serum. He admits he isn’t the real Moody, the real one is trapped in his own trunk. Snape smells the flask and realizes it contained Polyjuice potion. The spell wears off, and Barty Crouch Jr. appears. He had been pushing the Dark Lord’s agenda all along.
Polyjuice Potion: a concoction brewed over a month that will change the user into whoever’s hair (or other body part i.e. toenails) is added to the mixture. Depending on the skill of the brewer, the spell can last anywhere from 10 minutes to 12 hours. It can change the appearance of the user but cannot change the species. Polyjuice Potion was used in The Chamber of Secrets, brewed by a novice Hermione.
Potions are an important part of the wizarding curriculum at Hogwarts, taught by Professor Snape. Each ingredient is delicate and measured precisely to create each brew. It’s one of the more bodily involved magical disciplines, simply because most potions must be ingested by the user. Relying on Polyjuice potion is hazardous from the start. If one thing goes wrong, the jig is up fast, as Barty Crouch Jr. discovers quickly.
Since the real Mad Eye Moody was well known for his cagey and paranoid actions, it wasn’t hard to keep up the charade. Drinking only from the flask, preparing his own food, no one the wiser because Moody was already suspicious to begin with.
We talked about food patterns in the episode about The Parent Trap. This seems like a strange connection, but in that movie the change in appetite is what ultimately gave Annie away. In this story, Moody being a strict believer in his militant actions and attention to detail made everyone look away from what could have been considered odd. He was already odd, so odder only seemed to be more of the normal.
He ultimately gave himself away, by being overzealous about Voldemort and by forgetting to rebrew his potion in time. Crouch wasn’t as smart as he thought he was, and though the real Moody was just feet away for access, his negligence and evil doings caught up to him.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, the third installment of the Potter franchise took a darker turn, both in tone and color pallet. Though the first 2 films in the series followed the book plots very closely, this chapter was significantly longer and had to be trimmed for time.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, the film sees Harry and the rest of his friends back to Hogwarts as a new threat shadows Harry specifically and introduces Dementors, the soulless ghostly prison guards of Azkaban.
The fugitive Sirius Black has escaped from the wizard prison and is on the run. A supporter of Voldemort, and mass murderer, Black is the first to ever escape Azkaban and the Dementors are hunting him down to administer their fatal kiss, sucking the soul out via the mouth.
After blowing up his aunt and fleeing Number 4 Privet Drive, Harry arrives in London. He, Ron, and Hermione board the Hogwarts Express, ready for a new year at Hogwarts, and discuss the fugitive Sirius Black and his desire to kill Harry for dispatching Voldemort as a baby.
A sudden halt of the train, accompanied by icy breath and feelings of despair, announce the arrival of the Dementors. They are searching for Black, but one enters the Trios compartment and causes Harry to faint. Their compartment mate, Professor R. J. Lupin, springs into action and forces the Dementor out with a Patronus charm.
Dementors: soulless creatures who degrade the human mind, eliminating all happiness and intelligence. They consume emotions and force their victims to relive their most terrible memories.
When the Dementor enters Harry’s cabin, he begins to hear a woman screaming before eventually being overwhelmed by the creature. Harry was present for the murder of his mother, as a baby, and has this horrible memory stored deep in his mind. The dementor affects him worse than his friends because of this, drawing out his despair. Lupin is kind when Harry wakes, and offers him a large helping of chocolate.
I’ve spoken before about chocolate as a morale booster in the ration packs of World War 2 soldiers, but in the wizarding world chocolate is much more than a way to beat the blues. It’s healing properties, and serotonin boosters, are a popular remedy to the effects dementors can have on humans. They even keep it in the hospital wing for dementor based emergencies.
Lupin is the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and his knowledge of remedies and spells against the Dementors help get the beasts off the train but not out of Hogwarts all together. Though they are forbidden from entering the castle, they patrol the grounds still searching for their fugitive.
Harry asks Lupin to teach him how to cast the charm that defeated the Dementor on the train. A Patronus Charm is a defensive spell or projection of the witch or wizard’s positive feelings, often taking the form of a magical creature or guardian. It is one of the most advanced spells in magical history.
While training Harry to produce a Patronus, Lupin uses a Boggart, another magical creature which emulates a person’s greatest fear, to simulate what would happen if a real Dementor was present. Lupin teaches Harry the spell, Expecto Patronum, but as had previously happened, Harry faints again. Even though this Dementor isn’t real, the effects are, and once again to bring Harry back to full strength, Lupin gives him Chocolate.
In the life of a witch or wizard, there are so many strange or nonsensical things. They have their mail delivered by owl, they travel by fireplace, they can turn frogs into teacups, these things are far outside of the realm of human capability. For defeating these Dementors there are 2 commonly used remedies, chocolate or one of the hardest spells known to wizard kind. It only makes sense that something so powerful could be combated by either simplicity or extreme magical powers. In the end, it’s about producing happy feelings to overpower the darkness.
Chocolate acts as a gate way in these stories. Harry receives a chocolate cake from Hagrid on his 11th birthday and discovers chocolate frogs on his first train ride to Hogwarts with Ron. That this sweet is linked to so many happy memories is no coincidence. The chocolate, while acting as a revitalizer, also subconsciously might remind Harry of all these happy moments and firsts in his school life. Bringing those memories to the forefront, after the Dementors have wreaked havoc on his emotions, helps bring Harry back to himself.
For us nonmagical folks, or muggles, chocolate can have this effect on us as well. The increase in serotonin, the hormone that balances mood, caffeine, and other components can increase blood flow and brain activity giving the consumer a sensation of feeling better. That’s why some people eat chocolate when they’re sad or feeling low. Chocolate has even been seen to lower blood pressure and could help fight heart disease. Though eating too much Chocolate isn’t recommended for muggles or wizards alike.
The mood balancing properties of chocolate would directly combat the effect of the dementor. They suck out happiness and chocolate can replenish the base chemical compound that creates happiness in the brain. Whether the chocolate be shaped as a frog, broken off a bar, or baked into a cake the magic behind its helpful qualities is sometimes just science by another name.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
The Second installment in the magical franchise, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets follows our heroes into their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Directed by Chris Colombus, the film franchise and its young stars became sensations. Audiences were eager for more adventures of the boy wizard, and they were not disappointed. Just 1 year after the film debut, a sequel hit theaters and, though a little unbalanced, was a box office hit.
Starring Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, Chamber of Secrets delved deeper in the darker side of magic and what some wizards might be capable of when on a quest for power.
Harry Potter is spending the summer back at Number 4 Privet Drive. The Dursleys, though they have upgraded Harry from cupboard under the stairs to actual bedroom, are still stuck in their old ways, treating Harry like a burden. Mr. Dursley is hosting some colleagues for dinner and, during the dress rehearsal, reminds Harry he is to be unseen and unheard so the guests won’t be affronted by his presence.
Pavlova: a meringue-based dessert, popular in Australia, is made of whipped egg whites that are baked until crisp on the outside and marshmellowy on the inside. Traditionally, the layers are topped with whipped cream and decorated with fruit like kiwi, mango, or strawberry.
Though it is not specifically named as a pavlova, Mrs. Dursley has created a colorful pudding for their guests to enjoy. If you’ve watched any episodes of the Great British Bake Off, you might see why many viewers identify the confection this way. Layered meringue with piped whip cream, colorful frosting, candied cherries for garnish.
Mrs. Dursley is putting the finishing touches on the dessert before it is to be served and she is very proud of her pudding, scolding Dudley when he tries to sneak a taste.
Harry is banished up to his room, but when he gets there a small creature is waiting for him. He introduces himself as Dobby the House Elf, and he has come to warn Harry not to return to Hogwarts. The small elf is clearly distraught and begins to beat himself in the head with a lamp when Harry refuses to stay with the Dursleys. They struggle and Dobby runs from the room, straight into the kitchen.
The Pavlova is sitting on the kitchen counter and with a snap of his fingers, Dobby levitates the pudding over Mr. Dursley’s guests head, where is crashes down in a spectacular mess.
The colorful dessert is a sweet metaphor for the chaos lurking just out of sight, not only in the Dursley’s home but also in Harry’s story. While the layers of the pavlova are simple to create, they are easily destroyed as the egg whites are fragile and prone to cracking. When Dobby destroys Mrs. Dursley’s pudding, he also destroys the façade they had been trying to maintain. Gone was the delicate sugar and cream, leaving behind a melting mess of goo.
The Dursley’s are desperate to be seen as perfect, but the audience knows they are anything but, and to watch the dessert crumble into a mess, makes it even more apparent.
Not only is the Dursley’s life becoming increasingly chaotic, so too is Harry’s. The moment Dobby sets foot in Harry’s life, a chain reaction begins. Starting with the pavlova shattering and compounding with the sinister events taking place at the school, Harry can’t seem to catch a break.
After the dessert fiasco, Harry is relegated to his bedroom and locked in. Bars on the windows and countless locks on the doors, he is now a literal prisoner in his own home instead of just in practice. One night, a flying car appears outside of Harry’s window. In it are Ron, Fred and George Weasley and they’ve come to rescue Harry.
They escape, only just, and fly to The Burrow, the Weasley family home. Mrs. Weasley is furious with her sons, but welcoming and warm to Harry who she greets with a smile. She herds them all to the table, reading them the riot act for sneaking out, but also preparing them a hearty breakfast.
Mrs. Weasley is a mother of 7 children and, though they may drive her insane, she loves them with all her heart. The Weasley’s don’t have much by way of wealth, their home is crowded, their clothes and books second hand, but what they lack in money they make up in support and love for one another.
While Mrs. Dursley is happy to hide Harry away in a cupboard or bedroom, Mrs. Weasley takes him in, and makes him an honorary Weasley. He isn’t a guest at The Burrow, but an 8th child and the lack of love at Number 4 Privet Drive is forgotten.
The pavlova is fragile and served only to those deemed worthy of the honor. Mrs. Dursley is like this with her affection as well. Dudley, her son, is perfect in her eyes though he is a terror to everyone he meets. She sees Harry as a burden, a remnant of the sister she lost and her unusual abilities. She is too preoccupied with appearances to give Harry a home.
Mrs. Weasley’s breakfast is messy and filling, and there is always enough to go around. She feeds the hearts of the children in her care and shows them that acceptance is unconditional in her home. Even Harry, a new friend, is brought into the fold without hesitation. Her patience and maternal instincts overflow onto whomever need her, without stipulation or payment in return.
The juxtaposition of seeing these mothers in back-to-back scenes, paints both characters into clearly defined positions. Mrs. Weasley, the caregiver and protector, and Mrs. Dursley, the elitist and holder of grudges. They are two very different types of mothers, even their work in their respective kitchens are opposites: Isolating versus inviting.
For Harry, having a rough time at home, amplified by the disgust of his own relatives, makes existing a chore. The Dursleys don’t hide their distain and they go out of their way to let Harry know exactly how unwelcome he is. But as soon as he walks through the farm door at The Burrow, he is enveloped in compassion and belonging.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
During the holidays, we all have traditions. From spending endless days cooking, eating our favorite winter treats, or celebrating with family, each is precious. As a fan of movies and storytelling, I often spend my holiday breaks revisiting some movies classics or family favorites. This year is the 20th anniversary of the first of 8 Harry Potter feature presentations, and to celebrate that momentous mile stone and the end of 2021, I thought taking a deep dive into the Potter canon would be a good way to wrap up the first year of Eat the Pictures.
As with all series films feature here, we will start at the beginning. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, based on the book of the same name, brought the Wizarding World to the big screen. Directed by Chris Colombus, the story of the Boy Who Lived was a tale of adventure and coming of age that made audiences fall in love with magic.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Richard Harris, The Sorcerer’s Stone launched the 8-film franchise that would gross over 5 billion dollars, inspire an extended universe of films, and create theme park attractions around the world. Audiences saw themselves in Harry’s World and continue to celebrate the stories long after their release.
Albus Dumbeldore appears on Privet drive, walking from the darkness onto the dimly lit lane. He snuffs out the streetlights and makes his way to number 4. He comes upon a cat, sitting on the garden wall and addresses her by name. Professor McGonagall transforms from her cat form into human form in a flash. She has been waiting.
Something big has happened, a foe defeated, lives lost, and the pair wait in the dark for an in bound visitor. Rubeus Hagrid arrives by flying motor bike, carrying a sleeping baby. Dumbeldore takes the child and leaves him on the step at number 4 with a letter, and hope that the child will thrive.
Harry Potter lives a less than perfect life at Number 4 Privet Drive. His Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon treat him like a servant and his cousin Dudley terrorizes him almost constantly. Living in the cupboard under the stairs, wearing hand-me-down clothes, and cooking meals for his relatives, Harry’s existence seems like a scar on the aggressively normal Dursley home.
One day, Harry begins to receive letters, addressed specifically to his cupboard. Vernon and Petunia refuse to let Harry read this mysterious mail, and the longer they withhold the letters the more letters arrive. On Sunday, a day with no post, Vernon is relieved. Just as they sit for tea, letters begin to pour through the chimney, the windows, the mail slot, 1000’s of letters that fill the house and cause Vernon to snap.
They flee to a house on the sea, somewhere Vernon is sure the mysterious letter writers cannot find them. He is wrong, of course. Hagrid bursts through the door, bearded and enthusiastic, and tells Harry that his entire life is about to change. He is a wizard, one with a strong magical lineage, and has been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
That very night is Harry’s 11th birthday, and though he had never expected anything of his relatives, Hagrid comes with a cake. Pink icing with green letters spelling Happy Birthday Harry. He’s never had a cake before or wanted to celebrate but this stranger, this kind giant, gives him more thought than his family ever had.
Hagrid whisks Harry away, off to Diagon Alley to gather his supplies for school. Harry, who has been used to cast offs and scraps, discovers that his parents had left more than enough for him after their deaths. He can buy new clothes, and books, and even ice cream, a change from the second-hand throw a way’s he grew up getting.
After Harry has all that he needs, Hagrid sees him to Kings Cross train station. His ticket directs him to Platform 9 ¾, a seemingly impossible location. As he wanders, lost, Harry hears a family talking about the platform and Hogwarts. Harry approaches the red-headed mother and asks for help. She shows him how to enter and once aboard the train, her son Ron joins Harry in his compartment. Ron Weasley introduces himself and his rat Scabbers to Harry.
Ron is a little shabby, like Harry is, and they bond immediately. The trolley lady comes to the door and asks if they want anything for the journey. Ron has a wax wrapped parcel from his mother and refuses. Harry, seeing Ron’s dismay and the abundance of sweets, says he’ll take one of everything.
Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate frogs, licorice wands, their spoils piled high, Harry and Ron indulge. The beans, like normal jelly beans come in chocolate and peppermint but also in liver, onions, and occasional booger flavors. The chocolate frogs are enchanted with spells that make them jump. Everything in Harry’s new world seems to present a new and exciting surprise.
I love to write about candy on this show. Sweets of all colors and textures, chocolate and jelly beans, candy can tell so many stories and, in this moment, candy is the ice breaker between two new friends. Harry has spent his life in a cupboard, tending the needs of others, while Ron is one of many siblings, trying to be seen. Their upbringings are so different, but when they meet they have many new things in common.
This is their first trip to Hogwarts. Both Harry and Ron don’t know what is to come or what they can reasonably expect. Harry buys out the sweet cart and while they taste each different candy, Ron tells Harry more about his family. They are building a bond, each in need of someone to rely on in a new situation.
When they arrive at Hogwarts, the castle looms, glowing with candle light. Professor McGonagall welcomes them, and explains the sorting process to the 1st years, each will be placed in one of 4 houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and they go into the Great Hall to be sorted. Harry is sorted into Gryffindor, along with his new friends.
Hogwarts’ Great Hall has tables for each house, and each table is packed with students. They cheer for each new student sorted into their respective houses, and when the ceremony is complete the tables fill with food.
Harry has spent the last 11 years of his life cooking dinner and breakfasts for a family who doesn’t love him. He went without meals as punishment for imagined slights. Now he sits at a banquet, with mountains of food, surrounded by new friends. It’s a big change in scenery for the Boy Who Lived Under the Stairs.
Meals at Hogwarts are where the community builds. The students eat with their house mates, and the other houses. This is the daily meeting place for all the students, and they travel in and out of this hub throughout the day. Though each house has their own common room, the Great Hall unites them as a school despite their differences.
The idea that these children, all away from their families or parents, would need to eat meals in the most communal way gives insight to the way the school is run. Each house is treated like a family with many different members. They live together and learn together, divided by their sorting, but meals are when the group can be at ease. Of course, there are rivalries between the houses and the students individually, but together they make up Hogwarts.
In this first installment, candy acts as an ice breaker. It gives Harry away to make a friend and it introduces the audience to the fine details of the wizarding world. The banquet meals build off of that, giving Harry and Ron more friends to bond with and more chances to experience their diverse classmates across the 4 houses.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Ghostbuster (1984)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Ghostbusters.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Ok, I couldn’t help myself. You’re getting one more spooky film on your feed. Since the latest installment in the Ghostbusters franchise hits theaters later this week, I thought now was the right time to look back at the original 1984 film that started a cultural phenomenon.
Directed by Ivan Reitman, Ghostbusters took the age-old ghost story and gave it a comedy twist courtesy of a script, penned by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The mid-80’s was ripe with iconic horror films and giving a comedic option, with a PG rating, opened the genre up to more audiences, including kids of all ages.
Starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Sigourney Weaver, all at the peak of their careers, the film follows 3 parapsychology professors, Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, on their quest for proof of the paranormal. When a ghost manifest at the New York Public Library, the trio goes to investigate and even though they get solid evidence, they are dismissed from their University positions.
They move into an old fire house, create some nuclear-powered equipment, and open Ghostbusters, a paranormal investigation and elimination service.
Cellist Dana Barrett brings her groceries home and as she puts them away, the eggs, next to a bag of Stay Puft Marshmallows, begin to explode and cook on the counter,. They pop and bubble of their own volition, shocking Dana. A low growling noise comes from the fridge and when she opens it, she looks into another dimension and sees a dog like creature who says one word: Zuul. Venkman takes an immediate interest in Dana, but she is put off by his aggressiveness.
That evening, the Sedgewick Hotel manager calls the Ghostbuster hot line and reports a ghost. The trio sets out to capture the ghost, a green glob who consumes and slimes its way through the hotel. They catch him and contain him in an ecto-containment unit, starting a media frenzy over paranormal sightings. A fourth Ghostbuster is added to the team, Winston Zeddemore, to deal with rising demand.
While teaching Winston about what they do, Egon tells them he is concerned about space in the storage facility and that he predicts the amount of paranormal activity will increase significantly. He compares it to a Twinkie. The current amount is the size of a regular Twinkie but what’s coming would be a 35 ft long, 600-pound pastry, comparably.
Using a relatively well-known snack cake as a visual comparison is smart. This film has a lot of science in it, real and junk, but a Twinkie is something that most audience members would recognize. Using it to demonstrate something that’s unknown gives perspective to a novice, or even a child, who might not fully understand the stakes of what is happening.
After making a date to meet with Venkman, Dana goes home and is possessed by Zuul, by demigod. Down the hall, her neighbor Louis is possessed as well. Venkman arrives to find the possessed Dana. He gives her a sedative to keep her calm and goes to headquarters where Egon has a possessed Louis.
The Environmental Protection Agency arrives and shuts down the storage grid, triggering an explosion that releases all the captures ghosts into New York. The Ghostbusters are arrested and while in prison Ray tells them that Dana’s apartment is the center of a spiritual beacon and might be the epicenter of the apocalypse, built by an acolyte of Gozer the shape shifting God of destruction.
Dana and Louis find each other and open a portal over their apartment building as the mayor releases the Ghostbusters so then can contain whatever is about to happen. They arrive to find that Dana and Louis have summoned Gozer who appears to them as a woman. They try to fight her but she vanishes, and takes the form of the chosen destructor, Ray’s choice, The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. He’s 100 ft tall and marching through New York like Godzilla with a permasmile, as he destroys everything in his path.
They try to roast him, but it’s not enough and he climbs the building while on fire. Egon comes up with a plan and they take aim, blowing up the portal and the marshmallow. Fluff rains from the sky onto the streets but the day has been saved by the Ghostbusters.
The use of product placement in this film is a great way, not only to draw in sponsors, but to make your story relatable even when the topic is other worldly. By using Twinkie and the Fictional Stay Puft as anchors for the story, the viewer can access common points to ground their imagination especially when the story becomes larger than life. We can take easily identifiable objects or characters and turn them into directional arrows for not only the eye but also for the mind, guiding the viewer to the correct assumptions and to understanding imagined concepts. You don’t have to understand the made-up science to know the problem is huge, the giant Twinkie told me so
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Coco (2017)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Coco.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday, celebrating the ancestors, family and friends who have died. It’s a day of joy rather than mourning, remembering the happy memories and stories passed from one generation to the next. Celebrants go to cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed and build altars, or ofrendas, with items that the were important or symbolize the departed.
Directed by Lee Unkrich, Coco takes place on a Día de los Muertos where Miguel, a child who dreams of becoming a musician, travels to the Land of the Dead to search for answers to questions that have haunted his family for decades.
Starring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt and Edward James Olmos, the Rivera family, after their great, great grandfather left to become a musician, outlawed all forms of music from their home. They became shoes makers and passed those traditions on through 3 generations before Miguel was born. He loves music and has taught himself to sing and play guitar in secret.
Miguel’s Abuelita is the matriarch of the family. She cares for, cooks, runs the family business, all while making sure the Rivera’s carry on the family traditions. At dinner she piles Miguel’s plate high with tamales, claiming he is too skinny, a trademark of many abuelas who use food as a physical expression of love.
The Rivera ofrenda is stacked high with photos of their relatives, marigolds, candles and plates of fruit, mole, and other favorite foods. A picture of Mama Imelda, Miguel’s great great grandma, and Coco, Miguel’s great grandma, has been torn to obscure the face of the man who made the Rivera’s hate music. Miguel drops the photo, shattering its frame and revealing the man was holding a guitar, the famous Guitar of famous musician Ernesto De la Cruz.
Miguel desperately wants to be a musician, but his family forbids it, Abuelita even smashes his guitar. He runs, sure that if he just had an instrument, he could be a great musician. He goes to the grave of Ernesto, who he now believes is his great great grandfather and takes his guitar.
This act makes him invisible to the living but able to see and be seen by the dead. He runs into his ancestors, whose pictures are on the ofrenda and they take him to the Land of the Dead to see if they can send him back to the land of the living. While there, Mama Imelda is horrified to know that Miguel loves music and forbids him from playing ever again. It is the only way she will give her blessing and her blessing is the only way to get home. Instead, Miguel sets out to find Ernesto de la Cruz, to get his blessing..
On the way, he meets Hector, an ancestor who has been forgotten by his family. He tells Miguel that he can get him to Ernesto if Miguel promises to put his picture on the ofrenda when he returns home, so Hector can cross over to see his family. Hector is a musician also, but he is a bit of a mess. He died from either choking on a piece of chorizo or getting food poisoning from it and he is the laughingstock of all the other souls he encounters.
In the Land of the Dead, being forgotten is the worst fate there is. When no one in the real world remembers you anymore, you fade to nothing, your memory a whisp of glitter on the wind, the Final Death.
The ofrenda is the center of Miguel’s journey and it is the center of existence for the souls hoping to be remembered by the living.
He finds the photo among the flowers and sugar skulls that sends him searching for answers. For Hector, the ofrenda represents the dream of returning to his family. They are on two converging paths, one away from the past and one returning to it, but it is the same path.
Miguel finds Ernesto, whose home is full of food and gifts from the fans who put his picture on their ofrendas. He is surrounded by admirers and party goers. He invites Miguel to his sunrise show, but Miguel must get back to the land of the living. Before he can go, Hector appears and tells Miguel the truth. Hector wrote the songs, and was the musical genius, and Ernesto had poisoned him to steal his songs.
Instead of sending Miguel with his blessing, Ernesto turns on him and refuses to help, saying his legacy was too important for Miguel to ruin it. He throws him in a cave, where Hector is also trapped. He tells Miguel of his daughter Coco and the song they sang for each other, one that Ernesto had stolen and made famous. Hector is truly Miguel’s great great grandfather and Mama Coco is his daughter.
Their paths to find their true family and their truth have met, Miguel with discovery and Hector with forgiveness. They rejoin the rest of the family and together go to get Hector’s photo back and expose Ernesto as a liar in the process.
Miguel returns to his family and sings Mama Coco her father’s song, Remember Me, and through her haze, she does. She comes back to herself, even for a moment, to tell Miguel and her family about her Papa and the poems he wrote to her.
The memory of Hector and of Coco and the whole Rivera family of ancestors lives on the in the memories of their family and the stories passed onto the next generation. Just as Abuelita wants Miguel to eat more than his fill of tamales, Miguel and the other Riveras will fill the future generations with stories and songs, and the memory of Hector will live on and overflow into future traditions.
Like the ofrenda is piled high with plates of food and marigolds to guide the ancestors home, the stories and songs will guide the next generation so that they can keep the traditions and family memories alive.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Poltergeist
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Poltergeist.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist was almost a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Hooper was more interested in the sinister than the sci-fi, so the story turned towards ghosts and the haunting presence in the Freeling household who makes the family into its captive audience.
Starring JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O’Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein, Diane and Steven and their three children, Dana, Robbie and Carol Anne are living an idyllic life in a southern California community. One night, Carol Anne begins to converse with the post broadcast static on the TV set, and the entity within reaches out to her. Her iconic line “They’re here” sets the tone for the rest of the film.
At breakfast, a meal of cereal and waffles, the kids argue, and a glass of milk breaks seemingly without cause. This small detail is giant piece of foreshadowing. You might recall our episode on Alien, where milk was used to deceive the audience into trusting an untrustworthy character. In this scene, the children are drinking milk, a visual representation of their naïve innocence. The glass shattering is telling of what is to come, specifically in the case of Carol Anne who is actively hearing the “TV People” in the kitchen.
A series of other unexplained events begin, silverware bends, the kitchen chairs move and then stack themselves on the table, and an unseen force begins to pull things and people across the kitchen floor. That night, a large tree outside the children’s window breaks through and grabs hold of Robbie. While the others are busy trying to save the middle Freeling, Carol Anne is sucked into a portal inside of her closet.
The family searches for her in the house and new swimming pool, but she is nowhere to be found. They hear her voice, but can’t see her, and realize the sound is coming from inside the TV.
Sometime later, the Freelings reach out to paranormal investigators to help them get Carol Anne back. The team is shocked to see how strong the presence is in the home but can’t confirm whether the presence is a traditional haunting or a poltergeist. Diane shows the investigators how they use the TV to speak with Carol Anne, and she answers them, call out in fear.
A small portal opens and through it falls a collection of pocket watches and jewelry, all covered in dirt. They hear Carol Anne yelling and Diane feels her presence and smells her on her clothes. A large burst of wind knocks the family off their feet and severs the connection, but one of the investigators is bitten by an unseen presence.
The investigators are baffled, nothing they’ve ever seen before can explain what is happening in the house. Martha, one of the investigators, Robbie, and Diane have a quiet talk about what happens to people when they die, where their souls go and why sometimes people get stuck in between planes.
Marty and Ryan, the other investigators stand watch while the other sleep. Marty goes to the kitchen to makes something to eat. He takes a chicken leg and a steak out of the fridge, biting into the chicken as he searches for a way to prepare the meat. As he watches the steak begins to rot and the chicken crawls with maggots. His face begins to peel off in chucks, and he pulls the pieces off in the sink before jolting back and realizing it was an illusion.
Until this moment, everything eaten on screen has been vegetarian. Cereal, waffles, pickles, and potato salad. When Marty’s face begins to bubble up, it’s a visual cue that meat and flesh are both rotten in this house. The entity is trying to force them out by any means, to rid the rot in the house as you might in an overly full refrigerator.
As Marty returns to the living room, a parade of light orbs comes down the stairs. There is not just one thing living in the house, but a whole cavalcade of beings who are looking to make contact. The next morning, Robbie is sent off to Grandma’s and Steve’s boss arrives to find out why he hasn’t been coming into work.
While they speak about new projects Steve realizes that his home and all the other developments are built on an old cemetery.
Martha returns with Tangina, a medium, and she inspects the home. She tells Diane and Steve that they must follow her instruction. They conduct an experiment to see if they can send tennis balls through the portal and when that works, they send Diane in to get Carol Anne. They both come through the portal, covered in goo but alive.
The house makes one final attempt to take the children and the “Beast”, the evil entity, drags Diane into the dugout pool. The muddy hole filles with coffins and corpses of the graves that occupied the land. More corpses burst from the ground as the family makes their escape.
The corpses that rise from the ground call back to the rotting meat of Marty’s midnight snack. The decay of flesh is interchangeable to the Beast and to the long dead residents of the forgotten cemetery. They want to claim the lives of the Freelings and reclaim their final resting place.
In a movie about beings who don’t have bodies, the use of food to convey the cycle of life and the corruption of human flesh is a fitting comparison. The greed of the developer manifesting in the rotting corpses of the people he disrespected is exact and gives the viewer a concrete consequence to an action that was thought to have no victims.
The rotting meat and the rotting flesh shows how the evil in the house will breakdown any living thing, without prejudice, and amplifies the good in the Freelings who are so determined to bring back Carol Anne and ultimately do the right thing.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Alien
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Alien.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
In a past episode, we spoke about one man surviving on Mars in The Martian, and what he had to sacrifice to stay alive long enough to return to earth. That movie is a thriller, sure, but it’s not as scary as it could have been. Let’s go back to 1979 when the idea of space travel was still relatively new, and the idea of life in the galaxy wasn’t just infinite, but also terrifying.
Directed by Ridley Scott, Alien takes a group of space explorers and offers them up as a captive audience to a mother alien and her legion of unhatched offspring. No one in space can hear you scream, and you just might when you get an eyeful of the powerful Xenomorph in all her glory.
Starring Ian Holm, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt and Sigourney Weaver, the story of the star ship Nostromo launched a franchise that gave the unknown in space sharp teeth and face hugging tentacles. There was no question that these powerful, H. R. Giger designed, creatures would be etched into audience’s brains forever.
The 7-person crew of the Nostromo is awoken from their cryo-sleep and begin to prepare for their return to Earth. The sit at a circular table: Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, Warrant Officer Ripley, Navigator Lambert, Science Officer Ash, and two engineers, Parker and Brett. Tins of cereal, coffee, brown sugar, and milk. The Nostromo is a freight vessel, not a military ship or a pleasure cruise, and the people on board are working their not so typical 9-5 jobs.
The breakfast could live in any workplace: a factory, an oil rig, a break room at a hospital. The act of sharing a meal and the complaints of the job, give the viewer a stark look at this team. They are normal people, who drink their coffee and tea in the morning just like anyone, but they have the extraordinary situation of being in space. The quaintness of the interaction sets up each character for their future role in the story as the camera swings around the table. They joke and pass plates, no idea what is to come.
The ship has a message for Dallas, and as he goes to view it, the rest of the crew take to their stations. It doesn’t take long for them to discover that they are not home, as they believed, but only halfway. The ship woke them because it encountered a distress signal, and the crew is obligated to investigate any intelligent potential distress.
On a shuttle, the crew descends to the surface of a nearby moon but sustains damage from the atmosphere and rocky terrain. While the Engineers work on repairs, Dallas, Kane, and Lambert go out to investigate. Ripley continues to try and translate the distress message, and discovers it contains a warning but cannot get word to the crew exploring the alien world.
The ground crew discover a ship and go aboard. They find a chamber full of egg-shaped pods. Kane touches one and it opens, releasing a creature who breaks Kane’s helmet and latches on to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry him back to the Nostromo and Ash lets them aboard against Ripley’s quarantine order.
They attempt to get the creature off Kane’s face, but it bleeds corrosive acid. It detaches on its own and scampers off to be found dead later. The ship is repaired and Kane wakes with some mild memory loss. Thinking their mission is finished the crew prepares to complete their journey.
Ash has taken samples from the creature and looks at them through his computer console. He doesn’t have any concrete answers, and when Ripley confronts him, he seems agitated by her questions. She leaves him, and as she does, he takes a long drink of milk from a glass.
In the breakfast scene, we can see Ash reach for a pitcher of milk and pour some into his glass. He isn’t seen eating anything else. A glass of milk seems harmless in a standard sense, but in a movie a simple glass of milk can signal to the audience the underlying evil that awaits.
Milk can symbolize innocence, purity, or childlike behavior. We often associate milk with infancy or motherhood, and when that symbolism is flipped, the meaning of the drink becomes a beacon of intention. Often evil characters drink milk on screen, either to give the viewer a false sense of safety or to highlight the dissonance between a character and his actions. We’ll discuss milk as a vehicle in a future episode but highlighting it here, lets the audience in on a secret they may not realize they are being told.
The crew gathers for a final meal before returning to stasis to make the rest of the trip home. Again, they gather at the round table, knights eating before their last quest. As they joke and eat, Kane begins to convulse and soon after a small creature bursts through the wall of his chest. Ash stops the crew from killing it and it darts away into the ship. They jettison Kane’s corpse into space, just in case of any additional creatures have taken root in his body.
They split into teams to search for the creature, but it has grown rapidly and begins to pick the team members off one by one, using the air ducts and its immense speed to ambush them. After Dallas is killed, and they discover the escape pod can only support 3 people, Ripley finds a computer file that tells of Ash’s real mission: to bring the Alien home, no matter the cost of crew life.
He’s a plant, sent in by the Weyland corporation with priorities that are directly opposing to his crewmates. His submissive “I’m just the science officer” act was a smoke screen to disguise his real intent: to bring back a monster.
He attacks Ripley and, in the struggle, Parker takes a swing at him, taking his head clean off. Ash is an android, programmed to preserve the alien creature. Instead of blood, milk leaks out of his open wounds. The milk that he drank so casually to get the viewer to trust him and his so-called expertise. Now the liquid flows out of him, blood and engine oil, as they take him apart.
The rest of the crew is killed until only Ripley is left, and when she discovers the alien on her escape pod, she finally kills it by incinerating it with the ship’s boosters. She goes into statis with the ships cat, unsure of her ends, back on her way to Earth.
The specials things about Alien lie in the characters who inhabit the Nostromo. These working-class people in an otherworldly conflict, must use the skills they have to survive. They are not trained soldiers or superheroes, they’re the space equivalent of long hall truck drivers, and so in their time of need they are ill-equipped to fight back. We can relate to them because they have the space version of a logistics job, normal people thrust into a conflict. They have bonded and joke around and eat cereal together but no matter how hard they try; their survival isn’t guaranteed.
Ash is an exception, and we are clued into his evil plan not only by Ripley’s discovery but also but the context clues of his actions. His milk drinking and rule breaking. He and the Alien feed off the fear of the crew members, Ash letting them go to their deaths and the Xenomorph consuming them like human snack cakes.
Alien was terrifying in 1979 and, even though the tech is dated, it’s still scary today because space is still a mystery waiting to be solved.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/alien-40-ridley-scott-sigourney-weaver
Jaws (1975)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Jaws.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Sasquatch, King Kong, Godzilla, none of these have made as deep an impact as the monster shark who hunted and ate the unwitting citizens of Amity Island. Monster Sharks have made their mark on cinema from Deep Blue Sea to Sharknado but none was as colossal as the fondly named Bruce, nor could they be invoked with just 2 notes on a keyboard.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, the ultimate summer thriller, scaring movie goers and beach dwellers alike the summer of 1975, Jaws was the first true summer blockbuster. The story of a small New England town being ripped apart, sometimes literally, by the specter of a Great White. It’s a timeless story that can exist anywhere and seems to scare just about everyone who watches it.
Starring Roy Schneider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws takes the human characters away from the dinner table and makes them the main course for a predator, so unpredictable, it takes a handful of deaths before the town fully believes it’s real.
A young couple, skinny dipping at night, get separated when the girl enters the water, and the boy passes out ashore. The girl, Christine, is attacked and devoured by a foe just out of sight. Her remains wash ashore the next morning, and what is left is being picked apart by crabs. These tiny ocean creatures are nothing compared to what is yet to come.
Sheriff Brody and his deputy start quick work to close the beach, but are stopped by the mayor and his cohorts, who claim the town will be ruined without the beach crowd. Soon after, a young boy is killed in the water in full view of the beach and his mother puts a bounty out for anyone who can catch and kill the shark.
Matt Hooper, an oceanographer, arrives and examines Christine’s corpse, confirming she was indeed killed by a shark with a very large bite. The local fishermen catch a tiger shark, but Hooper thinks it is much too small to be the shark they are looking for. The mayor, however, declares the beach once again safe, against Hooper’s advice.
The tiger shark is dissected, and in its belly, there are several fish, a tin can, and a license plate, but no human remains. This shark has a slow digestive track and if it had eaten the boy, there would be some evidence of him there.
They decide to venture out into the bay to search with Hooper’s radar and camera. He munches on pretzels, as Brody paces the ship. While Brody is panicking, Hooper is cool as a cucumber. He is used to dealing with not only the sharks but also the open water, where Brody is terrified of both. The pretzel is meant to grab a chuckle in a high-tension moment, but also to show the difference in their views. Hooper concerned but not panicked and Brody terrified but sure he must be overreacting.
They spot a boat, known to Brody to belong to a local fisherman. Hooper jumps into the water to inspect the hull of the boat. He finds a tooth, belonging to a Great White but when he pulls it loose, the head of the boat owner comes with it. This scares Hooper into dropping the tooth, their only proof that the shark still lives.
Humans are at the top of the food chain. We are the natural predators to almost all other living things, even sharks, simply because we have the means and capacity to destroy everything in our path. The exception to this rule would be something like a prehistorically large human gobbling shark. And in Amity it is.
Though the citizens of Amity and the local politicians believe they are safe, an apex predator lurks just below the calm surface of the sea. Hooper describes the shark as an eating machine. It swims and it eats, and nothing can stop it as long as there is food.
The shark attacks again, this time Brody’s young son is almost killed, and it is the jolt Brody needs to force the mayor to take real steps towards catching the shark. He hires Quint, an older sailor, and with Hooper, the trio set out to hunt the Great White.
Brody scoops chum, blood and other fish parts, to create a trail. Sharks can smell blood from miles away, so using chum to attract them is common and practical. It works, and soon they spot their shark. It circles the boat, like a Las Vegas tourist at an all you can eat buffet. Quint shoots and wounds the creature but it’s not enough to stop the shark.
That evening they share scars and stories, these men who might not live to see the morning, giggle like children until Quint tells them the story of his time on the USS Indianapolis in World War 2. The ship was torpedoed and sunk, sending 1,100 men into the water. Sailors were eaten by sharks as they waited for help to come. Only 316 survived.
In World War 2, the largest conflict of men at the time, even then the sharks took their fill of the sailors dropped into their backyard. No matter how hard men fight, in a shark’s ring, there’s not much they can do but survive.
Humans consume, constantly. They break down their environment and each other to get what they need out of their situation and much like these super consumers, the shark is concerned only with his next meal. The forward motion is propelled only by his need to move and eat.
In a film filled with metaphor and symbolism, it’s hard to pull apart what everything, if anything, means. If we take the idea down to the basic root, shark eats people in a small town, we can still look at the way the shark’s hunger drives the film forward. Not only that, but the hunger of the rest of the players, Quint for revenge, Hooper for knowledge, Brody for peace, speeds the story into its final act.
As the shark attacks the boat, driven by its need to feed, Quint risks the lives of his companions to see his revenge come to fruition. The shark pulls the boat farther out to sea, the small vessel taking on water, when he makes his next approach. The engine explodes, and they send Hooper into the water in a shark cage to try and inject the shark with poison.
The cage is like a pinata with Hooper filling, and the shark takes it apart easily. The shark leaps on board and eats Quint, his story about World War 2 coming full circle as he is lost to the sea. As the boat slowly sinks, the shark continues to try and eat Brody, and he uses the animals blind hunger to get the shark to swallow a tank of high-pressure gas. He shoots it and it explodes in the shark’s mouth, finally ending their ordeal.
This is obviously on a little bit of a different vein than our usual fare of dinner table analysis. Looking at the eating habits, both physical and emotional, of the characters in this film demonstrates how the drive to consume without prejudice can lead to violence and death. The shark is a beast, driven by his animalistic needs and the men are driven by their panic and emotions, but both are hungry for something that normal food cannot give them.
Jaws is a piece of cinematic history, still scary to this day. Fear of the unknown in the sea, in ourselves, and in our companions can be terrifying enough without the help of Bruce and his giant teeth.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://crimereads.com/on-the-endless-symbolism-of-jaws-which-owes-its-dark-soul-to-moby-dick/
Suspiria (2018)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Suspiria.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Reimaginings of classic horror films often come with polarizing critical and audience responses. As I have said before, I’m not here to tell you if a film is good or bad, but to explore the way it uses our topic, food. In a world focused on the struggle of power, both within the dance company coven and the global culture post World War 2, it is in the minutia, the melancholy, that we find meaning. Suspiria is a tale of femineity and power, wrapped in a horrifying cult of witchcraft and dance.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, this dark film opens in the violent streets of Berlin. Setting a witchy power struggle deep within a global power struggle, The Cold War, highlights the films focus on conspiracy, hidden truths, and consequences of the past.
Starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Dakota Johnson, Mia Goth and Tilda Swinton (in not one but three roles), the Markos Dance Company has an open space and newcomer Susie Bannion surprises the members with her shockingly impressive audition. She is invited to join the troop and accepts with enthusiasm.
The contemporary style of the company is strenuous, and it seems like not all the girls can handle the pressure, Olga, another student, walking out in tears during Susie’s first rehearsal. Susie steps in to dance the lead, not knowing that her movements are torturing Olga to death in another studio. Susie collapses from the dance, overcome with dizziness.
Later she is brought to the director of the company, Madame Blanc’s, office. They sit opposite each other as Susie explains her Mennonite upbringing to her new mentor. How they broke from the Amish and moved away, just as Susie herself had broken with her upbringing and moved to Berlin.
They eat chicken with their fingers as they speak, the noise of chewing and mouth movement dominate the sound design. Susie picks pieces of meat off her plate, but Blanc eats the chicken wing without shame. She waves the wing around, gesturing with the bone as she interrogates Susie about her journey.
The conversation, both with the chicken and without, breaks Susie’s wall down. She becomes comfortable with her new mentor, and they speak openly about the dance and the company drama.
There is something inherently laid back about a chicken wing. These people are part of a high concept dance crew, and supernatural hierarchy, but they still eat wings with their fingers. The familiarity there pulls Susie deeper into the scheme, even though she is still ignorant of Blanc’s motives.
This film is set in 1977, and in 1977 Buffalo New York’s mayor proclaimed July 29thBuffalo Wing Day. It might be a coincidence, but the wings are so quintessentially of the time. In the 70’s Germany was still divided and still suffering the consequences of the war. There were food shortages and inflation which made lesser cuts of meat more appealing, like the wings. Wings were often used to make stock, not to eat alone. They made do with what was available.
Sharing a meal with a mentor can be a triumph for someone new to any field, and Susie is no exception. She watches Blanc eat, messy and mesmerizing. She is an untouchable deity, who has come to earth to help Susie with herself confidence and shows a calculated image to Susie of a woman who is free to be messy. It’s all an act.
Susie opens to Blanc and begins to experience otherworldly feelings and presence when she dances the protagonist role in the movement. As she becomes more involved, her connection to the real-world breaks. Blanc discovers a true fondness for Susie, an unexpected outcome, and cares for her, trying to protect her until the very end.
In the final act, the dance is preformed, hypnotizingly, and the ritual the coven has been planning begins. The group dines at a café, the generosity of the company lulls the girls into a false sense of security, and they toast each other, indulging in wine. Blanc and Susie sit at opposite ends of the table but neither eat.
They both know what is to come, and the other students are put into a trace to prepare for the final rituals.
We have seen the company teachers and elders eat together more than once, at a large table in the kitchen area of the school. They smoke and drink coffee and talk about the inner workings of the school and the coven, but here they join the students who will unknowingly be involved in their ceremony. There is no politics, only the buoyancy of a successful performance celebrated with singing that sends the girls into a trance.
During the final ritual, Susie reveals herself to be one of the Three Mothers, the deities the coven worships. She summons Death who cleanses the coven, killing all those who are corrupt but saving the unaware students. She cleanses the coven of the Markos supporters and brings balance back before leaving to an unknown fate.
The use of food in this film is fleeting but poignant. The chicken wing is a messy offering to an unbothered mother figure who has been tormenting her children for years. She wields the bone like a wand, putting Susie under her spell, bringing her willingly into the fray. She doesn’t know that Susie has a bigger part to play in this, but her willingness to become grounded to welcome her in will be her saving grace in the end.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tilda-swinton-suspiria-chicken-wing_n_5bdca12ee4b04367a87c7f10
Pan's Labyrinth
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Pan’s Labyrinth.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Halloween can be a time of scary monsters and sickly sweets but in some stories the monsters are just men with the worst intentions.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth is a monster movie wrapped in a fairytale. Taking place during the Francoist period, Ofelia lives in a nightmare, dictated by her cruel new stepfather and his fascist leadership. She discovers a fairytale world just steps away from her new life and sets out on an adventure to rejoin the world of her true people.
Starring Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ivana Baquero and Doug Jones, the story starts with a retelling of the Princess Moanna whose father is king of the Underworld. She travels to the human world and while there, loses her memories and forgets who she is. She becomes mortal and dies, but the king believes she will return one day and creates a labyrinth in preparation for her return.
Ofelia and her mother are going to live with her mother’s new husband, Captain Vidal. In the woods around the house, Ofelia discovers a labyrinth, and inside of it she meets a Faun. He believes she is Princess Moanna, reincarnated and gives her a book with instructions for 3 tasks she must complete to return to her kingdom.
Her first task is to retrieve a golden key from a toad who is preventing the tree it hides in to grow. She must feed the toad 3 magic stones to retrieve the key and help the tree to flourish. At the same time, the captain has taken the key to the storeroom, to prevent rebels from stealing supplies or being aided by household staff.
At a dinner party, the captain entertains his guests will rich foods and drink. His cruelty to Ofelia’s mother is blatant. He feasts while the people outside of his compound are hunted and killed like animals. He rations the people under his care, spewing fascist propaganda to scare the people into submission.
The faun sends Ofelia onto the second task with 3 fairy guides. He tells her she will see a grand feast, but she must not eat or drink anything, her life depends on it. She traces a door into her bedroom wall and, when it opens, enters a long hallway. She finds the table, set with food and drink, maned by a pale created with no eyes. She follows the fairies to retrieve the dagger, but as she leaves, she takes 2 grapes from the table.
The Pale Man awakens and chases Ofelia, devouring 2 of the fairies. She escapes his clutches but just barely.
The grapes that Ofelia chooses are two small items in a table full of fruits and vegetables, all with a red palate. Blood Red is an important color throughout the film, as a literal and figurative idea. When Ofelia’s mother almost loses the baby, she is covered in blood. To help her mother, Ofelia feeds her own blood to a Mandrake who will keep her healthy. Captain Vidal is conducting his own ethnic cleansing in Spain, and murders rebels based on their heritage.
Ofelia eating red fruit, an image reminiscent of Eve in garden of Eden eating an apple, symbolizes her inability to resist temptation whether she is aware of what she is doing or not. By giving into the impulse here she loses the faun’s trust, but she also gains some much-needed self-awareness. Her fear in the moment, and the faun’s refusal to give her the third task, make Ofelia understand that her actions have consequences, and she must face them.
The captain’s early banquet is similar to the Pale Man’s in that the villain sits at the head of the table and the guests who dine at this table are lost to the world, eaten by the Pale Man or consumed by the hate and terror of the Francoists. Like the Pale Man devours those who eat from his table, the captain controls the fate of his guests and his prisoners.
The faun refuses to give Ofelia the final task, and her mother dies while giving birth. Mercedes, the housekeeper, tries to flee with Ofelia but they are captured, and Ofelia is locked in her room. Mercedes escapes into the woods.
The faun returns to Ofelia, having reconsidered, and gives her one last chance. She must fetch her brother and bring him to the labyrinth. She drugs the captain and takes the baby, but he follows her into the forest.
The faun asks her to take a drop of her brother’s blood to open the gate to the Underworld, but she refuses, and Vidal shoots her after taking the baby. She lies bleeding, the red running down to an altar, when a warm light announces the arrival of the king and queen. Ofelia joins them, proven worthy by her sacrifice, and dies in Mercedes arms.
The symbolism in this film both in food and color, have a deep impact in the story. Greed, wrath, power all symbolized by the color red in a movie overwhelmingly robed in dark hues, carries onto the wine drunk by the captain in his seat of power and the grapes taken from the Pale Man’s table. Ofelia is a child who has lost her innocence, and must make choices, sacrifices, most adults would cower at.
By taking the Grapes she becomes mortal, fallible, and in that moment, able to sacrifice herself for the sake of someone who is new to this world, and pure at heart.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
http://moviesyoucaneat.blogspot.com/2009/03/pans-labyrinth.html
https://mealenscene.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/pans-labyrinth-2006-grapes-innocence/
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=jrf
Snow White and Seven Dwarfs
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
When you think of food-based storytelling, what first comes to mind? The razor thin garlic from the Godfather? The chocolate from Willy Wonka? We’ve discussed so many movie foods here on Eat the Pictures but when I think of an iconic food on film, the first thing that comes to my mind is the Poisoned Apple.
Walt Disney Productions first feature length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs started a legacy, not only of animated classics for the Disney Studios but also a long and recognizable history of apples on the silver screen.
Directed by a team of animators at Walt Disney Animation and produced by Walt Disney himself, Snow White originated in Germany, published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm.
The story of a young girl, Snow White, a perceived threat to the queen, is taken to the forest by a Huntsman who has been instructed to kill her, after the Magic Mirror tells the queen Snow White is the fairest of them all.
The jealousy of the queen, her stepmother, drives her to call for Snow White’s heart to be brought to her in a jeweled box. The Huntsman is so moved by Snow White and her innocence, he refuses to carry out the evil act and encourages her to run, bringing a stag heart to the queen instead.
While in the forest, Snow White encounters a host of woodland creatures who take her to the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs. They live in a mess with no one to care for them, so she tidies their cabin, cooking and cleaning up after the 7 little miners: Doc, Sleepy. Dopey, Bashful, Sneezy, Grumpy and Happy.
When the dwarfs arrive home to a clean table and washed dishes, they are suspicious. Grumpy even suspects the food on the fire might be poison, foreshadowing taking food from strange origins as a risky move. They find Snow White asleep in their tiny beds and, once they figure out she isn’t a fire breathing monster, they invite her to stay.
One day while the dwarfs are away at the mine, an old hag, the queen in disguise, visits the cottage. The Magic Mirror has informed her Snow White still lives, and she cannot allow that to continue. She offers Snow White a basket of shining red apples, that she has poisoned with a spell of “sleeping death”.
There is something deliciously dangerous about the poisoned apple. Eve and Adam eating forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. Captain Jack Sparrow taking a bite out of a granny smith to taunt his undead rival. Indiana Jones casually snacking as his arrogance shines through in Temple of Doom. All these instances can be tied to the power of the image of an apple.
Eating an apple is such a simple action but on screen it becomes a neon sign above the head of the character consuming the fruit. This person is villainous, arrogant, unaffected. They take something so basic and turn it into a waving red flag: look here, something fishy is going on with this guy, definitely maybe don’t look away.
The blatant eating of the fruit that led to the downfall of man, demonstrates the disregard the character has for both the people around them and for the audience by drawing out the time and focusing on something outside of moving the story forward. But, when this fruit is handed to an unsuspecting victim, the physical embodiment of the Evil Queen’s hate and violence, the apple becomes not a distraction but the intense focus of her anger and Snow White’s naivety.
Snow is the fairest of them all, and her life is spared because she is so innocent. Even though she’s literally just escaped eminent doom, she is still trusting of not only the 7 dwarfs but also of this, old peddler, a complete stranger. She’s just a child, and her instincts are not in tune with the reality that not everyone has good intentions. Even though she feeds and cares for her new friends, this peddler takes advantage of her kindness, counting on her good heart to blind her to the evil surrounding her.
Just like the snakes tempted Eve in the garden with promises and half-truths, the Evil Queen convinces Snow White the apple will grant her greatest wish, to find her true love. She takes a bite and falls into an enchanted sleep.
The apple in this story has a dual purpose. It serves as the Queen’s tool, the vehicle for her evil plan to take place. A visual cue taken from one of the oldest stories known to man, the blood red fruit gives the audience a recognizable key to unlock the anger of the Evil Queen and her jealousy. The apple also symbolizes the innocence of Snow White herself, as wholesome as the apple pies she might have made. When Snow White bites the apple her mortal state is corrupted by both the fruit itself, and its curse, but also by the willingness of this mother figure to sacrifice an innocent for her own personal gain.
An apple alone is just that, an apple. But when the fruit is endowed with magical powers or intense emotion, it becomes the perfect vehicle to help tell a story. It can be arrogant, evil, innocent, because it is a blank canvas for a storyteller to write their tale. The true power of a poisoned apple comes not from the poison itself, but from the motivation and influence of its creator.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/apples-in-movies
https://screenrant.com/movie-villains-eating-applies-reason-why/
Practical Magic
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Practical Magic.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Witches. A moment in history burdened by the fear of the unknown, and of the independent woman, and a trope that gave birth to some of the most beloved characters in fictional canon: Glinda the good witch of Oz, Morgana of Arthurian legend, Hermione Granger, Winnifred Sanderson. All these witches have one thing in common, they are powerful, magic wielding women.
Directed by Griffin Dunne, Practical Magic is planted firmly in the New England tradition of witches being feared by their neighbors, and the sisterhood of misunderstood or untraditional women as they try to find a place to belong. This film has been called the Thelma and Louise of Witch movies and though no one rides off a cliff at the end, the themes of strong and unapologetic women drive both through their respective conflicts.
Starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Diane Wiest, and Stockard Channing, the Owens family is a long line of witches, dating back to a time when witches were hung for their perceived crimes. Their ancestor Maria cast a spell on herself that turned into a curse on any man who loved an Owens woman. He would be doomed to die.
Sally and Gillian Owens come to live with their aunts Jet and Francis after the tragic deaths of their father, a victim of the Owens curse, and their mother, who died of a broken heart. The girls are gifted witches but are isolated from their peers, who believe the rumors about their family. One evening the girls witness their aunts casting a love spell for a woman who is obsessed with the object of her affections. Gillian can’t wait to experience love, while Sally casts a spell, about a true love who doesn’t exist, so that she will never experience the desperation of love.
Later, Gillian runs off to Los Angeles to pursue love and Sally falls under a love spell cast by the aunts. She marries and has two daughters, and truly loves her husband, but the curse comes for him, and he is killed, sending Sally into a deep depression. She moves back in with the aunts, vowing her daughters will never do magic.
The Aunts are the physical embodiment of safety and escape in a world that holds Owen’s women hostage to their own feelings. They eat brownies for breakfast and dance naked in the moonlight, a departure from the “must fit in” or “must be normal” ideology of the modern world. Brownies for breakfast is so simple, but it sums up the aunts in 3 words. The rules in the aunt’s house are not the same as the real world. They can have treats whenever they want because they hold themselves to a different measure of morality.
Brownies are safe here, there is no guilt in this house based in consumption of sugar or indulgence. Their rules are simpler. Do not bring people back from the dead. Be careful what you wish for.
Gillian gets involved with Jimmy Angelo and when he abuses her, she calls Sally for help. They try to escape but Jimmy takes them hostage until he is accidentally killed when Sally drugs his tequila with belladonna. The sisters perform a spell to reanimate him, but he again tries to kill Gillian and they subdue him permanently, before burying him in the garden.
One night, the girls wake to the sound of a blender and join the aunts in the kitchen for midnight margaritas. Though we don’t see another of these nights, their excitement indicated this is a cherished late-night ritual, and they join the aunts in their celebrations. It’s only when the aunts begin to sing the same song Jimmy Angelo was singing before his death that they realize something is amiss.
The tequila is Jimmy’s brand, and they smash it in the sink, but the aunt’s demand the sisters come clean. They admit what happened with Jimmy and how they handled the problem, but the aunts are disappointed and leave the girls to clean up their own mess.
An investigator, Gary Hallet, arrives and begins to question the sisters on their where abouts, what they know about Jimmy and why Jimmy’s car is in their driveway. He is suspicious of their story and Sally’s erratic behavior. He joins them for breakfast, where Gillian intends to send him away with a potion in some syrup but as he helps prepare the meal, he flips a pancake in the air, catching it smoothly.
The spell that young Sally cast in the beginning of the film had elements of a man who could not possibly exist: one blue eye and one green, rides a horse backwards, can flip a pancake in the air. Antonia and Kylie, Sally’s daughters, had read the spell in an old journal and realize Gary is the man their mother had conjured all those years ago.
These women have a magic that is powerful enough to bring people back from the dead and make men fall in desperate love, but to a child sometimes nothing is more magical than watching a perfect pancake flip effortlessly through the air. That awe was what made Sally add it to her list as a girl. No man could do all those things AND flip a pancake too. But just like their magic can stir a teacup and banish a possessed soul, it brought Gary to Sally’s doorstep.
That pancake flip sets the story down a different path. One where instead of banishing their nosy foe, they invite him into their inner circle.
In the end, after demons are vanquished and their names are cleared, the love that bloomed from a spell cast by an innocent mind is what unites Gary and Sally. Yes, these women have secrets and power but the simplest things, the color of a man’s eyes, the shape of his badge, the pancake that he catches are the little quirks that seem magical to the young mind. Those unfathomable points that seem like magic end up being the anchor in a story surrounded by magic.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Twilight
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Twilight.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Welcome to Spooky season! We’ll be looking at some silly, scary spectacles for the next 8 weeks leading up to Halloween! Some of these films are classics, some are infamous, and a few are just good fun, but all of them have the classic Halloween elements we know and love: Monsters, frights, and some deliciously gruesome movie meals. We’re starting off with something light and fun, vampires!
Directed by Catherine Hardwick, the story of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen isn’t the typical vampire tale but since its debut in book form in 2005, and film form in 2008, it’s become an obsession for millennials and gave the girl power box office an unexpected boost into 2010’s.
Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke and Gil Birmingham, Twilight follows Bella from Arizona to Forks, Washington where her father, Charlie, is the local police chief. She slowly adjusts to her new life, but becomes enthralled with a local family, the Cullen’s, and their supernaturally beautiful foster children. Edward, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmet are a mystery to even the other Forks High students.
After her first day at school, Bella and Charlie visit the local diner for dinner. The waitress knows Charlie’s order from memory and remembers Bella from her past visits as a small child. The atmosphere is welcoming as the locals try to connect with Bella and make her feel at home. Charlie is well loved in Forks, and has his routines, Steak for dinner, cobbler on Thursday, that seem to be unchanged in the decade since Bella lived here. Forks is a sleepy place, but its citizens have built a tight community.
It should be noted at this point that Bella is a vegetarian. She orders a Garden Burger at the diner, opposed to the steak Charlie orders, and though the audience may not know it yet, this is a clue for what is to come.
Over the next few days, and a few strange incidents of super strength and speed, Bella comes to believe Edward and his family have a big secret. They’re vampires.
Vampires in literature have been symbols for many things from otherness and racism to sexual oppression and virtue. The idea of one life form sucking the blood, the proverbial life source, from another has been used since Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897. The Vampire origin was about being free from societal restrictions, living in the world on their own terms, defying gender roles and religious expectations.
Drinking blood from the source can be about taking power from victim, retaining a semblance of life after death, or even simply about sex, but the vampires in this story are different. The Cullen’s are “vegetarian vampires”, in that they don’t consume human blood. The militant vegans of the vampire sect, they have refused to participate in traditional vampire culture and have vowed to do no harm, by feeding on animals in the wooded area surrounding Forks.
Just as Bella abstains from eating meat, the Cullen’s abstain from drinking human blood, they are humanized by their ability to determine right from wrong and by their strong moral codes. Just as Bella feels like an outsider in her new home, the Cullen’s are outsiders in the vampire world and the human one, never really adapting into the society outside of their family bubble.
This updated version of the vampire has become more prevalent in modern media, adapting the original tale of otherness as a blood sucking villain into otherness as a sympathetic protagonist who is taking on two worlds, vampire and human. Bella trusts that Edward, who describes her blood as his own personal heroine, will do the right thing and not harm her. It’s inherently backwards and typical of a romantic entanglement that defies logic.
When Bella meets the full Cullen family for the first time, they are cooking for her. Chopping veg and making Italian food from a chef on TV’s recipe, they are excited to meet Edward’s new friend. When Edward tells them Bella has already eaten, considering for the fact that they do not eat, Rosalie shatters a bowl in frustration. It’s clear not all the Cullen’s are relaxed about Bella’s presence.
While Edward and Bella have been falling in love, another Vampire coven has been killing citizens of Forks for food. These Vampires are the more traditional nomadic, blood sucking kind. They don’t have the same values or moral compass that the Cullen’s follow and, as Bella had joked to the Cullen’s, they are ready to make Bella their meal.
Having the “villains” of this story be the same at the technical heroes, puts the blood sucking of it all into a black and white perspective. Cullen’s are good, they don’t drink human blood, while James, Laurent, and Victoria are evil and do. When Bella must be removed from Forks for her safety, she echoes this idea in a different way.
While trying to leave Charlie, for his safety, Bella uses the most hurtful thing in her arsenal, tradition. She tells Charlie he is stuck in Forks, in his routine: steak and cobbler, and she must get away from him to avoid the prison of her own making, like her mother once did. Bella rejecting traditional, specifically referencing food in the moment, subconsciously bucks the traditional eating style of the non-Cullen vampires.
The traditional lifestyle will be the downfall of these vampires, who drink from humans without prejudice. They target Bella, and in doing so, guarantee their deaths as Edward will do whatever it takes to protect her.
From Dracula to Edward, the perception of vampires has changed drastically. Otherness was a perversion that manifested in behaviors that would disgust and enthrall readers in Bram Stoker’s novel. These readers were looking for a villain to kill who embodied the fears of the age. Edward is the antithesis of this idea. Bella is the embodiment of female autonomy at the start of the millennium, though her power is boiled down to a simple love story. Where Dracula fed on the fear of his victims, Edward feeds on the knowledge of his own virtue. His will power makes him worthy of Bella’s affection and her fearlessness makes her an equal match for his supernatural existence.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
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Uncorked
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Uncorked.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
I tend not to write about alcohol as a vehicle, as I think it’s a different species of story aide. Alcohol can add influence on characters, make them unsympathetic, or take away their inherent ability to makes choices. Occasionally however, there are films that take the stereotypes of alcohol and turn them on their heads, or corks if we’re being cute.
Directed by Prentice Penny, Uncorked takes the story of the young American dreamer and plants him firmly in the gap between tradition and progress.
Starring Mamoudou Athie, Courtney B. Vance, Niecy Nash and Matt McGorry, in the opening credits scene the audience is shown the two sides of this story. The inner workings of a Barbeque kitchen, from cleaning the meat to starting the grill and making sauces. This is juxtaposed with the making of wine, from picking grapes to laboratory work to bottling and aging.
Elijah is the son of a Memphis barbeque restaurant owner, Louis, who expects him to take over the family business. The restaurant makes ribs and other soul food specialties, and though Elijah loves his family he is preoccupied with finding his own path.
His second job is at a wine shop working with Raylan, his Sommelier boss. He is passionate about learning about wine and dreams of becoming a master Sommelier. Though his family, especially his dad, is against him following this path, his girlfriend Tanya encourages him to go for it.
Louis surprises Elijah by presenting him with a second restaurant location, and Elijah refuses him, telling him he got into Sommelier school. The exchange is tense, almost suffocating, as Elijah searches for approval that doesn’t come.
Elijah sees wine as his escape. He’s never strayed far from Memphis and drinking wine from all over the world is like traveling to those places without leaving home. His family is tight knit, working together and sharing meals, everyone in each other’s business. The small reprieve he gets at the wine store and inside a wine bottle, give him hope for something great.
Elijah’s mother, Sylvia, tries to be supportive, encouraging him to tell them about what he’s learned and working to keep his focus. At dinner with his family, Louis tries to undercut the hard work Elijah has been doing but instead of lashing out Elijah takes the comments in stride. He says he compares wine to barbeque; some places just do somethings right: Memphis and Ribs, Provence and Rose. Even as he works to remove himself from the fold, he still comes back to barbeque as it’s what he knows best despite his need to venture out.
Elijah gets accepted into his school’s exchange program and decides to go to Paris, against his father’s wishes but at the encouragement of his mother and Tanya. Before he leaves, he and Louis fight.
Louis thinks the wine is a statement about how Elijah thinks he is better than his family. Elijah sees the barbeque as a quicksand pit his father is stuck in. They have butted heads since Elijah started school but it comes to head with this fight and he leaves without reconciling.
In France, Elijah ends up back in the cycle of working at a restaurant serving shawarma. There seems to be no reprieve for him from the food industry. He needs money and won’t ask his parents, specifically Louis. When he finds out Sheila’s cancer has returned, he wants to come home, but she tells Elijah he needs to continue with his schooling. There’s nothing he can do for her.
When Sheila passes away, Elijah returns home. At the wake, the table is laid with all the things Sheila’s children think she might have wanted: Ham, monkey bread, things she would have made if she was there. Elijah went to France to chase a dream, away from the restaurant, but it’s the food his mother loved that comfort him now that she is gone.
He struggles with his studies, every small thing reminds him of his mother, and he cries while assessing a red wine. The crimson color reminds him of Sheila’s style, the smell of smoke reminds him of the barbeque, the bold taste of her struggles. He ends up at the new location Louis is about to open, offering his father his help, desperate to connect but he is refused.
Louis arrives to the old location, to find Elijah already there, starting the fire for the grills. They have companionable silence as they work, and Elijah offers to take on more responsibilities to help. He is struggling, his father is struggling, neither of them can ask the other for help.
Elijah makes the choice to withdraw from school, even though he will have to start over if he wants to return. He starts working fulltime with his father again but even Louis can see he loves the art of wine. They begin to study in earnest for the Sommelier test, taping note cards around the kitchen.
As they work to open the new restaurant, Elijah works on pairing the cuisine with wines, and studies with Raylan in the evenings. Louis who was so against the wine in the beginning, even sits with Elijah as he tastes and sips, throwing him curve balls when he can.
On the eve of the test, Louis gives Elijah his grandfather’s suit. A gesture that means more now, that Sheila is no longer there to mediate their conflict. We don’t see him take the exam, but his anxiety is palpable. Louis surprises him at his hotel, he knows that’s what Sheila would have done, and with him he brings wine, dominos, and the comfort of family company.
Elijah fails.
Returning to his routines, working in the restaurant and at the wine shop, is a disappointment. He is heartbroken, but when he sees an old classmate, who passed the test, he finds a new motivation and reenrolls in school.
The work in this film to show the similarities between two very different culinary arts, is impressive. If you asked me what Barbeque and wine had in common, I would have said nothing before watching this, but as the film progresses the audience is shown that no matter what the art is, the practice and dedication to the craft is the most important part of the journey towards success.
Elijah wants to break free from his family obligations at the restaurant but the things he had already learned there, taste, texture, hard work, are the things that ultimately will help him achieve his goal of passing the Sommelier’s exam.
We might try to distance ourselves from tradition, to forge our own path, but the foundations laid by our parents or teachers can be the springboard towards success in any chosen field. Barbeque or wine, in Elijah’s case, are just two sides of the swame coin. He is the one who decides his own path.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Alice in Wonderland
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Alice in Wonderland.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll and told the story of a young girl who falls through a rabbit hole and enters a world of imagination and fantasy. A version of this story was released as an animated film in 1951 by Walt Disney Animation, and is regarded as the most beloved adaption of the story. A live action version of this story was released in 2010, and it continued the story of Alice for movie audiences.
Directed by Tim Burton, this variant of the Alice story told of Alice’s return to Wonderland later in her life. She is haunted by dreams of rabbits in waist coats but cannot remember her original trip down the rabbit hole.
Starring Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway and Johnny Depp, Alice once again falls down the rabbit hole and ends up in a room filled with doors. In the room is a table and on it, a key, and a bottle that has a tag reading “Drink me”. The key opens the smallest door.
Alice takes a drink from the bottle and shrinks to a size small enough to fit through the door, but she left the key on the table that she now cannot reach. On the floor she finds a small box with a cake in it, reading “Eat me”. She takes a small bite of the cake and grows big enough to fill the room.
The drink and cake are demonstrative of Alice’s curiosity. She doesn’t know exactly what will happen when she drinks or eats these items but the knowledge, or action, they might impart is a greater reward than risk. She at this point has no idea what is happening to her and so she has nothing to lose, only more to gain.
She drinks from the bottle again once she has retrieved the key from the table and ventures through the door. Alice, as a character, is always questioning her surroundings. She wants to know how or why, and that need drives her to do things that seem against common sense. She drinks from a mysterious bottle and eats a mysterious cake, something that strictly goes against the “don’t take candy from strangers” mind set.
Because her willingness to takes risks and her need to discover more drive her decisions, Alice has no reservations when presented with these mysteries. She cannot stay where she is, and so she must eat or drink to continue her journey. For Alice, the risk of remaining dormant is greater than the risk of ingesting something foreign.
This is true in Alice’s real life as well. She would chose the unknown over stagnation, because the risk of being stuck is far worse than anything new adventure might bring,
After a brush with the Bandersnatch, Alice meets the Cheshire Cat who brings her to the Mad Hatter’s tea party. To hide her from the knave, the hatter makes her drink from a bottle, and she shrinks to fit into a tea pot. Hatter takes her to the White Queen, telling Alice the story of how the Red Queen attacked the people of Underland, killing his wife and child.
On the way, the Hatter is taken prisoner and Alice decides she must rescue him. Still small, she rides of the back of Bayard the Bloodhound who takes her to the Red Queen’s palace.
Alice arrives to find a game of croquet in full swing, and the White Rabbit finds her in the tall grass. He gives her a cake and when she eats it, she grows taller, so tall that she towers over the garden and the queen.
The Upelkuchen, a cake that makes you grow depending on how much you eat, gives Alice a way into the castle. She eats enough to grow enormous and uses her size to gain the trust of the Queen whose own head is gigantic. She is brought into the palace, clothed, and sat beside the queen. Her quick thinking to eat more of the cake gives her the upper hand.
“Why are you always too big or too small?” The hatter asks Alice. This question sums up Alice entirely. She is too big for the real world, too small for Underland, she doesn’t fit in anywhere anymore. Nothing she eats or drinks can fix her size problem because it is an internal crisis, a crisis of confidence.
When she arrives to the White Queens castle, she is given an antidote and shrinks down to the right size. Here she learns of her new quest, she must be the one to slay the Jabberwocky. Each of the subjects volunteer, but Alice is only choice. At first, she flees, but she speaks to the Caterpillar, and he helps her regain the memories of her childhood journey to Wonderland. The rediscovered memories help Alice make the final decision to fight for her friends.
She is the right size, the right Alice, and she has taken her place in this story. No cake or potion can help her find the answers to her questions. She must fight, for herself, to regain the control of her life here in Underland and above in London.
On Frabjous Day, Alice faces the Jabberwocky and after a ferocious battle, defeats the beast, freeing Underland from the Red Queens rule. Her task complete, Alice returns to London, and with her she takes the newfound confidence from her daring adventures.
There are no magic cakes in London, so this confidence will feed Alice’s curiosity going forward. She was afraid to make waves, to challenge the rules, but her newfound confidence will make her the right size to achieve all of her dreams and anything new she might come up with.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Hook(1991)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Hook
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this reimagining of the classic Peter Pan tale focuses on an adult Peter as he struggles to balance work and family life in his existence outside of Neverland. He has forgotten who and what he was in his youth and when he is called back to Neverland to rescue his children Jack and Maggie, he must rediscover what it means to never grow up.
Starring Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman and Dante Brasco, Hook takes a close look at what it means to grow up both mentally and physically. Peter Banning is a successful lawyer with a wife, Moira, and two children, who he rarely sees due to his busy and stressful schedule.
They travel to London to visit Wendy, Moira’s grandmother, and attend a charity dinner in her honor. When they return, they find the children are gone, and a note has been left behind, signed by one Captain James Hook. Peter tries to call the police, but Wendy insists he is the only one who can save them, as he is Peter Pan.
Tinkerbell arrives and with the help of a little of pixie dust, she flies Peter to Neverland and drops him into Hook’s pirate lair. The children are there, but Peter is too weak to get to them. He cannot fly on his own and he won’t fight. Hook is about to finish him, but Tink flies in and convinces the pirate to release Peter, and she will return with him in 3 days’ time for a real battle.
Peter and Tink go to the secret hide out of the Lost Boys. They don’t recognize Peter at first and they mock him for his weakness and old age. Rufio is their leader now, and he won’t believe this is the old Pan so easily, but with some convincing and some closer looks, the boys and Rufio realize this is the true Peter Pan.
As Peter trains with the Lost Boys, Hook tries to convince Jack and Maggie that he is a better father figure than Peter. He tells the children their parents don’t love them, they just tolerate them and while Maggie protests, Jack falls under Hook’s spell.
At dinner, the Lost boys set the table with empty dishes. They eat food that is invisible to Peter, and he can’t understand why they see the food and he cannot. The boys and Tink stuff their faces but, since Peter has no trace of his imagination left, he remains hungry. Rufio picks a fight, hurling insults at Peter until he fires back. It only takes a few well worded volleys for Peter’s imagination to return, and as it does the table fills with food.
Peter feasts on leg of meat, the steaming plate in front of him overflowing. The boys start a food fight flinging globs of colored muck across the table at each other until they are covered in the goo.
This table was totally empty to Peter, empty dishes and bare forks, nothing for him to eat in a crowd of ravenous boys. He cannot fathom what the boys can see, because his analytical lawyers’ brain has prevented him from using his imagination for so long. Once he gets creative, throwing rhymes and rhetoric at Rufio, the table fills. His imagination was the key to unlocking all of his strength and as soon as he does, he regains his ability to fight though he still cannot fly.
The Lost Boys lead Peter on a mission to Hook’s lair where they see a baseball game. Jack has taught the pirates about his favorite sport and they have staged a diamond for him to play on. When he hits a home run, and goes to Hook for congratulations, it’s the kick Peter needs to start really working towards flying.
Back at the Lost Boys camp, Jack’s home run ball flies down and hits Peter in the head, unlocking some of his lost memories. He finds the place Wendy and her brothers lived and all the memories he made with Wendy, Tootles, and the gang come rushing back to him. He even remembers his mother, and the first time Tink brought him to Neverland as a baby
His trip down memory lane brings out so many sad memories, but also gives Peter his happy thought. He thinks of becoming a father, and finally flies. His happy thought was there all along, and he sores over the island through the clouds and back.
Like the food on the table, Peter’s ability to fly to unlocked when he remembers more about his past not only in Neverland but also back in his real life. His imagination combined with his memories are the key to finding his true happy thought. The plates on the table filled when he let go of his stubbornness and played the game. Flying comes just as easy once he recognizes he already had all the tools to reach his goal.
Peter and the Lost Boys go to face Hook, and while Peter goes to find Maggie, Rufio duels Hook and is fatally wounded. As he dies, he tells Peter he wished he had a father like him. Jack watches all this happen and the spell Hook had cast over him is broken. He and Peter fly to Maggie and they embrace, but before they can leave Peter must defeat Hook.
They fight and Peter defeats Hook, who is eaten by his taxidermied Crocodile.
While the food in this film isn’t the normal fairytale fare, it still makes a big impact on the story. The tale of Peter Pan is one of believing not only in magic but also in yourself. When Peter believes in the magic of Neverland he can fly and be fed on the strength of the magic that lives within himself. In this world of never growing up, Peter had to do a little growing to get back the magic he had lost.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Paddington
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Paddington.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Paul King, the story of Paddington Bear is one beloved by many. The traveling bear with his love of hats and marmalade has made a lasting mark in popular culture and this entry into the Paddington canon is both heartfelt and fun.
Starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Nicole Kidman and Ben Whishaw, an unknown species of bear is found by a British explorer in the deep jungles of darkest Peru. He teaches the bears to speak English and introduces them to marmalade and, as he departs, invites them to London. Some years later, the bears, Lucy and Pastuzo, and their nephew live together, waiting for oranges to ripen so that they can make marmalade for sandwiches.
After a tragic earthquake, the young bear travels to England and is taken in by the Brown family. They name him Paddington, after the train station they found him. Though Mr. Brown is against keeping Paddington in his home due to safety risks, the rest of the family takes to him quickly and work to help him find the explorer who’s hat he wears.
The marmalade the bears enjoy is made with ripe Peruvian oranges, but marmalade has a rich history. The Romans and Greeks made paste from quinces mixed with honey. Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII included a quince preserve in his book of ceremonies, or court protocol.
In Medieval France quince preserves were served both clear and with pulp. Henry the VIII received a box of marmalades from a wealthy parliament member, probably made in Portugal, and it was a favorite treat of Anne Boleyn. In the 18th and 19thcenturies the Scottish thinned down the mixture into a spread and moved it from dessert to the breakfast table, and the British soon followed.
Marmalade’s popularity across Europe and cultures from antiquity to modern times, makes the orange spread a perfect welcoming unifier for Paddington and his bear family into British culture through something both a bear and a man can recognize, food. The Bear instinctually wants to eat things, and by providing this sweet, the explorer gains the trust of the bears and bonds with them in a foundational way.
Paddington survives mainly on marmalade sandwiches, and even carries one with him in his hat for emergencies. When Paddington dreams of England he dreams of the magical society that created this orange treat, and he can’t seem to understand why everyone isn’t more friendly when he arrives. He was taught that London is welcoming and warm city when, like many big cities, London is too fast paced and bustling for the average bear.
When the Browns happen upon Paddington at the train station, Mrs. Brown can see he needs help, and offers to take him in for the night. While at the Brown’s home, he destroys their bathroom and causes a huge scene, but he also brings the family closer together as they work to find more information about the Explorer.
The Browns, and their housekeeper Mrs. Bird, become attached to Paddington and when he is threatened by Millicent Clyde, museum taxidermist and daughter of the original explorer, they stage a rescue to save him. In a standoff that would have Paddington sacrifice himself for the safety of his new family, he uses his emergency sandwich to trigger a flock of pigeons to attack Clyde and knock her off the roof.
Paddington’s love for marmalade comes to save the day, with a little help from Mrs. Bird, and Paddington goes to live with the Browns permanently. They even have marmalade day, to make more of the citrus spread Paddington is so fond of.
Explorers bringing marmalade to Peruvian bears, has a problematic colonizer vibe to it, but because this is a film for kids its skirted past and decorated as a kind gesture from a well-meaning scientist. Of course, in this case the scientist stands his ground and refuses to endanger Paddington’s family, but his daughter becomes the villain based on perceived professional failures. Perception is everything, not just for Millicent Clyde but also for the Brown’s and Paddington himself.
If Paddington had not been so engrossed in British customs by his aunt and uncle, the Browns might not have approached him. Had their idea of safety been truly threatened they may have rejected him outright, but together they learn and grow into a truly unique family unit.
Though the idea of an explorer venturing to Peru on an expedition to find new creatures is not uncommon, the small details like Paddington’s hat or orange marmalade is what makes the story so memorable. Paddington is so synonymous with marmalade now that he is featured on the label of Robertson’s Golden Shred brand jars, and when this film was released marmalade sales spiked in the UK.
This film, at its heart, is about finding somewhere to belong. Paddington journeys across the globe to find somewhere to call home and instead of finding a place, he realizes that home to him is the people and the warmth around him. According to Lucy the bear, one marmalade sandwich provides all the vitamins and nutrients a bear needs, but on top of that the Brown family provides all the love and welcome Paddington needs to find his place in a new and exciting world.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
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The Martian
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is The Martian.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
The idea of life on other planets is usually imagined as green aliens with tentacles or gray beings with proclivities for Reese’s Pieces. Though Mars exploration has been a popular topic in film and TV, this recent entry took a deeper dive into what a food source on Mars might look like.
Directed by Ridley Scott, The Martian puts one man onto the red planet, alone, and imagines what he might have to do to survive in a dire situation 230 million miles away from Earth.
Starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels and Chiwetel Ejiofor, life on Mars becomes a reality for a NASA Botanist when he is left behind after a mission accident. He miraculously survives but must engineer a way to live long term on a planet that is uninhabitable.
The crew of the Hermes is on a manned mission to Mars, a 31 Sol (day) science exploration for a crew of 6 to retrieve data and samples from the planet’s surface. During an unexpected storm, the mission is aborted, and the crew prepares to leave. As they evacuate, flying shrapnel hits Dr. Mark Watney and he is lost to the crew. They leave him, presuming he is dead.
Hours later, Watney wakes. Alone and injured on the planet, Watney vows he will not die. The next mission to Mars is not for 4 years, and in that time if one variable deviates from perfect, he could die. The biggest challenge Watney is facing is starvation. He has enough rations for about 400 sols, but he’ll need 3 times that many to realistically survive.
Watney take stock of what is available to him, rationing the prepackaged food sent with the crew. He is a botanist and when he finds fresh potatoes in a meal box meant for Thanksgiving, he decides to improvise a garden. Along with the potatoes, he uses bio waste, Martian soil, and water to grow edible crops.
Potatoes are a good source of fiber, manganese, vitamin c and b and carbohydrates. This produce plus the provided protein rations, will keep Watney alive. Potatoes are filling and might even help stave off the effects of hunger longer.
The crops are planted and after several days, Watney finds the sprouts of his potatoes. He has successfully grown a food source on Mars and therefore colonized the planet.
While NASA and the JPL plan Watney’s return, they prepare to send him supplies via space probe but cutting corners for time’s sake proves disastrous. The probe explodes on launch. At the same time, the Mars habitat explodes, rendering the soil and crops useless.
Watney counts the potatoes he has grown and saved, but it is not nearly enough. He must ration even more and explains this to the in-habitat cameras. 3 ration portions a day, has become one portion split into 3 days’ worth. Plus, a potato, though he has run out of ketchup.
In a previous Hunger Games episode, we spoke about lack of food. Panem was starving its citizens. They were desperate for supplies, and supplies were held by the powerful. Watney is starving but on a completely different plain. Food is the control variable here, he has the data and the will to survive, so he can manipulate his supplies and adjust his expectations.
Unfortunately, Mars is the unknown. With a volatile environment and ever-changing variables, no matter how well Watney plans, things can always, and do, go wrong.
Rich Purnell, an astrodynamicist, does the calculations and finds that the Hermes could viably slingshot around Earth, pick up supplies, and return to Mars to rescue Watney without the uncertainties of a probe launch. The crew decides, unanimously, to proceed with the rescue.
Realistically, could one botanist grow potatoes on an arid planet like Mars? While, we can’t say for sure, NASA researchers have positive preliminary results. Planting tubers in lifeless soil, similar to samples taken from Mars, has resulted in successful growth. That leads experts to believe there’s a decent chance for growth on the Red Planet.
Theoretically, this means a man can survive, alone, on a planet 230 million miles from Earth. The real question then becomes, at what cost? By the time Watney begins his journey to reunite with his crew mates, he is skeletal. He has gone to the most extreme physical limits to try and guarantee even the possibility of returning to Earth. He has recorded goodbyes to his loved ones and resigned himself that death is a real consequence of his situation.
Still, he continues. So certain that even the hope of a maybe means there is a way home. His gamble is correct and, after 560 sols, Watney reunites with his crew. His perseverance and will to survive, combined with his scientific know how proved to be enough to get him home safely.
When he returns to Earth, he takes his experience and teaches new recruits how to survive in space. In space everything can and will go wrong, and these young prospective astronauts might have to make some hard decisions to save lives. The point of it all, the motivation that kept Watney alive through his trials, is the ability to discover not only new scientific breakthroughs but also personal ones.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
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https://www.businessinsider.com/potatoes-mars-growth-cubesat-experiment-2017-3
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
To close out the original release Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi, the 3rd film but 6th chapter of the Skywalker saga, reunited fan favorite characters with some new friends and familiar conflict.
Directed by Richard Marquand, the story picks up almost immediately where Empire left off. The new Death Star is being built, Han Solo is a captive of Jabba the Hutt, and the rebel alliance is ready for action against the empire. R2D2 and C3PO are on a mission from Luke back on his home planet of Tatooine and though things have been bleak, Luke’s rescue mission for his friends is in fully swing.
Starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Billy D. Williams, Return of the Jedi sees Luke, Han and Leia learn even more about the Skywalker family and how the force impacts the world around them.
After freeing Han, Chewbacca, Leia and Lando from the clutches of Jabba, Luke sets off back to Dagobah. His training with Master Yoda was left unfinished, but when he arrives, he finds Yoda is dying. Before he becomes one with the force, Yoda confirms to Luke that Darth Vader is his father. Obi Wan also appears to Luke in his ghost form to tell him Leia is his secret twin, separated from him at birth to protect the children from Vader and the Emperor.
A second Death Star is being built and the Rebels plan to destroy it. Han volunteers to lead a troop to the forest moon of Endor to destroy the shield generator and make the station vulnerable to attack. Leia, Luke, Chewbacca, and the droids all join Han’s team while Lando takes the Millennium Falcon to lead the attack on the station itself.
On Endor, the squad is attacked by storm troopers and Leia and Luke are separated from the pack. Luke returns but Leia ventures further and gets lost in the forest. She is regaining her balance when she is approached by a teddy bear looking creature. He has a pointed stick and is wary of Leia. She calls him over, saying she isn’t a threat to him and, to drive home that point, offers him a cracker from her pouch.
The fluffy creature is an Ewok named Wicket, one of the forest dwellers of Endor, and he doesn’t speak English or understand what or who Leia is. He regards her as a threat until she holds out the cracker. Like a dog who becomes friendly when offered treats, Wicket joins Leia on the log where she sits and munches happily until he realizes there is danger in the nearby trees. He and Leia fend off more storm troopers together, and then he leads her to safety.
The simple sharing of a cracker gives the Ewok the reassurance that he needs to approach Leia. She’s kind and offers him the snack as a gesture of goodwill. It’s obvious that he is at home in the forest, while she is not, and having him as an ally even with the language barrier gives Leia some security until she can find her friends.
The rest of the land crew ventures through the forest, looking for Leia and making their way to the target. Chewbacca smells and goes to inspect some carcass meat on a post and before they can stop him, activates a trap that catches the team in a hanging net. They are apprehended by more Ewoks, who string them up on stakes and take them back to their camp and claim C3PO as their golden god.
When they arrive, they find Leia, who has been indoctrinated into the tribe and the Ewok leader who intends to roast Han and Luke for the tribe’s dinner. They are tied to spits and a fire is started under Han as they try to navigate the language and spiritual barriers of the situation. C3PO speaks the language but cannot convince the teddy bear like carnivores to free his friends. Luke intervenes and uses the force to levitate C3PO and convince the Ewoks of his powers. They immediately let the men go.
The Ewoks are a conundrum. For one fact, they are hated by many Star Wars fans for being, well too cute to be useful. For another, these cuddly looking space aliens eat people. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t know what kind of agricultural situation was happening on Endor, so maybe their food sources were limited but if the Ewoks protein of choice is human, it’s more than a little unsettling.
They were fully equipped and willing to roast Luke and Han over an open fire in an instant. That implies this isn’t the first time they’ve done this. There’s even a fan theory that the dress they give to Leia is the clothes from another human they previously ate! I don’t know about that, but these creatures are prepared to have a Rebel Flavored Barbeque and worship C3PO over plates of fresh meat. This can’t be new to them.
Looking at Wicket’s original appearance compared to meeting the rest of the tribe, audiences can compare the puppy dog like cracker eating to the wolf like flesh eating and see how these creatures can become warriors in the next act. They are allies but they can be vicious if needed and though they fight with rocks and not guns, they do show up for Leia and her friends when they are needed.
Ultimately, the Ewoks help the team destroy the shield generator and the fleet blows up the second Death Star, defeating the Empire for good. Really, it’s just for now, but we wouldn’t know that for another couple decades.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Mel Stuart, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s novel. The story follows Charlie Bucket as he tours a wonderous candy factory, owned by Willy Wonka, an eccentric candy maker. As he journey’s deeper into Wonka’s world, Charlie learns about imagination, greed and humility.
Starring Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson and Peter Ostrum, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory begins by introducing the audience to Charlie and his family. They are poor and both of his sets of grandparents are bedridden. Their life is meager and something as luxurious as chocolate seems almost foreign to them.
Willy Wonka, the local recluse chocolatier announces he will be holding a contest for 5 lucky finders of 5 golden tickets hidden inside his candy bars. These lucky few will be invited into the long-closed Chocolate factory for a tour and be awarded a lifetime supply of chocolate. Charlie knows his family can’t afford the massive amount of chocolate people around the world purchase to find the first 4 golden tickets. He almost gives up hope of ever finding a ticket but even with his limited access he ends up finding the 5th and final ticket.
The day of the tour Charlie arrives with his newly mobile Grandpa Joe, along with Augustus Gloop and his mother, Veruca Salt and her father, Violet Beauregarde and her father, and Mike Teevee and his mother. The children are all different, but all spoiled, accept for Charlie.
Wonka is as strange as his reputation would indicate and his factory is full of secret doors, shrinking hallways and rivers of chocolate. One by one the children are eliminated from the tour, either by ingesting something they aren’t supposed to or by getting into one of Wonka’s experiments, until only Charlie is left.
Candy is king in the world of Willy Wonka. You may remember from our Chocolat episode, Chocolate was used as divider and unifier in a small French town. Here in Wonka’s factory, Chocolate has replaced water as a life source. The factory makes and runs on chocolate and Wonka is consumed with creating new and exceedingly outrageous sweets.
Whenever we see candy on screen the people eating it look buoyant. Ropes of marshmallow, yards of candy dots, bars of chocolate, it’s no mystery that these treats bring smiles to the faces of all who partake in them. Even Charlie, who is so defeated by his lack of success in winning the contest, opens a bar of chocolate and wants to share the little bit of joy with his mother and grandparents. It’s a simple reward even if it’s temporary.
Wonka, as the purveyor of all thing’s chocolate, has become a larger-than-life entity. He lives behind a gate, in a locked factory, keeping all the outside world out and all the secrets of his chocolate in. With his contest, he gives the world a chance to see behind the curtain to see where he makes the magical treats that bring joy to the children of all ages.
You might be able to see where I’m going with this. Chocolate is true happiness in the world of Wonka. It brings joy to all those who eat it, even in the worst situations. People go mad over even the idea of being able to see how to make it. The secrets to life lay behind the gates and Willy Wonka is their keeper.
The children embody select aspects of immorality. Augustus is gluttony. He is shown jamming sausages into his mouth, and when he makes it to Wonka’s factory his lack of self-control leads him to be the first eliminated. He falls into the chocolate river, after multiple warnings to stay away, and gets sucked up into the factory’s machinery.
Violet is Pride. She is boastful and thinks she knows better than her parents and Wonka and ignores warnings to not eat experimental gum. She turns into a blueberry for her trouble. Veruca is Wrath and Envy. She uses her anger and jealousy to demand what she wants from whoever she wants. Wonka says no to her, and instead of taking it in stride, she throws a tantrum and is sent down the garbage shoot. Mike is sloth. He is obsessed with TV and would rather watch than be a part of his own life. He is shrunk by Wonka’s TV camera after he too ignores Wonka’s warnings.
All the children show greed. They are obsessed with finding the tickets, whatever it may take, and once they are in the factory, they work to find the secret candy that Wonka’s rival tells them to look out for. They could have a lifetime supply of chocolate, which is a lot, but they want more than what is offered and make deals with shady characters to get it.
These characters are direct examples of how the search for happiness can go seriously wrong if the intentions behind the actions are motivated by the wrong goals. In this metaphor Wonka becomes deified, as he is the granter of the prize. He gives out chocolate and he can take it away, much like an angry god might in a bible allegory.
Chocolate is happiness in this world and when you have it, you can soar, but when you don’t have it, you might be stuck washing other people’s dirty clothes like Charlie’s mother. This is of course, the extreme example to make the shiny confections and sweets look even more inviting to someone like Charlie who so rarely sees them.
Each of the children ruin their own chances of winning through their actions, except for Charlie who is remorseful in the end and is forgiven and granted the prize. Much like the idea that a virtuous person might go to heaven, Charlie is granted all that he desires in life for his noble actions.
Chocolate is imbibed with magical powers in so many stories, and this one is no exception. The idea of hope based in dreams of, in this case chocolate, or whatever a character might want is a foundational idea of storytelling. Charlie hopes his dream might come true and that’s what motivates him to buy that last bar that ends up changing his life.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Crazy Rich Asians
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Crazy Rich Asians.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Jon Chu, Crazy Rich Asians explores an interesting question. If you were going to introduce your significant other to your hometown and family, how would you approach the action? Would you plan a fancy dinner? Invite them home for the holidays? Wing it and hope for the best? The underlying idea of Crazy Rich Asians isn’t so much meet the family as it is figuring out what family actually means, but enveloped in this story is an initiation, to a new family and a new culture, based largely in food.
Starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Awkwafina and Michelle Yeoh, the film takes a look at the life of the extremely wealthy in Singapore through the eyes of an average American. The differences in culture, between New York and Singapore, are exacerbated by the class difference between Rachel and Nick.
Rachel Chu and Nick Young travel to his home in Singapore for the wedding of his best friend. The first stop when they arrive, an outdoor market for local delicacies. Satay, grilled prawns, live crab, and noodle soup: staples of Asian cuisines. They eat with Colin and Araminta, (the soon to be married couple) sharing dishes family style on a plastic table.
This place is casual but traditional, a hangout for locals who know where to get the best dishes from the best cooks. It’s somewhere a tourist might not be able to find on a guide map, but where Anthony Bourdain might have noshed with other chefs.
If I was going to introduce someone to the cuisine of my hometown, I would start with a Coney Dog. I’m from Michigan, and one thing I can’t get anywhere else in the world is a Detroit Coney dog. It’s not fancy, just a hot dog covered in chili and onions with a little mustard, but when I go home it’s the first thing I ask for. If I truly wanted someone to know what home tasted like, this is where my mind goes.
Nick takes Rachel to a place where he knows all the vendors. Knows who makes the best Satay on the island. Knows which dishes are the spiciest. That meal is an introduction to his home, what he finds most comforting especially after a long flight. Being in that place with old friends, welcoming a new presence into the fold is the next best thing to coming home.
Introducing someone to my hometown begins and ends with my family. The restaurant my family frequents, my aunt’s cookies, my mom’s amazing everything: it all goes back to the traditions of my childhood that were started before I was born but turned into the foundation of how I express myself.
Nick brings Rachel to his grandmother’s house for a party. His family, a mystery to Rachel, and their wealth are finally revealed. The house is an estate with a restaurant grade kitchen that turns out plate after plate of delicious looking items, all under the watchful eye of Nick’s mother. This is no quaint market; this is a machine made to make expensive dishes for an expensive audience.
The Young family is old money, rich beyond Rachel’s wildest dreams. They can have anything they want, and they spare no expense when it comes to their parties or their lifestyle. Nick has brought Rachel into the lion’s den and has not prepared her at all.
After a disastrous bachelorette weekend, where Rachel discovers exactly how opposed the family is to outsiders (They put a dead fish in her bed to warn her off), she addresses the problem with Nick. She doesn’t care about money, but it would have been nice to have a warning, or even half an idea of what she was getting into.
They go back to Nick’s grandmother’s house to make dumplings. He teaches Rachel how to hand fold the dumplings, a technique passed down in the family. They sit around the table, pinching the pillows of dough into crescent moons filled with pork and herbs. They reminisce about learning the old ways to preserve their traditions and about their childhoods, eating the same dumplings after school. Rachel is an only child from a single parent home, and she yearns for the family environment the Youngs have, but to them, and to Nick’s mother, she will always be an outsider.
This tradition, dumpling making as an assembly line, is hard work meant to remind the children that their mothers work hard to care for them, but it is also a reminder of the work Mrs. Young had to do to become a part of the family. She doesn’t hesitate to be blunt with Rachel, she will never be enough, just as Mrs. Young was never enough.
Nick wants Rachel to be his family, his wife, and he shows her all the things that he loves about his home and his family, but underneath the glittering shell is the lingering pain, not only of his mother but of his family’s expectations. While he might think his home is satay skewers and steaming dumplings, the truth is those things are just superficial.
Just as his mother cannot escape her place as less than in his grandmother’s eyes, Nick cannot escape the traditional responsibilities he has to the Young family. The manipulation, the secrets, are all just a part of the game they all must play to get a head in a society based on the currency of family name.
How would you introduce your significant other to your family? Little by little or all at once? Would you prepare them your favorite meals or tell them your favorite anecdotes? Would you let them in on the family drama or shelter them from the storm? I don’t know what I would do, but I do know that giving someone even a small taste of my home can show them who I am, at heart. A small-town girl, with a nostalgia addled brain.
To the viewer, seeing the different ways Nick and Rachel interact with food indicates how they are meant to feel. In the market, they are embraced like old friends. In his grandmother’s home they are awkward and uninformed. While making dumplings they are out of sync. We can see these things clearly, and therefore recognize them as they play out on the screen.
Nick gives Rachel a taste of what he thinks is important, and while his priorities are not the same as his mother’s, his heart is in the right place. He wants Rachel to see what he loves about home, not the scary parts of his history or the expectations of his father. He wants her to feel welcomed and loved, in place where he has always felt welcomed and loved.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
As you may have guessed from previous episodes, I am a fan of films that take place in and around World War 2. I find the storytelling and characters existing in that time of our worlds history to be compelling in a way that present and future based films are not. It’s probably the hindsight of the story tellers being able to research heavily into the period, or speak to people who lived that experience already, but something about stories in that era fascinate me.
Directed by Mike Newell, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society tells the story of Juliet Ashton, nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff, and the group of Guernsey natives who used books to survive German occupation of their little island. She begins to correspond with Dawsey Adams, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and from there forms a bond with not only the society members but their tragic, heartfelt story.
Starring Lily James, Michiel Huisman, Glen Powell and Jessica Brown Findlay, the story takes place in 1946, after the end of World War 2, in the height of reconstruction of not only London, but the rest of the free world. During the German occupation, Guernsey residents were stripped of all their livestock, and forced to grow potatoes for food.
Juliet Ashton receives a letter from Dawsey Adams. He writes to inquire where he might find more books by a certain author after finding her details inside the cover of an older copy. She sends him more books in exchange for information, why would someone need to keep roast pork a secret and what is a potato peel pie?
Dawsey explains that during the occupation, even having a pig was a crime. That his neighbor hid one and when she called for him to come, he slaughtered the pig and they ate it with friends in secret. It was on the way home from this event that they were stopped by Nazi’s and invented the Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to avoid being detained.
The scene at Mrs. Maugery’s house is one of well needed relief. After being isolated by the occupation, being in the company of friends is a gift to these hungry friends. The roast that Dawsey pulls from the oven is glistening with juices and pork fat, a different meal than the broth with potato that Dawsey was meant to eat alone. It was a forbidden meal, with gin and good company, one that almost ends in tragedy but is saved by Eben, another member, who vomits on the Nazi’s boots and gets them sent on their way. They were starving not only for food but also for connection.
Juliet is entranced by the story. This group of people, like her, used books to get them through the worst years of their lives. She knows she must meet them, must learn from them, and feels compelled to share their story.
Potato Peel Pie: No butter, no flour, just potatoes. It’s the worst but it brought them together in a time when they felt the world had abandoned them.
Enforced rationing and oppression by the Nazi’s began in Guernsey after the invasion of The Channel Islands in 1940. Radios, Cars, Cameras, even houses were taken from the islanders, who did their best to exist within the oppressive rule. The literary society relied on each other to get through, and on Potato Peel Pie to keep morale up.
Juliet travels to Guernsey and meets Isola, who makes her own gin, Mrs Maugery, who hosts the society meetings, Young Eli, Eben, inventor of the Potato Peel Pie and finally Dawsey.
In London, where Juliet lives, things are starting to go back to normal, fresh paint on doors, new roofs, but in Guernsey the war continues on. These people are still struggling to rebuild and deal the loss of loved ones, and the mystery of one of their members absence. Elizabeth Mckenna was arrested in 1944 and sent to the continent, leaving behind her small daughter, Kit. The society still looks for her return. While Juliet dances in silk gowns, these men and women are still trying to get passed the immeasurable damage.
Instead of returning to London and her book tour, Juliet takes up her pen and begins to compile the basis for a book about the occupation. She also calls her fiancé for his assistance in finding Elizabeth.
It doesn’t take much for the truth to come out. Elizabeth fell in love with a German Doctor and became pregnant. It made her the fodder for gossip on the small island, and burdens the close-knit group with fear that someday a German family might come to take the daughter she left behind.
Though her engagement comes to an end, Juliet discovers that the love she had been seeking since the loss of her parents existed in the warmth of the friends she made on the small island. Just as the book club was a refuge to its members, the island became one to Juliet.
This story is a romance built on the back of strength and tragedy. The strength of a group of friends, united around each other in times of need and the tragedy of war. What bound them to each other in their moment of strife just happened to be the worst pie ever invented and the escapism of literature.
To relate to the need to find a home, a safe place, is inherently human, especially in times of struggle. The Society became that safe space for its members: the turning of a page, the ringing of a clock, the smell of potato peel pie. The nearness of those you love is comfort, and that security can give the push to continue on, even when it seems that there is no carnival at the end of the dark tunnel.
Using a meal as the catalyst to bring the society together gives the viewer reassurance that even in this time of violence, these characters will do whatever they need to do to get their needs met, whether that be eating a meal or saving a sick child or even just delivering the post.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Susan Johnson, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before tells the story of Lara Jean Covey, a Korean American Highschool student whose sister Kitty mails out 5 secret love letters, written to 5 influential romantic interests throughout Lara Jeans life. From the boy next door to the highschool heart throb, Lara Jean has to quickly learn how to navigate affairs of the heart, and the consequences of her crushes coming to light.
Starring Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Jannel Parrish, and John Corbett, To All the Boys is a heartfelt romantic comedy that takes a close look at the way changing perceptions can change the way we look at relationships, particularly as teens.
The Covey Sisters, Lara Jean, Kitty and Margot, their father, and Josh, Margot’s boyfriend, sit at the dinner table. Dr. Covey has prepared a Korean dish, something he likes to do to keep the girls Korean heritage alive. Their mother passed away when Kitty was just a baby, but Dr. Covey does the best he can make sure his girls learn about their culture and keep their mother’s memory alive.
The opening scene of this film takes place in the dining room. All the members of the Covey family are present, making a significant effort to be present in the moment, even if the meal hasn’t turned out as predicted. The Korean meal that might have been their mother’s specialty has become a bonding moment, the girls taking up the space left by her absence. Margot takes the lead, cutting the meat and serving her family. It’s clear that they cherish each other.
Margot is about to leave for college in Scotland, and it’s taking its toll on her sisters. Lara Jean has grown dependent on the support of her older sister and now, in the wake of her departure, Lara Jean must learn to find her own way.
In a well-meaning but ill-thought-out plan to get Lara Jean to have more friends her own age or a boyfriend, Kitty mails all of Lara Jeans secret love notes. To process her young emotions, Lara Jean had written letters to each of her previous crushes. She used the exercise to get her feelings out in a tangible way, though she never intended to send the letters to their respective recipients.
While attempting to hide from Josh, her sister’s ex-boyfriend and recipient of one of these letters, Lara Jean ends up riding her bike to the local diner, a favorite haunt of her parents when they were first in love. Here she’s approached by Peter Kavinsky, her first kiss and another letter recipient.
Peter orders a chocolate shake, which he sips as he interrogates Lara Jean about the letters and their origins. The image of Peter sipping lazily on his milkshake as Lara Jean nervously slurps her soda, puts these two characters into perspective for the viewer. Peter is sweet and charming, something you could get a toothache from. Lara Jean is effervescent but obviously a nervous wreck. The short moment sets the tone for the relationship to come.
Together Lara Jean and Peter come up with a plan to “fake date” to get Lara Jean out of her sticky situation with Josh and to make Peter’s ex, Gen, jealous. Of course, as with most romantic comedies, this plan isn’t fool proof.
With Margot away at school, Lara Jean does her best to fill the gap in their lives by taking up the tasks that would have fallen to Margot. Baking for Kitty’s school bake sale is one of those tasks. Instead of doing something easy, like brownies that she can cut into squares, Lara Jean tries to make cupcakes, something far more labor intensive. Her need to fill the empty spaces in her life, drives her further into 1) her lie with Peter and 2) her anxiety about letting her family down.
Peter drags Lara Jean to a party, and after they end up back at the diner. Once again ordering their respective Milkshake and soda. This time the milkshake represents Peter’s denseness toward both his own and Lara Jean’s feelings, and the soda represents Lara Jean’s anxiety about feelings bubbling over inside of herself, romantic or otherwise.
Peter and Lara Jean are two sides of the same coin: both having lost a parent in their lives, both dealing with trying to find their place in the world. They can understand the feeling of loss, though their losses are different, because their grief is deeply connected to the way they see their families and experiences. They might be pretending to be in love, but their friendship is genuine.
At lunch one day, Lara Jean and her friend Chrissy are under the bleachers eating contraband Subway sandwiches, a prime product placement spot, when they overhear a conversation between Peter and his ex, Gen. They argue over the way Gen has been keeping him on the hook while she sees other people. Hearing this boosts Lara Jeans insecurity, not only about romantic relationships but also about herself.
She pushes Peter away, even tries to end their “relationship” so he can get back with his ex, but he refuses reminding her that she agreed to go on the school sk trip with him. On the bus ride there, she sits with Chrissy instead, not knowing that Peter had gone out of his way to get Korean snacks and yogurt that he knew Lara Jean enjoyed. Just like Dr. Covey tries to take an active interest in his daughter’s heritage, Peter has taken an active interest in learning about Korean snacks and trying new things that might be outside of his comfort zone.
Unfortunately, Peter’s behavior on the ski trip and Gen’s manipulation send Lara Jean into a spiral that ends with Margot finding out about the letters and everyone involved being hurt. That compounded with a scandalous video of Peter and Lara Jean in the hot tub, shocks Lara Jean into confessing everything to Margot.
Lara Jean’s perceptions of her life, her relationships, and love have changed drastically in the time Margot has been abroad. Lara Jean thought she had to take on all the weight that Margot had been carrying as a stand in for their mother, when in reality she had a support system waiting for her to ask for help. Kitty, well-meaning and naïve, Margot, strong and kind, Dr. Covey, paternal and supportive.
All the time she thought she had to prove she could make it on her own, she had a strong foundation to catch her when she ultimately fell. Dr. Covey takes her to the Diner and tells Lara Jean the story of how her mother loved to play songs on the jukebox and dance in the aisles. Reminding her that taking the time to be carefree, to live in the moments as they happen is just as important as preparing for the future.
In the end, Lara Jean realizes that sometimes being vulnerable and facing the fear of rejection can lead to something great. She doesn’t have to be the fizzy soda all the time, bubbles bursting from energy and nervousness. She can just be. A 16-year-old girl, on her way to finding who she wants to be in a world that continues to spin even if she’s not ready to keep moving.
The use of food in this movie to show familial strength and responsibility but also to demonstrate the inner workings of the main characters is as charming and effervescent as the actors playing them on screen.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Mystic Pizza
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Mystic Pizza.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
I am surprised it took me this long to write an episode about pizza but here we are, 20 episodes later and onto our first slice. Mystic Pizza, directed by Donald Petrie, follows the story of 3 waitresses in Mystic, Connecticut. They sling slices of Mystic Pizza to locals and tourists, as they navigate the different challenges of life in the late 80’s.
Staring Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor and Vincent D’Onofrio, Mystic Pizza is by all accounts a cut and dry romance. Each girl is following a different path to love or heartbreak, the steadfast nature of their friendship keeping them grounded all the while.
Sisters Kat and Daisy, and their friend Jo work at the Mystic Pizza, where owner Leona’s secret sauce recipe brings patrons to indulge in cheesy slices as magical as their name. Mystic is a small town, and, like many small towns, there are few secrets between neighbors.
Jo, who has cold feet about marriage, faints at her wedding ceremony. She loves her fiancé/boyfriend Bill but doesn’t think she’s ready for a serious commitment. Daisy is the wild one. Always looking for the best party or a new adventure. She meets Charles, a rich young man from an affluent family. Though she knows he’s probably not serious about her, she is unconcerned with the future. Kat is on her way to Yale in the spring but falls for her married employer as she works her way through the autumn to save up for college.
Each girl is following a different path on her journey to find love. Jo and Bill fight and reconcile until he decides a physical relationship isn’t enough for him. Jo still isn’t ready for marriage. Daisy and Charles are both trying to break from the hold of family obligations, and in turn manage to hurt each other as a result. Kat and the married Tim, flirt with a dangerous attraction but in the end, he will not leave his family.
Leona’s pizza brings in locals and travelers alike. Her blend of spices and herbs is a mystery to even her 3 waitresses, though Jo hopes that one day the secret will be passed on to her. While the girls encourage Leona to make “designer pizza”, Leona stands by her family recipe, passed down from her grandfather and father to her. It’s tradition and you don’t monkey with tradition.
Stepping away from pizza for a moment, another food element in this story is lobster. Mystic is a fishing town and many of its citizens make a living from the sea, Daisy and Kat’s Mother and Bill included. Daisy detests lobster. Her life is surrounded by the spiney creatures. They fill her fridge and remind her of exactly who she is. When she meets Charles’ family, at a fancy formal dinner, she is served a lobster, the epitome of fine dining. It’s almost comical that this family who are so much more well off than hers finds something so common to her, a delicacy.
To see this family, so rich and refined, enjoy the thing that reminds Daisy of her meager roots, gives the viewer a simple demonstration of the extreme differences between the two families. Even their perception of something so simple, lobster, sets the tone of the meeting. They have different values and seeing them on a plate in front of Daisy makes this very obvious.
The “Fireside Gourmet”, a television food critic, comes into the restaurant one afternoon and orders the house special, The Mystic Pizza. As Leona and the staff watch from a distance, he takes a bite of the pie and jots notes down. He considers the slice, takes a few more bites and then pays the check, leaving his leftovers behind. The group is not optimistic of his review but a few days later he gives a glowing one, calling the pizza “superb”.
When all the elements of a great pizza come together, they can sway even the staunchest food snob. Like the delicious pizza in a small town that defies expectation, each of our three heroines defy what is expected of them in the end.
The girls’ relationships with their respective beaus are varied. Jo gets her happy ending, when she finally relents to Bill and marries him. Daisy begins to think about her future, and what it might look like outside of Mystic with Charles. Kat has her heartbroken by Tim when his wife returns, but with Leona’s help she’ll be able to afford Yale and moves toward her dream of being an astronomer.
In a movie about pizza, a pizza that is unexplainably delicious, the pizza has to become a metaphor. The perfect balance of ingredients to a pizza will make the slice transcendent to the consumer and therefore bring joy to whomever indulges in a gooey slice. Even the harshest critic can find happiness in the perfect melty cheese pull.
The secret that makes the pizza so good is like the secret to making a successful life. Some will take the secret to their graves, and some will spread that secret around in all the things they touch. At Mystic Pizza, the secret to making things work is all the parts coming together. Cheese, tomato sauce, spices. Jo, Daisy, Kat. Separately they struggle to find balance, but together they create a masterpiece.
Like all the elements combined in a delicious dish, the girls shared life experiences and individual trials help them grow, not only in their own lives but also in their friendships. Kat, Daisy and Jo aren’t all that complicated of characters, but Pizza doesn’t have to be covered in truffle oil or gold flakes for it to be satisfying.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, film one in the Chronicle of Narnia series, was originally created by C.S. Lewis. The Disney adaptation, directed by Andrew Adamson, follows the original story closely. 4 children, displaced by the Blitz in World War 2 England, discover a magical realm inside of a coat closet and team up with other magical beings to fight a tyrannical witch.
Starring Georgie Henley, Anna Popplewell, William Moseley and Skandar Keynes, the film and source material are chock full of symbolism, relating to Christianity, old Norse Myth and even the tales of Hans Christian Anderson. I’d like to take a look at the way real life events effected the story telling and character building in the film.
During World War 2, fear that German bombing would take the lives of civilians prompted the British government to evacuate 1.5 million children, mother’s with infants and infirmed to the country side. The Pevensie children, Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter are relocated during this evacuation to Devon, away from their home and their mother.
Of the 4 children Lucy and Edmund seem to have the most trouble adjusting to their new home. While playing hide and seek, Lucy discovers the gate way into Narnia, and later she is followed there by Edmund.
World War 2 was fought on the home front through a series of government run programs, most notably rationing. Sugar rationing began in 1940, when this story takes place, and continued throughout the war.
We can assume that the Pevensies have been dealing with this challenge, and the trials that came along with it.
When Edmund first journeys to Narnia, he meets the White Witch. The false ruler of Narnia entices Edmund into her sled with the promise of hot drink and eventual power.
The White Witch has a small vile. She pours a drop of green potion into the snow, and a silver goblet full of steaming cocoa appears. Edmund greedily gulps it down as the witch tells him she can make him anything he wants to eat. Turkish Delight, he says without hesitation. Turkish Delight, or Lokum, is a sweet made of starch and sugar with fruit jelly or flavoring.
The vile tips again, creating a silver tin. Edmund opens it and selects a powder covered morsel. He eats it with revelry, not knowing his fate and the fate of his family is now on the line.
Candy was almost nonexistent during World War 2, and it’s no surprise asking a child what he might like most to eat in the world at that time leads to an answer of sweets, sweets that are almost entirely made of sugar. Edmund’s desperation for something normal, his home, his father, and yes candy, makes him an easy target for the White Witch and her magic. What Edmund doesn’t know is that by partaking in her enchanted treats, he now belongs to the White Witch.
During the war, chocolate bars were included in the field rations for all soldiers. They were high in calories, caffeine and gave the troops a boost when rations and moral was low. Candy in this story does the exact opposite. By eating the Turkish Delight Edmund turns traitor on his family. He cannot see past his own needs and instead of making him strong, the sweet makes him even more susceptible to the witch’s wiles.
The process to make Turkish Delight takes hours if not days and at least two men, stirring at the same exact intervals to prevent sugar from crystalizing. It is often imported from Turkey, Syria or Istanbul because western Europeans have found it difficult to get the preparations quite right. During the war, when these trade routes were cut off, getting something like Turkish Delight in the UK was for all intensive purposes impossible.
The fact that Edmund asks for the most expensive, hardest to come by sweet he can think of, highlights his greed. His willingness to betray his siblings for even another small taste is amplified by the witch’s magic, and highlights his selfishness.
The 3 other Pevensie children travel across Narnia to meet Aslan, the magical lion savior, to try and free their brother from the witch. The witch lays claim to Edmund’s life. He is a traitor and all traitors belong to her. Aslan sacrifices himself in Edmund’s place and the 4 siblings defeat the White Witch with his help.
Candy in this story is used as a metaphor for so many things: Normalcy, opulence, greed. The viewer meets the White Witch at the same time as Edmund, and while he is unaware of her cruelty, the audience has already been primed by Lucy’s first journey through the wardrobe. The witch plays on Edmund’s ignorance and childhood selfishness to her own gain.
Though we hope Edmund is good at heart, and while we later find that he is, the candy also acts as a test of his character. His demand for something so rare compounded with his willingness to lie makes him appear as a petulant child. The trauma of war and displacement has made him desperate for approval and affection. It is only when the witch reveals her true self, a callous and evil ruler, that Edmund realizes his mistake.
When we think of sweets, especially decadent ones, they seem to be imbibed with magical properties. They make us happier, and give us that rush of dopamine we crave when spirits are low. Now imagine not having that feeling for months, or even years. One can almost understand why Edmund was so eager. Of course he didn’t know he was giving up his entire family to be potentially slaughtered by minotaurs, but when sugar is on the line, there’s probably been a time or two when any one of us would have made the same mistake.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
http://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/pnmrationing.html
https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/rationing-in-britain-during-world-war-ii
The Parent Trap
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Disney’s Mary Poppins.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Mary Poppins, directed by Robert Stevenson, is a classic by any definition of the word. Not only is the character featured in 8 books and a Broadway musical, the supernatural nanny has become a household name since her film debut in 1964.
Starring Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Karen Dotrice and Ed Wynn, the film follows the adventures of the Banks children, Jane and Michael, and their magical nanny Mary Poppins as she teaches them and their family valuable life lessons. Her methods may be other worldly but their impact has touched generations of children and adults who still believe in magic.
Jane and Michael Banks are missing. They have run off on another nanny and she has given up looking for them. With a mother who is focused on her political causes and a father who is dedicated to his career, the children have little concern for the nanny of the moment or what kind of trouble they may get into.
When they are returned home by a constable, Mr. Banks decides he must hire the new nanny. He is also adamant that she has certain qualifications: firm, respectable, no nonsense. The children also have qualifications: kind, loves games, no warts.
Mary Poppins arrives on the East wind, and sweeps into 17 Cherry Tree Lane. The Banks children are in desperate need of structure but also of compassion and understanding. Poppins gives them a small taste of the magic to come by singing them a working song to clean the nursery.
A Spoonful of Sugar is an earworm, written by the prolific Sherman Brothers. It was based on an idea Robert Sherman had after his son told him that he and his classmates were given the Polio Vaccine via sugar cube. The idea that something sweet can make a chore become more manageable isn’t a new concept, but the way Mary Poppins implores her wards to participate with this small bit of wisdom sets the tone for the rest of the film.
In this moment we don’t need to see the children or Poppins eat sugar cubes, instead the magic that she uses is the treat to make the chore fun. Cleaning the nursery might not be anyone’s idea of a swinging good time but with a snap of her fingers, Poppins inspires the children to see what kind of magic they can possess. After seeing what Poppins can do with their messy room, the children are ready to believe she can do anything.
Mary Poppins takes the children to the park and there they meet Bert, the chimney sweep, and go on an adventure into a chalk drawing. They ride carousel horses and participate in a fox hunt before a down pour washes the painting away. The group is soaked to the bone, and Poppins and the children bid Bert farewell.
When they return to the nursery, Mary doles out spoons to Jane and Michael and pours them a serving of cold medicine. All the medicine comes from one bottle but each spoonful is a different flavor. Jane’s is flavored lime cordial, Michael’s strawberry and Rum punch for Mary Poppins. The enjoyable flavors here call back to the Spoonful of Sugar in the earlier song.
Though both children begin to protest the medicine, they accept it readily when they realize the flavors are not the normal unpleasant medicinal types. A spoonful of something delicious here, literally makes the medicine go down.
This call back is subtle and many may not even realize it is happening as it seems so nonchalant, but as with many of the lessons in Mary Poppins carpet bag, by taking the medicine the practice has come full circle.
After a tea party on the ceiling with Bert’s Uncle Albert, Mr. Banks tries to fire Mary Poppins but she finesses him into agreeing to take the children to work the next day instead. While putting them to bed, she sings them a song called “Feed the Birds”.
The song is about the bird woman of St. Paul’s cathedral. She tells them how the woman calls to passersby to feed the birds, “tuppence a bag”. The song is about the act of pure charity, and the birds being fed could be a metaphor for children or even the underserved as a whole. The point of this lesson is to highlight the harsh greed of the bank and the idea of what qualifies as waste through the eyes of both Mr. Banks and his children.
The audience is shown both the selfless act of the bird woman and the theoretical investments of the bank. The altruistic nature of the children is nonsense to the jaded bank managers, but even the small voice of Michael, as he demands to feed the birds, causes a full-blown melt down as other patrons demand their money back.
Feeding the birds, and giving money to someone who needs it in the immediate rather than investing in an uncertain future is the point of this parable. Mary Poppins has instilled the idea of giving to the needy in her wards and they in turn teach this lesson to their father. Michael gives his cherished coins to Mr. Banks when sensing he is now also in need of aid.
The lessons taught by Mary Poppins to her young wards may not fit the normal movie food criteria that I address here on the Eat the Pictures but I think that the way Poppins feeds the minds of Jane and Michael and the Banks home as a whole is just as important as the tea the cook serves for Mr. Bank’s breakfast. The morals and values Jane and Michael will take with them from the nursery and into the real world have been influenced by Poppins’ positivity. When she arrived, 17 Cherry Tree Lane was a war zone and when she departs its inhabitants are filled with optimism for the future.
Mary Poppins magic has fed the minds and souls of all the Banks family members and they will take her lessons on into life with out her.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Mary Poppins
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Disney’s Mary Poppins.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Mary Poppins, directed by Robert Stevenson, is a classic by any definition of the word. Not only is the character featured in 8 books and a Broadway musical, the supernatural nanny has become a household name since her film debut in 1964.
Starring Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Karen Dotrice and Ed Wynn, the film follows the adventures of the Banks children, Jane and Michael, and their magical nanny Mary Poppins as she teaches them and their family valuable life lessons. Her methods may be other worldly but their impact has touched generations of children and adults who still believe in magic.
Jane and Michael Banks are missing. They have run off on another nanny and she has given up looking for them. With a mother who is focused on her political causes and a father who is dedicated to his career, the children have little concern for the nanny of the moment or what kind of trouble they may get into.
When they are returned home by a constable, Mr. Banks decides he must hire the new nanny. He is also adamant that she has certain qualifications: firm, respectable, no nonsense. The children also have qualifications: kind, loves games, no warts.
Mary Poppins arrives on the East wind, and sweeps into 17 Cherry Tree Lane. The Banks children are in desperate need of structure but also of compassion and understanding. Poppins gives them a small taste of the magic to come by singing them a working song to clean the nursery.
A Spoonful of Sugar is an earworm, written by the prolific Sherman Brothers. It was based on an idea Robert Sherman had after his son told him that he and his classmates were given the Polio Vaccine via sugar cube. The idea that something sweet can make a chore become more manageable isn’t a new concept, but the way Mary Poppins implores her wards to participate with this small bit of wisdom sets the tone for the rest of the film.
In this moment we don’t need to see the children or Poppins eat sugar cubes, instead the magic that she uses is the treat to make the chore fun. Cleaning the nursery might not be anyone’s idea of a swinging good time but with a snap of her fingers, Poppins inspires the children to see what kind of magic they can possess. After seeing what Poppins can do with their messy room, the children are ready to believe she can do anything.
Mary Poppins takes the children to the park and there they meet Bert, the chimney sweep, and go on an adventure into a chalk drawing. They ride carousel horses and participate in a fox hunt before a down pour washes the painting away. The group is soaked to the bone, and Poppins and the children bid Bert farewell.
When they return to the nursery, Mary doles out spoons to Jane and Michael and pours them a serving of cold medicine. All the medicine comes from one bottle but each spoonful is a different flavor. Jane’s is flavored lime cordial, Michael’s strawberry and Rum punch for Mary Poppins. The enjoyable flavors here call back to the Spoonful of Sugar in the earlier song.
Though both children begin to protest the medicine, they accept it readily when they realize the flavors are not the normal unpleasant medicinal types. A spoonful of something delicious here, literally makes the medicine go down.
This call back is subtle and many may not even realize it is happening as it seems so nonchalant, but as with many of the lessons in Mary Poppins carpet bag, by taking the medicine the practice has come full circle.
After a tea party on the ceiling with Bert’s Uncle Albert, Mr. Banks tries to fire Mary Poppins but she finesses him into agreeing to take the children to work the next day instead. While putting them to bed, she sings them a song called “Feed the Birds”.
The song is about the bird woman of St. Paul’s cathedral. She tells them how the woman calls to passersby to feed the birds, “tuppence a bag”. The song is about the act of pure charity, and the birds being fed could be a metaphor for children or even the underserved as a whole. The point of this lesson is to highlight the harsh greed of the bank and the idea of what qualifies as waste through the eyes of both Mr. Banks and his children.
The audience is shown both the selfless act of the bird woman and the theoretical investments of the bank. The altruistic nature of the children is nonsense to the jaded bank managers, but even the small voice of Michael, as he demands to feed the birds, causes a full-blown melt down as other patrons demand their money back.
Feeding the birds, and giving money to someone who needs it in the immediate rather than investing in an uncertain future is the point of this parable. Mary Poppins has instilled the idea of giving to the needy in her wards and they in turn teach this lesson to their father. Michael gives his cherished coins to Mr. Banks when sensing he is now also in need of aid.
The lessons taught by Mary Poppins to her young wards may not fit the normal movie food criteria that I address here on the Eat the Pictures but I think that the way Poppins feeds the minds of Jane and Michael and the Banks home as a whole is just as important as the tea the cook serves for Mr. Bank’s breakfast. The morals and values Jane and Michael will take with them from the nursery and into the real world have been influenced by Poppins’ positivity. When she arrived, 17 Cherry Tree Lane was a war zone and when she departs its inhabitants are filled with optimism for the future.
Mary Poppins magic has fed the minds and souls of all the Banks family members and they will take her lessons on into life with out her.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Birds of Prey (and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Cathy Yan, Birds of Prey picks up after the events of DC’s Suicide Squad. If you need a primer on the dysfunctional relationship of Harley Quinn and the Joker, I’d direct you to Batman: The Animated Series, The Batman Adventures: Mad Love single issue comic, or Batman: Harley Quinn the graphic novel. The condensed version goes something like this: Psychiatrist falls for her mad man patient, joins him in his criminal antics, and as expected, it doesn’t work out.
Starring Margot Robbie, Jurnee Smolett, Ewan MacGregor and Rosie Perez, the film starts as Harley is beginning her new life, single and ready to move on from the Joker. Her relationship troubles might be over but her personal issues continue to grow. Her routine of using violence and alcohol to solve her problems, sets more villains on her trail as soon as her split from the Joker becomes public.
Food plays a unique role in this story. For someone who is basically driven insane by love, a borderline sexual passion for food doesn’t seem all that out of the question. Harley’s journey starts, 6 hours after she blows up the chemical plant where her and the Joker first declared their love for each other.
2 fried eggs, bacon, American cheese, hot buttered roll, just a dash of hot sauce: The Perfect Bacon, Egg, and cheese. A New York City staple seems like an obvious choice for Harley’s perfect meal as Gotham City is based heavily on the Big Apple.
The sandwich creation is shot in slow motion, a fan blowing Harley’s hair back as she gazes lovingly at the steaming grill. All that’s missing is Careless Whisper playing in the background. This is her first meal after coming to terms with her break up and starting out with a new look on life. She’s putting her love on a new subject.
Unfortunately for her and for the sandwich, the news of her break up has spread, and the immunity she relied on as the Joker’s girl has disappeared. Renee Montoya, Gotham Detective, chases Harley through the streets and after a short pursuit, tackles her to the pavement.
The sandwich goes flying, breaking into several pieces and splattering on to the black top. Harley may be ready to move on from her past, but her past isn’t ready to let her go just yet. Her former misdeeds are coming to collect, and they’re out for blood.
Even though she escapes from Montoya, Harley is picked up by Roman Sionis’s goons. Sionis is another criminal big wig, and he wants Harley dead for all the trouble she’s caused him in her long career of mischief making. They cut a deal, he won’t kill her if she can get back his stolen diamond.
Of course, because this is a colorful comic book movie, this can’t be easy. The diamond has been swallowed by a pick pocket named Cassandra who Harley breaks out of jail but doesn’t turn over to Sionis for fear of what he might do to the girl. The pair narrowly escape being blown up but are still being hunted by the cross-bow wielding Huntress, songstress Dinah Lance and Detective Montoya.
Even though Harley has sworn her old life is over, she and Cassandra end up at Amusment Mile, an old Joker hide out. There, a confrontation with the three other women leads the unlikely team to join forces against Sionis to first protect Cassandra and ultimately prevent the mob from getting back the diamond.
The team have all be victimized by Sionis and his gang enough times to know they can’t defeat him alone. Huntress, real name Helena Bertonelli, watched her entire family die by his hand. Dinah is trapped in his network of criminal enterprises. Montoya is the detective who decided to stand against him in a town full of dirty cops.
Harley has spent the entirety of this film telling the audience how independent she is now that she is free of the Joker. Her new life is based in the idea that she doesn’t need anyone to get by or rely on. This idea is proven wrong the moment she realizes there’s more than just her own skin on the line.
The group fight Sionis’s gang and win with the help of Dinah’s superpowered lungs and Harley’s roller skating skills. Harley frees not only herself but also the rest of Gotham from Sionis’s clutches. Of course, this is Gotham City so another bad guy will rise to the top soon, but for the moment they have some peace.
Harley takes Cassandra under her wing and together they finally get to enjoy their Bacon Egg and Cheese as they ride into the sunset.
The Bacon Egg and Cheese is a delicious metaphor. In the beginning of the film, Harley is depressed, lonely, and heart broken. She thinks the sandwich is what will start her new life, free from the control of a man and independent. What she learns is that sometimes to gain our own independence we have to learn when to ask for help and when to help others.
Over the course of the film Harley continues her journey from Joker’s Harlequin of Hate to Harley Quinn: Mercenary for hire. Her existence is no longer mischief for mischiefs sake, she’s on a new path.
When she and Cassandra take the first bite of their sandwiches, they are truly onto the next step of their existence. They don’t need a man or a mob boss to protect them, because they’re a team and they can lean on each other. Even if they continue their life of antihero antics, they have their own code of honor and in a city full of questionable morals like Gotham any kind of honor is better than none at all.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Clue
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Clue.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Clue, based on the Parker Brothers board game and directed by Jonathan Lynn, takes the classic murder mystery and injects it with witty satire and slapstick humor. 6 mysterious guests meet for a dinner party where their dastardly blackmailer is killed. Hijinx ensue.
Starring Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn and Eileen Brennan, the film follows a comedic version of the detective trope and puts its now legendary cast to good use. On top of the prat falls and piercingly witty one liners, the film uses the dinner party story line to draw the audience into the caper and keep them firmly engrossed in the mystery.
The story begins in New England, 1954. This is an important detail both for the later character breakdown but also to remind the audience that the customs and etiquette are different from the laid-back ways of the mid 80’s. This is post-World War 2 America and later, when discussions of communism and socialism begin, it’s important to remember the era these characters exist in.
When the guests, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlett and Mr. Green arrive, they are greeted by Wadsworth, the butler. He shows them one by one to the library for before dinner aperitif’s and then, at the sound of the gong, to the dining room, where they begin to unravel the reason for their attendance.
At the dinner table the guests are first served Sharks Fin Soup. Though the eating of shark’s fin is now prohibited in most places, in 1954 and for decades previous, shark fin soup was a delicacy in Cantonese cuisine and served to royalty on special occasions.
Surprisingly, the demand for shark’s fins more than doubled from 1985 (the year this film was released) to 2001, when the wealth gap from middle to upper class in China grew smaller. The high costs of the soup were meant to be impressive to guests, and the idea of grandiose dishes, in the elaborate mansion where this party is taking place, makes sense.
The Second course served is Monkey’s Brains, Mrs. Peacock’s favorite dish and another infamous dish. Though there is limited proof that any humans actually consume the brains of primates, this dish is a metaphor for basic cruelty and has been used many times in film history to highlight the callous nature of humans.
Monkey’s brains have been featured in another classic film: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In 1984, a year before Clue, the disgusting feast scene featured the Thuggee cult leaders eating snake, bugs and yes, chilled Monkey’s Brains. This scene is followed by one depicting human sacrifice, really demonstrating how evil these characters are to the viewers.
Unfortunately this is section of Clue, while it gives a nice introduction to each character as they sit, is a blatant example of Orientalism, the imitation or depiction of the far east, usually from a western eye, or anti-Asian sentiments.
When the movie begins we are introduced to the maid, Yvette, and the cook, an older Asian woman. She is not given a name, but her appearance is harsh and she sharpens a large knife. Giving the viewer an idea that this person might be a brutalist and then having her serve the guests classic, if not oppressive, Cantonese dishes, paints her in a negative light.
Having Monkey’s Brains be Mrs. Peacock’s favorite food sets her up as a villainous presence in the house and when the cook is later found dead, Mrs. Peacock is the only one not present in the scene.
Later in the film, after the corpses have piled up and the party guests have investigated as thoroughly as possible, Wadsworth walks the group through his maniac theory of how the murders were committed.
When the film was released, one of the things that drove critics mad was the ending. Different theaters received different prints and each of the prints could have one of three solutions. Two of these solutions names Mrs. Peacock as the cook’s murderer and it is revealed that the cook was previously her cook, who made Cantonese dishes regularly in the Peacock home.
The Cook was also a part of the black mail scheme, further tying her to not only an ominous past but also to the villains of her story: The blackmailer and her eventual killers. Both of the characters who were involved with and enjoyed the Monkey’s Brain dish, are outed as wrong doers.
As of late, anti-Asian sentiment, and the ensuing violence it has incited, has been making headlines across the US. Small details, like the ones in this film, that have underlying racist messages instill unconscious bias in viewers even though they may not realize that is what’s happening.
By making shark fin soup and monkey’s brains part of the punch line, it gives the viewer permission to laugh at these dishes and instills a gross out factor that is unsettling at best and sickening at worst. The fetishization of Asian foods, making them taboo or frightening, is just one-way orientalism has popped up in film history.
Eating Monkey’s brains as an indicator of cruelty or strangeness, began as anti- Asian propaganda by a writer who embellished Chinese eating habits in 1948. This film takes place only a handful of years after that, and so the request for an Asian cook to make tongue in cheek dishes during that era might not have been unusual. We must remember however, that this film was made in the mid-eighties and though the idea of eating simulated brains might have been funny at the time, in today’s world even this example of fetishization is harmful.
Though the orientalism of food in this film is just a small detail in the overarching plot of the story, it is this kind of nonchalant racism that can unknowingly breed hate.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hop
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Star Wars Episode 4, A New Hope.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
As we travel further into film history and the many foods that make it memorable, you might realize that I am a self-described nerd. I am unapologetic about this fact and I celebrate it regularly. So, it is to my great joy, that I have come to the first of several Star Wars episodes.
A New Hope, or simply Star Wars when it first debuted, directed by George Lucas, defines the franchise film as we know it today. Though the passage of time has made the film infamous for its nostalgia and its fans dedication, the best way to look at the edible items featured is through the lens of making space as relatable as possible to the viewer.
Starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Alec Guiness, Star Wars redefined the idea of a space opera in the late 70’s and early eighties. Whereas classical Science fiction relied heavily on technology and the effects of scientific progress on society, Star Wars focuses on adventure, interplanetary warfare and melodramatic romance.
A New Hope focuses on Luke Skywalker as he leaves home to save a mysterious princess from the clutches of the evil Empire. He teams up with Obi Wan Kenobi, a Jedi in hiding, two smugglers, Han Solo and Chewbacca, and 2 scrappy droids, C3P0 and R2D2, and charges head first into danger.
As they rescue the princess, Leia Organa, Luke discovers he has an affinity for The Force, the power that unites all living beings. He and the rag tag crew join Leia in the Rebellion against the Empire and fight Darth Vader for victory of light over darkness.
Though the overarching idea of the hero’s journey defines A New Hope, the original audience of the late 1970’s was years away from the internet age, and telling them a story with its own world and laws was a huge under taking. To find Luke Skywalker, George Lucas had to first invent the universe.
Thinking of the 1970’s and its food trends, the first things that come to mind are not the most evergreen. Jell-O salad, cheese fondue, and ambrosia with marshmellows were popular through the decade but when we think of staple items, it’s easier to return to the basics, items on the food pyramid, like fruit, vegetables or grain.
When we first meet Luke Skywalker he is living on a planet called Tatooine, with his aunt and uncle. They are moisture farmers and live isolated in the desert. Luke is a common teenage boy, looking for belonging outside of his meager life.
Like many families, Luke and his Aunt and Uncle meet over the dinner table to discuss on going issues in their lives. While many kids aren’t rushing off to fight a space war, lots of them are eager to expand their horizons, and fly from the nest. Luke is no different, though his normal involves fixing power converters and debriding droids instead of algebra homework.
To make Luke more relatable to his audience, the dinner table discussion is as normal as can be. His Aunt pours Luke a glass of milk and he helps himself to a scoop of casserole. To the casual observer this meal is average, but when we look closer, there are obvious differences.
Most notably the milk is blue.
In the 1970’s American’s drank upwards of 31 gallons of milk each, yearly. Giving Luke his own special beverage that is both familiar and different to the drink’s kids were enjoying, made him both relatable and fantastic. Everyone drinks milk, but Luke, he’s from space so the milk he drinks is other worldly.
Blue Milk, though it only appears on screen in this film briefly has become a cultural phenomenon. Not only is the drink featured in other Star Wars films, cartoons and comics but it’s also been featured in non-Star Wars media. The most innovative ideation can be found in the Disney Parks where you can actually try it for yourself. They made the fantastical drink into a reality.
Using basic food items as a connection between everyday viewer and fictional character is an effective way to build a foundation for believable storytelling. If the filmmaker can make his main character sympathetic, he can build an entire universe of conflict and resolution on that character shoulders.
If we’re being strictly objective, the portion of the film examined here isn’t especially thrilling. The second half of this film is nonstop galactic battle scenes and jaw dropping explosions, but I think the no frills world building is part of what gives this story life. The audience can see the way the characters navigate this world, and since this world completely fictional, it gives the simple existence of each character more depth.
The struggle of the hero to find a place to fit in, is not an unusual trope in storytelling. What makes Luke unique is the fact that he lives on a planet very different from our own earth, in a situation that is specific to his story. Other than that, he’s a normal kid who wants to hang out with his friends and have adventures and drink Blue milk.
By simply showing Luke and his family around the dinner table, arguing over small daily chores, George Lucas made Luke into a character that is easily relatable and has made a lasting impression on generations worth of viewers. Luke could be anyone: a farm boy, a gear head, a lonely adventurer. Luke is you and me and anyone who looks to the stars and dreams of what else is out there in the world.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Ratatouille
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this is Disney Pixar’s Ratatouille.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Ratatouille, directed by Brad Bird, is a story of overcoming odds, no matter how overpowering they may seem. The protagonist of this film, Remy, is a rat, so by nature most obstacles are larger than life. As we learn about Remy and his dreams of a wider world, we can see how his passion for food creates both opportunity and turmoil for the tiny chef.
Starring Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, and Peter O’Toole, Ratatouille follows both Remy and his human counterpart, Linguini, as they navigate the competitive world of French cooking. Their very different paths lead to the same end, Chef Auguste Gusteau’s kitchen.
As I said, Remy is a rat, but he is no ordinary rodent. He has the nose of a culinary expert and he uses it to dream up new recipes and dishes, as he lives his underwhelming rat life. While he dreams of the kitchen, his rat colony appoints him poison detector, a less than perfect situation. He sneaks away to the kitchen of an old woman, and reads cook books and watches cooking shows, something his brother, Emile, and father frown upon.
The other rats see food as a staple to survive. They eat garbage and scraps because they see survival as the most important factor. They couldn’t care less about the taste or sanitary aspects of their meals, as long as the meals continue to come and are enough for the whole colony to survive.
When his less than satisfactory existence is up turned, Remy ends up in Paris on the door step of the restaurant of his inspiration, Chef Gusteau.
“Anyone can cook” is Gusteau’s motto and Remy takes this sentiment to heart. If anyone can cook, even a rat can become a master chef.
Linguini ends up at Gusteau’s for an entirely different reason. He has no cooking experience and no idea how a kitchen works, but is hired as the garbage boy as a favor to his deceased mother. It is here that Remy and Linguini meet, and combine Remy’s culinary talent with Linguini’s human appearance to benefit them both.
The kitchen is a high-speed train and Linguini balances on top of it as it speeds through evenings of high demand meals. Remy perches atop Linguini’s head directing him through Gusteau’s recipes and his own additions. Collette, the sous chef, doesn’t understand how Linguini can change Gusteau’s recipes, improvising ingredients and updating old dishes, but it is Remy who is puppeteering the motions.
Remy uses food as an escape. The art of combining ingredients and tastes to create symphonies of flavor gives him purpose in a life dedicated to consuming garbage. He risks his life to be in a kitchen full of humans who would kill him without hesitation, but his love of food and his belief in Gusteau, keep him coming back.
While Remy has a passion for food and for flavor, Linguini is a victim of circumstance. His compassion for Remy and his inability to say no to his employer, put him in the spotlight of the restaurant, and when his relation to Gusteau is discovered, the spot light of the press.
A food critic, Anton Ego, comes to the restaurant and challenges Linguini to cook for him, something new and exciting, to prove his prior reviews wrong. Remy and Linguini clash and when Remy is cast out, he retaliates by bringing his entire rat colony into the kitchen.
The colony has hit the jackpot. They gather in the walk in fridge, collecting grapes and wheels of cheese, ready to feast on their spoils, but as they gather treats to take, Linguini returns and finds the kitchen full of rats. He feels betrayed by Remy’s stealing and tells the tiny chef to leave and never return.
Remy can’t stay away. He knows he’s a chef and nothiner can change that. He returns to the restaurant, prepared to suffer the consequences of being a rat in the kitchen, when Linguini saves him from a butcher’s knife.
The jig is finally up for the pair, and the other staff walk out when they find out about Remy and Linguini’s secret. Ego’s arrival is imminent, but instead of quitting, Remy enlists his rodent family to act as his team, mixing sauces, preparing soups, and plating entrée’s for unsuspecting dinner patrons. Collette also returns, her faith in Linguini, and her belief in Gusteau’s motto, out weighing her apprehension about a rat chef.
Ratatouille: a French dish of stewed vegetables, including but not limited to Zucchini, Eggplant, Tomato, and Bell Pepper. It’s a humble dish, simple but elegant. Remy insists this is the dish he wants to prepare for Ego, and the team sets out, layer vegetables and herbs into a beautiful dish.
The dish is set in front of Ego and with the first bite he is transported back to his childhood. His mother’s table and the simple meal filled with love for a child. His shock is obvious, and he drops his acid pen, devouring the meal down to the clean plate.
Of course, even with the elations from Ego’s review, the restaurant is shuttered. Rats in the kitchen is a pretty severe health code violation, one known by too many now to keep a secret. But even with that set back both Remy and Linguini have learned something not only from Gusteau but also from each other.
Anyone can cook. Anyone from anywhere can have the potential to be great, if they are willing to take the risk.
This film is so special because it shows the most extreme case of perseverance in a relatable way. We all have things we aspire to, and maybe those things can only come when our personal obstacles can be defeated. In Remy’s case, there is no overcoming his obstacle. He is a rat and will continue to be no matter how hard he works.
He is also a chef, and will continue to be no matter how many hurdles he must jump. His passion is what makes him so endearing. The two parts of him, rat and chef, unite to give his dishes a new perspective, one that is unexpected to even the most seasoned Gourmands.
The dishes in Ratatouille are animated but they have surprising weight and dimension, given by Remy’s love of each ingredient and the rich colors used by the animators in each frame. The film can draw the same mouthwatering reaction that a live cooking show might get, with just the ideation of each dish and the symphony conducted by our rodent guide.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Chocolat
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat. Today let’s take a look at Chocolat.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom, Chocolat revolves around not only the fear of outsiders but also the fear of peers and the perceptions of community when members do not perfectly conform. Chocolate is the perfect metaphor, used to give a physical presence to sin, doubt, and love throughout the film.
Starring Johnny Depp, Alfred Molina, Juliette Binoche, and Judy Dench, Chocolat tells the story of a quaint town, turned on its head when a new presence brings change and fresh perspective to the strict religious community. Not only is this community repressed, it is also observing Lent, a time traditionally dedicated to abstaining and self-flagellation. The presence of chocolate is seen as a direct attack on the town’s way of life.
Vianne and her daughter, Anouk, sweep into town, a red blur in a sea of gray, and take up shop in the patisserie. They scrub and sweep, paint and sculpt, creating a temple for Vianne to display her beautiful creations. Decadent chocolate sculptures, creamy chocolate brews, and piles of chocolate candies decorate the patisserie, surrounding Vianne’s customers in temptation. The chocolate in Vianne’s copper pot is like liquid gold, and she is Midas, creating new sweets to entice the villagers into her shop.
Le Comte Reynaud, the mayor and heavy influence on the Catholic towns people, works hard to turn the people against Vianne. He starts rumors, telling the villagers that she is a wanton woman, with no religious ties. Vianne’s very presence is a threat to the power of the church and the Comte himself.
Vianne and her chocolate are synonymous with “other”. Not only is Vianne an atheist, unconcerned with the towns religious traditions, she is a foreigner in a land of traditional French people. Her Mayan heritage and nomadic upbringing are strange to the stagnant people around her. The chocolate is tip of the iceberg, covering the many assumed disparities in Vianne’s life.
Vianne’s unconditional affection draws people closer. She does not have the imagined rules of the church to dictate her actions or her acceptance. Armande, her landlord, becomes a close friend, as well as Josephine, a battered house wife. Vianne works to reunite Armaund with her grandson, connecting with Armande over spiced hot chocolate. Josephine comes to Vianne when her husband abuses her, and Vianne takes her in without question, teaching her the fundamentals of chocolate making and giving her back personal power.
Chocolate also acts as a unifier. At first, the people of the town one by one go to confession. Their priest, the only person they feel comfortable telling their dark desires to. They commiserate, hoping for the forgiveness of God for their indulgence in Vianne’s sweets. Slowly, they become fixtures in the shop. Armande at the bar, drinking hot cocoa, Josephine creating new treats for their neighbors.
River travelers come to the small town, their boats decorating the river bank with color and music. Like Vianne, the town sees these visitors as a threat. Each new way of life, a compromise on the beliefs of the church. Instead of bowing to the will of the Comte and his rigid ideals, Vianne celebrates her difference by accepting the travelers and their leader Roux, making them feel welcome in her shop and her life.
The Comte and his puppet priest, preach the dangers of outsiders and chocolate, giving the towns people more fear than ever. Instead of folding, Vianne decides to throw a party for Armande. She invites friends and neighbors, and Roux, to celebrate and feast on decadent offerings. They surround a table filled with platters of shrimp and turkey, rich gravies, and wine, a companionable silence as they chew and enjoy the flavors of each bite.
This group, once so separated by fear now sit together, dance together with a joy they have not expressed in their lives in such a long time. They move with love and carefree spirit, forgetting their perceived sins and separate in favor of peace and quiet confidence. Vianne has become the mediator, combining the groups to create one unified core of friendship and love.
Armande passes away, her diabetes aggravated by the sweets she enjoyed, and the North wind picks up, shaking Vianne’s conviction in her decisions. Her mother was a wanderer, moving from city to city, just as Vianne has done. She feels defeated both by the Comte and by her own self-doubt. It would be easy to pick up and move on to the next location, starting over and forgetting the people and the friends she has made. As they prepare to leave, the urn carrying her mother’s ashes shatters, breaking Vianne from her grief and doubt.
Vianne discovers that her friends in the village have united to make chocolate, and help her prepare for the festival she had been planning before deciding to leave. Seeing these people, once so at odds, come together to create the chocolate of her people, gives Vianne new hope.
Both Vianne and the sweets she creates, have an emotional effect on all the people they touch. The measure of her influence is infinite but becomes vividly apparent on Easter Sunday. The Comte, so overwhelmed by not only his own short comings but also the defiance of Vianne and her friends, sets out to destroy the chocolate display. His knife hacks into the chocolate molds, breaking each tiny sculpture into pieces. As he swings the chocolate flies into his face, landing on his lips. It only takes on small taste to send him into a frenzy. He lays among the candy, crying himself into a sugary sleep, that is broken only by Vianne and her antacid mixture the next morning. The Comte has been nothing by cruel to her, but she takes his weakness and vulnerability for what it is the realized needs of a hurting man.
Chocolate plays so many roles in this film: divider, unifier, destroyer and healer. It coats everything in its path with the possibility to be more, and it brings out the truth. The viewer can see each new chocolate served by Vianne as an olive branch, she reaches out with her sweets to bring people into her circle. The chocolate serves as an opening into her world. She is different but she is not closed off, willing to grant each customer or friend entrance to her small family.
Chocolate also plays the destroyer and healer, specifically for Armande and her grandson who use Vianne’s shop as a neutral zone. They meet there to reconnect and learn about each other away from Luc’s mother’s controlling watch. Unfortunately, as they indulge together, Armande’s diabetes is unforgiving and she makes the choice to spend as much time with Luc as the disease will allow instead of following the rules or her doctor’s orders.
Throughout the film, chocolate is the center of the conflict between the characters but not only that it plays a catalyst for character development and change. By the end of the story, we can see that the people of the town have not only accepted Vianne as one of their own, they have also accepted that there is more good in what you have done and who you have supported rather than in the abstinence of joy or the punishment of others.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and don’t forget to like and subscribe where ever you listen to podcasts/. Information on works mentioned in this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Hairpsray (2007)
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and today we’ll be looking at food, racism and fatphobia in Hairspray.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Hairspray, directed by Adam Shankman, is a musical about self-discovery. The film follows Tracy Turnblad, a Baltimore teen, who wants more than anything to dance on her favorite local TV show. She’s not the normal TV dancer, a little heavier and a little more outspoken, but she doesn’t let either of those things stop her from chasing and achieving her dreams.
Starring Nikki Blonksy, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, John Travolta, Michelle Pfifer, and James Marsden, Hairspray is a combination of self-realization and societal awareness. In 1962, Baltimore was racially segregated but the Civil Rights movement was in full swing, but The Corny Collins Show, only has one day a month where Black dancers are featured, “negro day”.
Tracy is energetic and full of hope, even in her less than perfect existence. She’s unapologetically unique, and uses her confidence to guide her through the world. Her biggest dream is to become a famous dancer and she gets the chance to audition for her favorite show. Her friend Penny accompanies her, and together they get to experience the judgmental cruelty of Amber, the lead dancer, and Mrs. VonTussel, her mother and the show’s manager.
During the audition we get the full idea of just how racist and fatphobic the show’s environment is. Mrs. Von Tussel leads the lead dancers in a mean round robin of insults and questions, and when they get to Tracy they immediately attack her for her size. Mrs. Von Tussel also points out that she doesn’t eat sweets, to keep her figure small. The final strike is when Tracy says she is “all for integration,” a shock to the racist Von Tussels.
Mrs. Turnblad hasn’t left her home in years. She is embarrassed by the way her looks have changed with her age, she’s worried about weight gained and the way her neighbors will react to her appearance. The Turnblad home is full of contradiction, one side dominated by Mrs. Turnblad’s fear and the other by Tracy’s joy. When Tracy is cast as a dancer, she turns her mother’s ideas on their head. Once this loving mother thought the size of her daughter’s body might prevent her from achieving her dream, but nothing will stop Tracy.
When Mrs. Turnblad gets the courage to leave her home and venture out into the changing world, she and Tracy end up at a diner. They are wearing matching pink sequined dresses and enjoy pieces of pie topped with whip cream. While enjoying their desserts they have a run in with the Von Tussel’s, professed disapprovers of people who eat dessert. The cruel words of Tracy’s rivals, make her mother fall back into self-conscious habits, but Tracy reassures her.
The two different relationships between mother and daughter show how growing up in a loving home versus one full of competition can produce 2 very different children. Tracy wants her mother to feel beautiful and live a life outside of their small home. Amber and her mother egg each other on, one upping the cruelty of the other. Even in appearance the duos are opposite. Brunette to blond, sharp to round, soft to hard.
Tracy makes friends with a Black boy, Seaweed and his sister Ines. They invite Tracy to their mother, Motormouth Mabel’s Platter party, a gathering of friends and neighbors with plenty of food to go around. Tracy can be comfortable just about anywhere she can dance and she finds a safe place here in Mabel’s record store. Just as they start to dance Mrs. Turnblad shows up to take Tracy home.
The turning point in this moment is the table full of cornbread, greens and braised meat, as Mrs. Turnblad is persuaded to stay with the promise of something delicious. Mabel sings “I’m big, blonde and beautiful, there is nothing about us that’s unsuitable. Why sit in the bleachers, timid and afraid, when Edna you look like the whole parade?” Mabel is unapologetic about her appearance and her Blackness. Something that inspires both Mrs. Turnblad and the dancing teens in the shop.
The Platter Party gives the characters a reason to gather, eating as a group and enjoying each other’s company. Mabel is a giver, she wants to support her kids and her neighbors and she does so with good music and good food. She also uses the spread to soften the blow of bad news, their day on Corny Collins has been canceled.
There are two conflicts in the film: Turnblad vs. Von Tussel being the center point but the entire story is influenced by Race and Racism. The cancelling of “negro day” and aggression of the white Von Tussel’s, paint a condensed picture of the racism present both in the television studio and also in Baltimore.
Both issues come to a head in the finale scene during the Miss Teenage Hairspray competition. While the dancers go through the motions of the pagent, Tracy and her allies sneak into the studio and take over the broadcast, dancing together Black and White on television for the first time. In the end Lil Inez, win the competition and the Corny Collins show becomes integrated.
The food in Hairspray is largely unseen, missing meals that are mentioned in dialogue more than they are featured on screen. We know that food plays a large part in the lives of the Turnblad’s because it comes up in conversation but also because it comes up in song more often than not. In fact, almost every singing character has a line of song that mentions food in one form or another. The Von Tussel’s speak of food as a forbidden item, while the Turnblads, Mabel and her children all sing of food as something to be enjoyed and shared.
Tracy’s first song “Good Morning Baltimore” begins with the lyrics “woke up today, feeling the way I always do. Hungry for something that I can’t eat, then I hear that beat.” She classifies her own desire as hunger, a tone setting lyric that leads the audience to imagine Tracy’s ambition as a basic need: Food, Water, Shelter, Dance.
At the Platter party, Motormouth Mabel sings “Bring on that pecan pie, pour some sugar on it, sugar, don't be shy. Scoop me up a mess of that chocolate swirl, don’t be stingy, I'm a growing girl.” She doesn’t need to be seen eating anything for the audience to know that she’s enjoying herself, and she doesn’t feel any guilt for indulging. Her happiness is infectious, and her joy rubs off on Mrs. Turnblad almost immediately. Seeing another woman who is unashamed by her size or her needs is refreshing especially in a culture of fatphobia like the one on Corny Collin’s show.
Seaweed’s song “Run and Tell That” combines the racism element with food singing “The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice. I could saw it ain’t so but darlin’ what’s the use? The darker the chocolate, the richer the taste.” His perspective is so important, especially because he and his family are the main targets of racism in the film. He puts Blackness in context by using a metaphor that’s relatable: food.
In the finale song “You Can’t Stop the Beat”, Mrs. Turnblad takes the stage and sings “You can stop my happiness, cause I like the way I am. And you just can’t stop my knife and fork when I see a Christmas Ham. So, If you don’t like the way I look, well I just don’t give a damn.” She has found the confidence her daughter has tried to instill in her from the beginning. To see these two women, carefree and dancing, with Lil Inez on a stage that was built to oppress them is thrilling.
Hairspray uses food in a unique way, by not making it a character or a prop but by giving it a thematic responsibility. Food is a motivator, a reward, and in some cases an insult. It is elevated from bit player at a dining table, to ever present, and it colors both decision and tone. By taking something as basic as eating and turning it into a complex character trait, we can see how the words each character sings about food is a branch of their personality. Tracy has motivation, Mrs. Turnbald: confidence, Seaweed and Mabel: pride.
The audience can see that even if the food isn’t on screen for them to enjoy, just the mention of it in different ways can create the same response. Mabel doesn’t have to eat the pie on screen for us to know that she is going to enjoy it, without reservation. Mrs. Turnblad doesn’t have to eat a Christmas Ham for us to know that she has the confidence to do so unapologetically.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
The Hundred Foot Journey
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat and today we will be breaking down the beautiful French and Indian cuisine seen in The Hundred Foot Journey.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
The Hundred Foot Journey, directed by Lasse Halestrom and based on the novel by Richard C. Morais, is a story of culinary and cultural discovery.
Starring Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, and Charlotte Le Bon; the film follows the Kadam family, displaced from their Mumbai home by political uprising, as they enter into a different kind of conflict with their new neighbors in the south of France. Though this story is one of ethnic differences and finding common ground, the colorful Indian dishes and classic French sauces give the viewer a tangible gateway into the minds of chefs in both fictional kitchens.
Hassan Kadam, a cook taught in the Indian tradition by his mother, is a fish out of water in his new French home. The film opens in a market in Mumbai, where a young Hassan follows his mother after a fishmonger. He revels at the sight of a large basket filled with fresh sea urchin, a delicacy. He can tell by the smell of the black shellfish; how precious the spiny creatures are. The sea urchin sets a tone for Hassan. He has a gift, to taste and experience the delicious things created over a hot stove. After his mother’s tragic death, Hassan takes the lessons she taught him and gives that gift to patrons in the new family restaurant, Maison Mumbai.
Just one hundred feet away, Madam Mallory’s Michelin starred kitchen is serving classical French dishes to their own patrons. Sous Chef Marguerite welcomes the Kadam’s into her home and gives Hassan the tools to learn French cuisine. She and Hassan share a passion for food and a drive to prove themselves in the kitchen.
While the Kadam’s struggle to find solid footing, Mallory and her kitchen staff do everything they can think of to ruin Maison Mumbai’s chances. From buying out their needed ingredients to racist vandalism, the war between French classical and new Indian wages. It’s not until a fire damages both Hassan’s hands with burns and the restaurant, that Madame Mallory takes a step back to truly look across the narrow village road that separates the two restaurants.
The food offered in Maison Mumbai, like most Indian dishes, is served with a communal experience in mind. Dishes of curries and plates of Naan to share with family and friends. Piles of rice to scoop with sauce laden fingers. The best part of a meal is sharing it with friends in rooms filled with laughter and music, and the Kadam’s restaurant encourages the joy that comes with a delicious meal. Le Saule Pleureur has a more formal style. White linens and fine china, to match the dishes of Pidgeon and soufflé. This experience is more elite, and while the dishes are delicious here as well, the food is placed on a pedestal to be praised perhaps rather than enjoyed.
French cuisine is based in the 5 mother sauces: Tomato, Hollandaise, espangole, veloute (vuh-loo-TAY), and Beshamel. Similarly, in Indian cuisine there are 5 base spices that influence most dishes: turmeric, cumin, cayenne, coriander and mustard seed. The two cuisines, are separated by 1000’s of miles, but share a foundation built on tradition. The two restaurants in this story are just 100 feet apart but seem fundamentally foreign to each other, but Hassan and Madame Mallory both love the culinary arts and that love is what bridges the cultural gap between their two styles.
An Omelet: a dish of eggs, milk and the ingredients of the eater’s choice. A simple dish but one that can decide the fate of chefs in Madame Mallory’s kitchen. With his burnt hands, Hassan and his would-be mentor, create an omelet together from Hassan’s recipe. He shows her what spices to add and how much, how to whisk the eggs, and how to flip the final product. The omelet is sharp and cool and hot in the mouth, and it sets Hassan’s path forward to learn from Madame Mallory and expand both of their pallets in the face of change.
Mr. Kadam asks Madame Mallory why, if you have spice, would you sprinkle it and not spoon it in? Hassan brings his blend of spice to the French dishes, giving new life to the cuisine and bringing Madame Mallory her second Michelin star. The star brings new opportunity and rockets Hassan into celebrity chef status in Paris, where he experiments with Indian flavors and molecular gastronomy. The star gives him a freedom to be creative in his cooking, but as his comet burns bright, Hassan is consumed with thoughts of home.
Why is it that when we sometimes reach our goals, we find that what we thought we wanted isn’t truly what we were looking for at all? Hassan, a dreamer and excellent chef, longed for a chance to prove himself worthy. His dishes are praised by critics and fans alike, but his letters home yearn for the local ingredients and familiar tastes that his new dishes lack. A sea urchin dish, not prepared perfectly in his kitchen, sets Hassan into an emotional spiral that ends with tears cried into a dish of traditional Indian food, prepared by the wife of a member of his kitchen staff. The flavors of his family, of his mother, remind Hassan that the best food isn’t served in a fancy restaurant or cost thousands of dollars. The best food is shared with those that we love and cherished along with our memories.
Sea Urchin, a spiny shellfish with yellow insides, the salty tongue of the sea. The story ends where it began. Hassan returns to Le Saule Pleureur to cook the meal his mother taught him to make and forge a new partnership with Marguerite and Madame Mallory. A delicacy of both east and west, the urchin unites both cuisines, French and Indian, as Hassan and Marguerite combine forge a new path. Through both cuisines we can see change as it grows roots and flourishes. The two halves, French and Indian, merge to form a new whole.
Xenophobia: The fear of strangers, is a broad term that may be applied to any fear of someone who is different from us. Maison Mumbai and the Salle Pleurer, Mr. Kadam and Madame Mallory, Hassan and Marguerite: though we can see the fundamental differences in these characters and places, the wants and needs are the same at the core. The desire to succeed and be the best, the want of a community to belong to, the need to chase an impossible dream.
Using food as a tool to highlight or combat xenophobia, gives a visual to cultural differences outside of skin color. While not all people have experienced injustice, each of us has a pallet of flavors that we are familiar with, and while some have the bravery to try new things, there might always be a group of people who pick chicken nuggets and French fries over Tikka Masala. By telling stories, like those mentioned here, we give a new voice to community, though it is never as easy to change xenophobic outlooks in real life as it is in the movies.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information. Information on works mentioned in this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Matilda
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat, and this week we will look at food and emotional growth in Matilda.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Matilda, directed by Danny DeVito and based on the book by Roald Dahl, follows the story of a gifted child as she navigates a world full of neglect and cruelty. Her powerlessness transforms into actual powers as she gains the ability to move things with her mind. The film takes the need for escape and the need for acceptance, combining them to show that in the right environment joy can flourish.
Starring Mara Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rhea Pearlman and Pam Ferris, Matilda uses food as a gage for growth, emotional and physical. As the story moves from the home and into the class room, we see the ways food can be a visual cue for happiness, fear, and foreboding.
When we first see Matilda Wormwood at home, she is an infant sitting on the kitchen countertop. Her front is covered in green goo, and her mother is outraged by her mess. What she doesn’t notice is that Matilda has spelled her own name in the mess, a huge feat for any infant. Matilda becomes self-sufficient at a young age, as her family dashes off to their busy lives.
At 4 she learns to use the stove and instead of the canned soup her mother leaves her, she makes pancakes. The montage of a young Matilda, cracking eggs and stirring batter lets the viewer know that this little girl, alone as she may be, has learned to create her own happiness. She doesn’t accept the meager offering her family has left for her, she takes control of her situation and makes herself a meal that she can enjoy, complete with a vase of flowers for ambiance.
Meals in the Wormwood home are fast. Dinners are in front of the television. Breakfast is cookies or sugar cereal for everyone except Matilda who fends for herself. While the other members of her home munch on junk food and drink beer, Matilda does her best to provide for herself, even if that means toaster waffles and juice. It’s a hot meal, not Chips Ahoy straight from the package.
“Dinner time is family time.” Mr. Wormwood exclaims, demanding to know why Matilda is reading and not watching TV in the dark. They hover over TV dinners and bags of chips, watching mindless gameshows until the TV explodes. It’s over this strained meal that Matilda first realizes she might be more than just different, she might be special.
Matilda is finally enrolled in school and her teacher Miss Honey is the antithesis of her family. Literally, Honey is sweet and Wormwood is bitter, but more than that Miss Honey wants Matilda to succeed and grow. She nourishes her mind, giving her new books and mathematics to gorge herself on, the way her family does on cheesy puffs.
Also, at the school is the principle, Agatha Trunchbull, a cruel and unforgiving woman. She is larger than life and her methods of punishment are downright medieval. She calls an assembly and singles out a boy named Bruce for sneaking a piece of cake from the school cafeteria. The boy is confronted with a chocolate cake the size of a dinner table, and Miss Trunchbull will hold him and the school hostage until he can finish the rich dessert. Bruce is in misery, deliriously stuffed with sugar, and it is all the cruel principle wants for him to humiliate himself in front of his peers.
Matilda starts a chant of encouragement for Bruce and the school children follow, screaming for him to succeed. This only enflames Miss Trunchbull’s anger and when Bruce finishes the cake to the cheers of his classmates, she smashes the cake plate over his head.
The cake itself is a visual representation of both gluttony and greed to the audience, this rich confection is off limits and like a parent forcing their child to smoke a pack of cigarettes for sneaking one, the Trunchbull forces Bruce to eat until he is ill. The real slight is that he ate a cake that was hers, as we later see her eating a similar cake by herself. Chocolate being off limits is a running theme of the story, and later we will see how greed comes back to bite the principle.
Matilda’s powers fully manifest and to test them, she uses them to pour herself a large bowl of Cheerios and milk. When she was a child she first taught herself to cook to fend on her own. Now she can magic her breakfast, an upgrade from necessity to luxury. She also uses her magic to defend herself from her brother’s onslaught, by reversing a projectile carrot and sending it flying into his mouth.
Matilda’s magic is the manifestation of her feeling of powerlessness. She has no control in her life, outside of her bubble of books, and when she hits the point where simply being able to survive on her own is not enough, her powers give her a new level of autonomy.
Miss Trunchbull is also Miss Honey’s aunt. She tortures her niece in the same maniacal fashion as her students, and when Matilda finds out she goes out of her way to scare the principle.
When Miss Honey’s father was alive, he kept a box of chocolates on a side table. Every night he would split a piece of chocolate and give half to Miss Honey, and when he passed away, Miss Trunchbull took all the chocolates for herself. “Far too nice for children” she had said, crushing Miss Honey and her childhood memories. When Matilda goes to Miss Trunchbull’s house to get back Miss Honey’s treasures, she also takes 2 pieces of this chocolate. One for her and one for Miss Honey, her beloved teacher.
This chocolate is not served on a glass dish but it is wrapped in gold, a precious reminder of how much the time spent indulging with her father meant to Miss Honey. Matilda’s powers can’t bring that time back, but this small gift means so much.
Miss Trunchbull targets Matilda in class, but when she turns her magic on the hulking woman, there is nothing Miss Trunchbull can do to fight back. This bully who forced fear and shame on her students and family, is pelted with packed lunch foods and hit with snack cakes as she flees. The greed and gluttony she wallowed in can’t save her from the wrath of her entire student body.
Matilda’s family is fleeing the country when she begs them to let Miss Honey adopt her, and they agree, signing their only daughter away into a brighter, happier future filled with picnics and bed time stories. Miss Honey can’t share her chocolates with her father anymore but she and Matilda can create new memories over shared sweets and cups of tea. They both got what they had always dreamed of, a loving family.
Showing growth via food can give the viewer a small idea of what transitions are being made emotionally in a character. Young Matilda’s preferred meals of pancakes and waffles over soup and fish fingers, show that she is looking for something more than a prepared broth or a frozen meat substitute. She wants warmth and nurture, an order too tall for her own family to fill.
When we see Miss Trunchbull, stuffing her face with chocolate and sweets, we know that this woman has not grown, has not changed, from the cruel woman who broke a young Miss Honey’s arm. This adult is already set in her ways, and her greed and gluttony have filled her so full of hate, there is no going back.
The food in this movie is magical, not because it was made with magic but because it’s experienced from a child’s lens. From a giant chocolate cake to a perfectly flipped pancake, the viewer can feel the dread and the joy the children on screen are experiencing.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
To the Bone
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout.
Also, today’s episode discusses eating disorders. I am not a mental health professional, and will be looking at this topic as it impacts todays story but if this topic is triggering to you, please be aware.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat. Today we will look at another side of how food is used in storytelling. This is To the Bone.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
This series of podcasts is not meant to tell you if these films are good or bad. It’s meant to study how food can help tell a story, because film is a visual medium and food can appeal to all of your senses. Not all people have functioning relationships with food, and I think it’s important to look at this aspect of storytelling alongside the “normal” relationships as well. To the Bone, written and directed by Marti Noxon, is a film that explores the physical and emotional consequences of eating disorders, most prominently Anorexia.
Starring Lily Collins, Retta, Carrie Preston and Keanu Reeves, To the Bone is part character study and part warning. Ellen is struggling with Anorexia, a battle for control with the outside world and her own body.
Anorexia Nervosa – An emotional condition characterized by the obsessive desire to lose weight and refusal to eat.
When we are introduced to Ellen she is being kicked out of an in-patient treatment program, due to lack of progress. Her arrival home is unexpected but her sister, Kelly, is happy to see her. They are served a meal, a pork chop, buttered noodles, green beans, and a buttered roll. Ellen proceeds to rattle off exactly how many calories are in each portion; Calorie Asperger’s her sister says. Ellen pushes the items around her plate, taking small bites. Even though, she’s just been discharged, her eating rituals are in full force.
An eating ritual is a behavior that focuses on a compulsive way a person interacts with food, in this case to restrict food intake. Cutting items into tiny pieces, moving the pieces around the plate, letting the food get to an inedible state. Ellen does all of these things as she sits with her family. They finish their meal as Ellen uses these rituals to maintain her control. To avoid eating, she fills herself with soda and water and chain smokes cigarettes, more rituals to boost her feeling of control.
When Ellen is accepted into a new program, one she agrees to attend as the request of her sister, she meets 6 other people struggling with anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. In the house, the audience gets a chance to see how other people with eating disorders exist. There is no one way to hurt or heal, and the dining room is like a gallery, different stages on display. Some of the patients are making progress, eating full meals, some pick at the small portions. One of the patients will only eat peanut butter, another boiled eggs. Megan, one of the patients suffering with anorexia, is pregnant. She’s making an added effort to maintain or gain weight for the health of her baby. All of these people have strained relationships with food, and all of them are addressing those issues in their own ways.
Luke, one of the patients, is making progress. He is eating and gaining weight, and addressing the fear that keeps Ellen paralyzed. He pushes her tempting her with chocolate, making her touch the candy, until she snaps. She can’t break the control she has over herself. He invites her to have dinner, something she feels she isn’t ready for, and they go to a Chinese restaurant.
At dinner, Ellen takes bites of food, moaning over its deliciousness, before spitting the chewed food out in to her napkin. She does this for the rest of the meal. It lets her go through the motions of a shared meal without the consequences of digestion. This plate of food isn’t shown. Whenever Ellen is served a meal, the camera cuts to an overhead shot of the food, but this meal isn’t about the contents of the plate. It’s about the connection she is making with another human being. The next time she sits at the dining table, she carves into a chocolate bar and takes a bite. It’s an unexpected turn, and a huge step forward.
When Megan loses the baby, the shock and anger send the house into darkness.
Ellen relapses, falling back into old habits, and undoing the work she had started in treatment. She’s days away from having a feeding tube put in and decides she would rather cut her losses before that can happen. She runs.
In Arizona, Ellen and her mother have a conversation about how as a baby, they didn’t connect enough on an emotional level. Her mother asks if she can feed her, to try and recreate that feeling of nurturing. She tells Ellen, she can accept it if Ellen wants to die, if that’s what she truly wants. It isn’t. Ellen lets her mother bottle feed her rice milk and they both cry. Accepting this sustenance in this way, is a visual reset of the mother and child relationship. Ellen has been neglected for most of her life and she has taken food and turned it into a tool to feel control in a life that feels uncontrollable. By letting her mother take the role as provider again, Ellen is taking the first step towards healing.
Ellen has hit rock bottom, the only thing left is death if she continues down this path. Ellen goes out into the desert and hallucinates. She sees Luke and, in her dream, realizes she has chosen life.
Your courage is a small coal you keep swallowing – Courage by Anne Sexton
This poem is recited in the film, and it shows the many different ways people can demonstrate courage. Ellen shows her courage by living. She takes the first step towards the next part of her life, by simply choosing to live. It seems like a default, but for some the simple choice to make the next choice, is life changing.
In a film about Anorexia, food is a character unto itself. It is a dark shadow, the growling beast under the bed, it is a swarm of 1000 bees. It fills the frame up until there are no empty spaces, just the idea of food and Ellen as she faces her fears.
My own relationship with food has always been strained. From anxiety ridden binges to calorie counting to a summer when I only ate pineapple though that accomplished nothing. It’s difficult to come to level ground in a conflict that only has one autonomous participant. Ellen’s struggle is internal, but when we can size up her opponent, a full plate of food, we can see what she is facing in physical form.
The struggle to deal with the outside world and the high expectations we put on ourselves can manifest in many ways. Eating disorders are common. The Eating Recovery center states that 9 percent of American women have or will suffer from Anorexia. Though the path to healing is paved differently for each individual, the choice to continue, to live, is one that we all must make in our own ways.
If you or someone you know is dealing with Anorexia or any other eating disorder, please seek help. Resources are linked in the episode notes.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information. Information on this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
https://www.eatingrecoverycenter.com/conditions/anorexia/facts-statistics
The Hunger Games
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat and may the odds be ever in your favor. This is The Hunger Games
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
As I speak each week about what food symbolizes and how it is used on screen to help tell stories, I get to examine the way that film makers exhibit different dishes to make different points. It seems only fitting, that when talking about the space that food occupies, I must also talk about the space let behind when it is absent. This week, I want to take a look at The Hunger Games, a film set in a dystopian world where the haves and have nots experience extreme conditions where they’re very lives are at stake.
The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross and based on the series by Suzanne Collins, takes the extreme wealth gap in a dystopian society and demonstrates exactly what desperation makes people, even children, capable of. Though the world of Panem is fiction, many of the problems, especially hunger, are a reality to children across the world.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, and Elizabeth Banks, The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen as she takes drastic steps to protect her family, and competes in a trial for her life. Outside of the games, life in Panem is separated by District and also by wealth. The people of Panem are oppressed by their leaders and many of them, including Katniss, are starving.
Panem is controlled by The Capitol and a tyrannical President Snow. Every year, as punishment for an uprising, each of the 12 districts must offer up tributes, a girl and a boy ages 12-18, to fight to the death in a televised competition, The Hunger Games. Katniss, and her sister Primrose, live with their mother in district 12, one of the poorer districts. Though it is illegal Katniss uses a bow and arrow to hunt so that her family can be fed and not have to take extra supplies from the Capitol. Extra supplies mean more chances to be drawn for the games, a risk Katniss will not take.
On the day of the Reaping, the drawing of names, Katniss and her friend Gale discuss the games. His name is in the drawing 42 times. He has had to take more supplies to feed his large family. He offers her a piece of bread, a treasure. The small roll cost him a squirrel, a sign that something even as ordinary as bread is a commodity in this world.
The children of district 12 are gaunt. They stand silently, waiting for their fate to be decided by the faceless government who oppresses them, standing on their necks, keeping them obedient in fear. The people of the district will do anything for food, including gambling the lives of these children.
Katniss is a teenager, a child herself, and as she volunteers to save her sister’s life, the consequences of this day run through her mind. Her family comes to see her off, and instead of fear Katniss takes charge. “Don’t take any extra food from them, it isn’t worth putting your name in more times. Gale will bring you game, you can sell cheese from your goat.” Even as she goes to her certain death, she makes sure her family will be able to eat, to survive without her. The children in district 12 grow up fast, the ability to have childlike naivety is dangerous and short lived. “Don’t let them starve.” Her final words to Gale. The reality of that possibility, more terrifying that her own fate.
The tables in District 12 are old. The houses are ramshackle. There is no wealth there. When Katniss boards the train to the Capitol, the opulence of the life led by those in power is stifling. At home there is no bread but on the train there is are infinite choices: a tables worth of breakfast options, silver pots of coffee, jars of fruit jam.
Peeta Mellark, the boy from district 12, is the son of a baker. Katniss remembers a time when she was desperate. A flashback of a day in the rain, wasting away, waiting for the hunger to subside. Peeta threw her a burnt loaf of bread, meant for the pigs, an act of kindness that Katniss has never forgotten. He saved her, and her sister, with one burnt loaf of old bread.
In the Capitol, the outrageous amount of wealth and waste isn’t lost on Katniss. She and Peeta eat at a table with Haymitch and Effie, their mentors, surrounded by dishes of lamb and piles of potatoes. When discussing their competitors Effie uses dessert as one of the pluses of being from a lesser district. The career tributes, the ones who have trained for this purpose their whole lives, don’t get sweets before the games. It’s an insignificant detail, but when bread is scarce cake seems like a dream.
Before the games, the tributes are ranked based on a show of skill. The game makers, those who plan the games, are socializing as Katniss demonstrates her skills. A whole roast pig is wheeled into the room, and it draws the focus from Katniss. This group of plump, rich men would rather serve themselves helpings of pork than watch a girl from district 12 try to prove herself, and Katniss seizes the opportunity by shooting the apple out of the pigs mouth. It’s not her first act of defiance but it does set a tone for her status in the games.
Katniss is a hunter by nature. Shooting the apple seems insignificant, a show of guts, but it sets off a row of dominos that slowly fall as the games draw near and begin. Her whole life has been a struggle, a fight to survive, and this instance is no different. Find shelter, find water, find food: though this time she won’t have her family to care for.
The games begin with each of the tributes surrounding the Cornucopia, a pile of supplies and food that could aid the tributes. Like in life, there is a higher risk for going after the supplies, and as the other tributes slaughter each other for weapons and gear, Katniss takes off into the wood after grabbing a supply pack from the outskirts of the pile. The wood is like her home, the area outside of District 12 where she and Gale hunted for game together, and she takes the advantage this gives her to its fullest, sleeping in tall trees, hunting and foraging to survive away from the blood thirsty Careers.
Rue is the girl tribute from District 11. She isn’t much older than Prim, and Katniss finds an ally within the small girl. Caring for another is second nature to Katniss and though Rue is a competitor here, she takes the small girl under her wing. They eat game together, Katniss makes sure Rue has had her fill, just as she would for Prim. She sees her sister in the small girl. Rue is named for flora just like Prim, and when she is killed by another tribute, Katniss buries her in flowers, a small gesture, like the apple in the pig’s mouth, that sets off more tumbling dominos. Riots begin in the districts, Katniss’s defiance spurs the people into action.
Katniss and Peeta find each other in the arena, their story of star crossed love the only thing that keeps them alive as the game makers work against them. While foraging for food, Peeta accidentally gathers Night lock berries, a poisonous fruit, and Katniss saves them to use for later as a possible way to kill the remaining tributes.
The games end in a final show down that leaves Katniss and Peeta the winners, but when the game makers say there can be only one Victor, they prepare to eat the Night Lock in protest. They are stopped just in time but this act of defiance is deafening. The small falling dominos have added up and turned into something more. Something with greater consequences.
Panem et circenses: Bread and circuses. The games are a superficial appeasement for the people of Panem, entertainment for the wealthy and fear mongering for the poor. In a world whose name, translates literally to bread in Latin, food is everything and the people who control the food have unchecked power. When these two pawns threaten that power, by eating berries, the façade of absolute control starts to waver.
In this story about survival, power begins and ends with food. It gives life and it can bring death. Though this film is the first in a trilogy, I chose this as my entry on Hunger because it shows the most dissonance between the haves and have nots. In the Capitol the people are thriving, oblivious to the struggle outside the district boundaries. These people don’t have to take any additional items from the government and are less likely to even think about their children being drawn for the games. In the other districts, poverty is a common thread and it runs deep enough to make the threat of death in the arena seem a logical trade for grain and oil.
What is logic in the face of starvation? How steep a price are you willing to pay to survive? These questions stand out as the characters of this story talk about eating squirrel and cherish bread. According to Feeding America, before Corona virus, more than 35 million people in the US struggled with hunger, including 10 million children. Now more than 50 million may be struggling with food security, 17 million of those are children.
When we watch films like The Hunger Games, we are able to disconnect from the reality of hunger because the situations pictured seem so extreme. The reality is, that while we aren’t watching 24 children fight to the death on cable, many kids exist not knowing where their next meal will come from, or if it will come at all.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information. Information on works mentioned in this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Reference:
Soul Food
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a closer look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat and today we will take a look at the tradition of Sunday dinners in Soul Food
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Soul Food, directed by George Tillman Jr., debuted in 1997 during a boom for Black cinema. The film gives an inside look at a Black family in Chicago, and how they come together over a shared meal to celebrate family, music and food one Sunday evening at a time.
Starring Irma P. Hall, Vivica A. Fox, Vanessa Williams, and Nia Long, Soul Food takes a look at a growing family through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, Ahmad. The tradition of healing and growth over meals is a legacy shared by many Black families, and this depiction is full of respectful awe towards both the food and the women who prepare it.
The Joseph family is one of strong women, Big Mama, Teri, Maxine and Bird, who bear the weight of keeping tradition and supporting each other. Though her children are grown, Big Mama continues to teach not only her own daughters but her grandchildren as well. The knowledge of a kitchen and of a life time, passed down through anecdotes and lessons learned. When we first see the Joseph women together in the kitchen, they are deep in the preparations for Sunday dinner.
Big Mama tells her daughters that soul food cooking is about cooking from the heart and that they eat things like Ham hocks and chitlins because when their ancestors were enslaved they had to make what little they had taste good. Soul food was a mark of the resistance and perseverance of Black people and the culture they maintained throughout their fight for equity and equality.
The Joseph sisters are at odds, and Big Mama tries to settle their arguments with her wisdom and recipes.
The Sunday dinner table is a topographical map for the camera to navigate. A mountain of fried chicken, an ocean of black-eyed peas, a valley of collard greens. It sweeps across the lay of Big Mama’s table, the land that she tends to and cares for so her family can have its full. Each dish is passed from one seat to the next, as volleys of insults pass from sister to sister. This table is the hub and Big Mama the center of gravity for the Joseph family. Though they obviously don’t get along, each Sunday they return to the table and to each other, a tradition that has lasted over 40 years.
Diabetes: a disease that affects the way the body processes sugar. An ailment that effects Big Mama in a dramatic way, as she finds she must have a surgery to amputate her leg. To Ahmad, she is the center of the universe and he tries to be strong for her and for his family, but when something goes wrong he is destroyed by the loss of her presence.
The next time the camera pans the Sunday dinner table, it is a different landscape, prepared by a less than perfect cook. Big Mama’s pull has weakened in her absence and only Bird has appeared at her table, the first time in 40 years the meal has been missed. The family has drifted onto different orbits with no sun to hold them aligned. Without Big Mama, the sisters are unable to put their differences aside.
Ahmad sees everything. Being a child in a large family, especially one full of dramatics, makes it easy to pass through the world unnoticed and being invisible means people are most likely to forget how much an observant child might pick up. The small details, the secrets that people think they can sneak by older people who have their own busy lives. He picks up on the cues that others don’t see, though he may not know what to do with them or how to react.
Big Mama wakes from her coma, a moment of calm for Ahmad, as his family seems to be falling apart. She gives him one last piece of wisdom before passing on. “If you let bad things stop you, you won’t be here for the good things.” This matriarch knows, even in the face of death, the thread that holds her family together is close to snapping.
The sisters are more at odds than ever, in their own lives and with each other. The hole left by Big Mama grows with every passing moment, and Ahmad knows that Big Mama wants him to pull the family back together, however he can. When he wins a basketball game he asks for a celebratory dinner at Big Mama’s to try and orchestrate a reconciliation under the guise of Big Mama’s secret fortune.
Soul Food: Malcolm X, in his autobiography, wrote that soul food dishes were "representations of Southernness and commensality." The food of Black people who were fighting for their freedom in the face of slavery and for equality in the face of injustice. Ahmad’s family is the picture of perseverance and determination, and they return to Big Mama’s kitchen to make the foods she lovingly serving to them and anyone else who needed it for over 40 years.
Catfish, fried chicken, ham hocks, and dumplings: a feast for the viewers eyes and senses as the images drift across the screen. The camera surveys the table again, different from the first but still the same in spirit. Ahmad has filled the seat his grandmother once occupied, and as the family eats they air their differences.
This table, where Big Mama held court each week, is the only place where the all of these stories could conclude. The family shared joy and sorrow here, and without Big Mama herself, the house and her table are what draws them all back together.
Sunday dinner is not a uniquely Black tradition, but it is one that many Black families can relate too. By using it in this film, this story of a Black middle American family became a mirror for many Black families to view and see a reflection of their own traditions and culinary histories. With each pass of the camera across Big Mama’s table the audience can see not only her influence but the influence of mothers like her in their own families, though that position might be filled by a father or an aunt or even a foster parent or teacher.
Soul Food uses the grandiose and sometimes overwhelming family meal as a compass. When the meal comes together, so does the family and when the meal fails, the family seems to fall apart. The circle of the table is complete when it is whole and so each member can get what they need and pass on to the next. This visual cue is unmistakable, when the failed meal consists of 3 people and the plates are not passes at all. A family, no matter how many members, works as one when they work together, and at Big Mama’s table, each chair filled has a job to pass on what it can to the next.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information. Information on works mentioned in this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
References:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/59d59k/soul-food-was-a-delicious-feast-for-black-cinemas-golden-age
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
Book by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat and today we will be looking at the way food and family intertwine in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding, directed by Joel Zwick, is a story of personal discovery and family acceptance in a culture where food is made to be a part of a foundation of love.
Starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine, the film centers on Toula Portokalas, a Greek woman living in the shadow of her family’s expectations and her own insecurities. Toula’s family owns a restaurant and many of their routines revolve around food, but Toula’s insecurities about herself, and how others perceive her, make her feel like an outsider even at a table surrounded by her loved ones.
Toula’s journey begins in an elementary school lunch room. The other girls, her peers, look similar to each other: blonde hair and fair skin, making Toula’s Greek features, dark hair and olive skin, stand out. While the other children eat Wonder bread sandwiches, Toula’s mother packs her a Greek dish, Moussaka. In a suburban area of Chicago, much like the one in The Breakfast Club, cultural dishes might seem foreign and, in this case, drives the other girls to mockery. Young Toula feels isolated, not only at school but also at home, where her family doesn’t seem to understand how alone she truly feels.
The restaurant, Dancing Zorbas, that her family owns is a hub of sorts. It’s a quaint storefront, painted in the colors of the Greek flag, with a classic dinner feel. The Formica counter tops gleam under florescent lights, as customers eat forkfuls of buttery eggs and plates of Greek pastry.
Toula’s family members drift in and out, eating together, drinking coffee, and working, everyone making their way through the family crossroads as they move on to the rest of their day. Toula still is separate, standing off to the side while her sister, brother and cousins joke and plan. She is the sentinel, always waiting and working, secretly hoping for something more.
The first step in a new direction comes, when Toula asks her family to support her decision to go to college. She wants to be in control of her own destiny and an education would help with that. In a scene reminiscent of the first, Toula sees a table full of women eating lunch and she joins them, eating the white bread sandwich she had always wanted as a child. The problem was never moussaka, but the lack of faith Toula had in her own ability to relate. These peers, more mature now, welcome Toula, not because of her lunch but because of the confidence she exudes.
This new-found confidence, allows Toula to open herself to love. She meets Ian Miller, a non-Greek man, and slowly falls for him over secret dinners in restaurants that are very different from Dancing Zorba’s. Candle lit tables with linens take the place of sticky vinyl booths, as Toula tries to explain her heritage to Ian. She starts with lamb, not with mint jelly, but roasted by her father and uncles. The adults fighting over lamb brains and her aunt trying to feed her an eye ball to make her smart. It’s not stereotypically traditional, but it is Toula’s normal, something she has a hard time explaining in words.
Ian gets to experience her family first hand during an Easter celebration. Serving trays of meats, pasticcio, and rice, steaming plates of holiday tradition to be enjoyed while the family dances together. The overwhelming out pour of love continues when Toula’s aunt offers to cook for Ian. Toula explains that Ian is a vegetarian, someone who doesn’t eat meat, an outrageous idea to her family. “I’ll make lamb” her aunt exclaims, as if this solves all of their problems. Ian’s dietary restriction looks like another hurdle to Toula, but her aunt clears it with flying colors, even if her solution doesn’t work.
In many families, the kitchen is the heart beat of the home, and Toula’s family is no different. They congregate here, to plan and graze, plates of bread and greens spread out around them. Toula’s mother shows her affection by feeding her family, and there is no shortage of love in her kitchen. Acts of service is her love language and she would do anything to make her family happy.
When the two families meet, Mrs. Portokalas cannot keep the meal small, and Ian experiences the lamb dinner Toula had told him about when they first met. The animal roasts on a spit in the front yard, while the family gathers around it. Trays of spanakopita and the lamb are passed and when the Millers, refuse the food, Toula’s family takes it as a sign of disrespect. Though the Miller’s Bundt cake is a success, after Mrs. Portokalas fixes it by filling the center with a plant. Refusing the food, even though they are intoxicated, is seen as an insult even if the Millers weren’t aware of the etiquette.
The two families are so different, they seem to have nothing in common, except the love their children share. A traditional Greek family, large and loud, with more than their share of opinions and ideas. A small white family, with a formal edge. The relationship is strained by the stress of appealing to each side, quiet or chaos, there seems to be no in between. How can anything be worthy of all this effort?
Love is a gift, whether it is given in words, or actions, or plates of baklava. Can it bridge a cultural gap? In this case the answer is yes, and it all comes down to basic food groups. Toula’s father, the most ardent protestor of the marriage of his daughter breaks the conflict down to the families love language: food. Miller comes from the Greek word millo, meaning apple. Portokalas comes from the Greek for oranges. “We all different but in the end we all fruit.” It’s a simple sentiment but one that truly signifies the joining of their two families.
This movie speaks to me on a deeply personal level. I’m not Greek but I am Sicilian and the similarities between the on screen Portokalas’s and my own family are infinite. Using food as a love language is a common tradition. When you’re sick you get soup, sad means pasta, angry means leftovers, and so on for every mood on the spectrum. There is a special dish for every holiday, seven fishes for Christmas eve, l'uovo di Pasquafor Easter, and jello salad for 4th of July. We tell each other how much we love each other often, not with words but with serving spoons and second helpings. This movie makes me long for home, and that’s probably why I love it so much.
In this film, food is a unifier. In almost every scene where we see the family gathered together there is a plate of something; cookies, almonds, bread. These small offerings are a visual reminder of how the Portokalas family cares for its members. You’ll never go hungry, not for food or love in this home, and it goes without saying because the plates are never empty and the stove is always hot.
Toula’s family is Greek but that’s not all they are. They are noise and color and movement. They are cracked diner dishes and gleaming silver stock pots. Toula is Greek but through the film she learns that she is also smart and beautiful and brave, something I hope that all women can learn, especially without the help of a man.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information. Information on works mentioned in this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Bend it like Beckham
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Eat the Pictures where we take a deeper look at food and films.
I’m your host, Cat and today we will explore food and balance in Bend it Like Beckham.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Bend it Like Beckham, directed by Gurinder Chadha, tells a story of clashing cultures and new-found ambition in a Punjabi-Sikh family. Though deeply rooted love for family and for English Football pull against each other, the film is a precarious balancing act of new English and traditional Punjabi.
Starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Johnathan Rhys-Meyers, and Archie Panjabi, Bend it Like Beckham follows Jess Bhamra, a Punjabi teen who wants to play football while her family wants her to learn to be a traditional Indian bride. The Bhamra house is led by both Mrs. Bhamra and Mr. Bhamra who believe the path for their daughters is education and marriage.
In the Bhamra family, food is a cornerstone and cooking, an art passed from one generation to the next. The traditional, but antiquated, role for the Indian woman is in the kitchen, and Mrs. Bhamra is an example of the “proper Indian woman”. She is shown in the kitchen, preparing or serving food to her family or guests when she is on screen, to further reinforce this idea.
When Jess tells her family that she wants to play football on a girl’s team, they are less than thrilled. “What family wants a daughter in law who can run around kicking a football all day but can’t make round chapatis?” The ability to run a household, future or present, is the most important thing to her family, learning to make a full Punjabi dinner is the first step to becoming an adult.
Cultural continuity via cooking in this case, is a common trend among displaced peoples. By passing the Indian dishes from one generation to the next, Mrs. Bhamra is not only upholding her own cultural traditions but also ensuring that her own daughters will have a strong foundation to build their futures. She may not be able to give them financial or emotional security but she can give them the skills she has perfected so that they may use them later on in life.
Unfortunately, to Jess, this need to pass on traditions is seen as controlling. There is no middle ground offered, and as Jess feels like an outsider both as an Indian and as an English woman, the ultimatum is suffocating. The lack of communication or compromise hurts both sides of the argument, Mrs. Bhamra feels Jess is rejecting her cultural, while Jess feels her parents are rejecting her as a person.
Aloo Gobi: a vegetarian Indian dish made with Potatoes and Cauliflower. While her mother teaches her to cook, Jess bounces a cauliflower on her knee, mind obviously elsewhere. “Anyone can cook Aloo Gobi but who can bend a ball like Beckham?” Jess says. She wants to be more than just an Indian girl, she wants to make a path for herself, on her own terms. To Mrs. Bhamra, not having these essential kitchen skills would make Jess not ready for life outside of her parents’ home.
Jess’s sister Pinky is engaged to be married, and the families host the traditional Punjabi wedding events. One of these is the Kurmai, where the bride and groom are blessed by their parents and fed sweets by the families in congratulations. Ladu, Jailebi and Halwa piled high on trays to pass around and feed to the happy couple.
Food is a part of both Punjabi engagement and wedding ceremonies, with feeding of the bride and groom taking place in both. Just as Mrs. Bhamra feeds her family in their daily lives, these traditions feed the emotional connection between the bride and grooms families. Food is a blessing to bestow on those you love, in this case literally.
When Jess tells her family she has been offered a football scholarship, she tearfully begs them to understand that the sport makes her happy. Through everything that has happened, Jess has found herself a balance. She is the Indian girl her parents want her to be, the one who can cook Aloo Gobi, but she is also an English woman who wants to pursue her dreams.
“At least I have taught her full Punjabi dinner, the rest is up to her.” Mrs. Bhamra is ready to let her daughter grow, reassured by the fact that Jess has some traditional knowledge to rely on.
By using food as the cultural indicator in Bend it Like Beckham, the audience can compare the act of cooking and the act of playing football. Both activities need practice and care to master.
Jess tells the story of how she was burned as a child, while cooking beans on toast. She lit her pant leg on fire and burned herself badly. This act of pain accompanying this story of food, gives the audience an idea of where Jess is starting in the kitchen. She is a novice. When Jess is seen cooking with her mother, she is unfocused. Finally, when she is cooking with Pinky, she is moving through the motions of the task, without trouble or singular focus. This escalation can be compared to football, with time and practice, Jess has become a top player both in front of her mother’s stove and on the pitch.
Jess is a child of the Indian Diaspora. Her parent’s families were uprooted during British Colonial rule and then made their way to England. Though her family is built on Indian traditions, growing up in England without being English enough or Indian enough to fit perfectly into one mold pushes Jess to find her own space. Cultural balance is the ultimate goal. To maintain the identity of her Indian family but also to make her own path in the world. She uses football as a way to build her own traditions outside of the kitchen.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.. Information on works mentioned in this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
Reference:
The Candy Jar
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello and welcome to Eat the Pictures where movie food and plot collide.
I’m your host, Cat, and today we will be diving deep into the world of The Candy Jar.
So, take a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
Staring Sami Gayle, Jacob Latimore, Uzo Aduba, Christina Hendricks and Helen Hunt, Netflix’s The Candy Jar, directed by Ben Shelton, is a fast-paced dramedy about two debate co-captains who agree on almost nothing, except their drive to get into Ivy League colleges, and their extreme sweet tooth. In the face of grief and disappointment, the two students put aside their differences and work to achieve something together, all while indulging in sugary snacks.
Lona and Bennett both attend an upscale private academy, though Lona’s family is poor and Bennett’s well off. Both are dedicated members of the school’s debate club, and both are struggling to find their place in life, after high school. Though they are at odds, in debate and with each other, both students rely heavily on their mothers and their school guidance counselor, Kathy, who fills her office with candy, to navigate through the trials of high school.
Lona and her mother Amy, bond over watching Antiques Roadshow, while eating dinner on TV trays. The relaxed environment is well worn and comfortable, curled together on a squashy looking couch, as they eat a home cooked meal. Their space is small, but their love for each other fills the room, making their less than seem like more than enough. Amy is a single parent, a widow, but she obviously does everything she can to support Lona, though her own interests and successes lay outside of academics.
Bennett and his mother, Julia, eat at a formal dining table. They dine on matching silverware and china, even though the table is strewn with takeout boxes. Julia, also a single mother, is a senator in high demand from her colleagues in Washington DC, but she finds time to dedicate to Bennett and sharing a meal. She takes no prisoners in her career, and she supports her son’s endeavors with the same passion.
The two dinners are different tonally, but so similar in content. Two single mothers who do what they can to provide for their respective teens. Though the home lives of these two families look different on the outside, the candy-coating melts away to reveal that both are full of support and warmth in their own unique ways.
Homecoming: a high school rite of passage. Lona let’s her mother believe she is dressed up to attend the Homecoming dance, but instead spends the evening eating popcorn and candy in a dark movie theater, alone. Bennett, dressed in a suit and tie, sits several rows back. Both seem to prefer the dark theater to the thought of interacting with their peers. When the show is over, Bennett offers to drive Lona home, making a pitstop to gather greasy fast food and milkshakes. Lona protests, but the lure of a creamy milkshake is too strong to resist. She makes a good argument against eating junk food based on facts, just as she would in a debate, but the pull of sugar is too good to refuse. They indulge together, the ice cream a bridge between their polar opposites.
The guidance counselor’s office is a safe haven to both students. While Lona refuses cookies from her mother and tries to turn down junk food from Bennett, here she indulges. Hand full’s of jelly beans, shiny jolly ranchers, lollipops, any sugary treat offered to her or on display. She is at ease here, ready to share and receive advice from someone who’s opinion she admires. More than her mother, or her teachers, Lona puts the most pressure on herself. In Kathy’s office she sheds her heavy burden of success and becomes who she truly is: a child with a long path ahead of her, a girl with a fist full of melting M&M’s and so many unanswerable questions.
Bennett too let’s his guard down here. Unlike Lona who is so laser focused on her goals, Bennett is on a path that was created for him. While Lona debates whether or not she is smart enough or well versed enough, Bennett wants to know what all this work will lead to. Is he missing out on something in high school, only to get into college and miss out on something there? He treats Kathy’s candy bowls like life rafts, clinging to them, fishing out Skittle after Skittle, hoping one might have an answer to his questions.
Both Bennett and Lona are waiting outside of Kathy’s office, two children waiting to get into Willy Wonka’s factory, when they receive the devastating news that Kathy had been killed. At Kathy’s funeral, her home office, like her school office is full of clear jars of candy, the only thing missing is the warmth of Kathy herself, and the security of her friendship. They commiserate over milkshakes and French fries, trying to decide whether or not everything they’ve been through, put themselves through, has been worth it, now that they’ve been rejected by their respective dream schools. Neither has an answer, only the grief of a lost mentor and the fear of the unknown.
The loss of Kathy and the shattering of their dreams leads to the unlikely pair teaming up to try and salvage what’s left of their debate careers and their high school experience. While studying at each other’s houses, the duo is under the watchful eyes of their respective mothers. Amy makes cookies for the pair while Julia serves store bought treats, and it is obvious that the homemade cookies are special to the teens. They cannot gorge on candy in Kathy’s office anymore, but they can share gooey chocolate chips on kitchen tables and in coffee shops.
Before their safe haven was an office, a guidance counselor, a glass jar of gumdrops, now it is each other and the hope for something new. Though their future trajectory has been changed, the way paved ahead still has the same obstacles and they will forge on with new traditions and new experiences with their burdens lightened by friendship and love.
Instead of attending prom, Lona and Bennett end up back at the movie theater, though this time they sit together. They share popcorn, a soda, and all the candy the theater offers. Their futures are still unknown. What will happen when they move on? What new challenges will they face? How will they make it through? Neither can answer these questions now, they can only wait and enjoy the present, a box full of whoppers, and the company of each other.
Candy is such a beautiful prop, especially when its displayed in glass. The colors shine so brightly under the movie lights, they seem whimsical. When a viewer see’s candy on screen, it might automatically turn their minds to youth or forbidden treats, and it is likely that will happen upon seeing Kathy’s office for the first time.
The candy in this story is an anchor. It brings Bennett and Lona back Kathy’s office again and again. They look to her and her sweets when they feel most lost, hoping that she or the sugar she offers will help them find a solution to their problem, no matter how big or small it may seem. Being afloat in a sea of confusion or grief as a teen, can seem hopeless. Having someone like Kathy or something like debate to lean on can be life changing and sometimes even lifesaving. In story’s like The Candy Jar, where the characters aren’t fighting against stereotype, but creating their own identities separate from their peers, the audience is able to see the character grow from just an idea to a fully realized entity.
There are so many different kinds of sweets featured in this film, and each plays its own part in getting Lona and Bennett to work through their personal problems, but also to unite them in addressing the issues that both they and most teens face in their high school careers. Who am I? Where do I belong? Where am I going? If only candy could answer those questions in real life. Perhaps it can, if eaten with the right companions.
Thank you for listening to this episode, and please follow us on Instagram @eatthepictures for episode news and information and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Information on works mentioned in this episode can be found in the episode notes.
Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.
The Breakfast Club
The following show contains spoilers. If you have not seen the movies mentioned in our episode notes, please be aware that details of these films will be analyzed throughout. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello and welcome to Eat the Pictures where we analyze the movies and foods that made us.
My name is Cat and I’ll be your guide through cinema history, and the movie meals that stole the show.
So, pull up a seat, grab your favorite movie snack, and join us as we Eat the Pictures.
My love of cuisine and cinema seem intertwined to the very core. I can remember eating snails with a safety pin next to my grandmother as a child just as clearly as I can remember seeing my first film, Toy Story, in theaters. The memories both bring a warmth to my heart, and feed my obsession with great film and good food.
This series will be about dishes or meals featured in films about growth, personal or societal. In these stories, food often plays a special roll, whether it is in support of the characters or as a character itself. The meals may be grandiose or small but they have undoubtedly left their mark on cinema history.
I am a baby of the late eighties and with that point of view in mind, we begin our journey with a John Hughes classic, The Breakfast Club.
Starring Emilio Esteves, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, and Ally Sheedy, the Breakfast Club explores the pressures placed on the American teen, both by themselves and also by their peers, families, and authority.
Hughes was well known for crafting stories about coming of age in the Midwest. His idyllic images of suburban Chicago and the teens who yearned for adventure and acceptance, have lasted decades and influenced works from generations of writers and filmmakers. The Breakfast Club is about the joint experience of several high school students through their individual lenses all during one Saturday of detention. Each member of the group has a signifier, giving an individual face to a common high school stereotype: a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.
While the film title has the word breakfast in it, the meal featured is lunch. During the week, a typical teen might have the option to buy the lunch being served by the school, but the special circumstances dictate that each teen provide their own meal and give the audience a closer look at their personalities and background.
Let’s start with Brian, the brain. Of the 5 student characters, Brian’s lunch is the most characteristically typical. A thermos of soup, juice and PB&J with the crust cut off, a picture-perfect lunch from a parental figure who looks after him. The audience can infer that Brian comes from a family who cares for him, though he might find that care overbearing. As the story progresses, we discover that the expectations of his family are very important to his mental health, implying that though the well-meaning lunch maker might have Brian’s best interest at heart, it takes more than a nutritionally balanced meal to feed the confidence of a teenage boy.
Andy, the athlete, presents a lunch that is a kind of mirror to Brian’s but to a larger extent: multiple sandwiches, cookies, a bag of chips, fruit, and a large carton of milk. He must keep his strength up to maintain his status as an elite wrestler, and whomever packed this lunch is well aware. The lunch maker in this case, expects Andy to consume a large amount and to continue on a set path to stay fit. The volume of the lunch is a physical reminder of the pressure Andy is under to succeed. As the plot continues we see Andy carries the weight of expectations just as Brian does, although Brian turns his pain inward whereas Andy takes out his pain on a person he perceives as less than.
The basket case, Allison, too has a lunch that was packed with some consideration. A bologna sandwich is a metaphor for normalcy, and Allison clearly rejects it as she throws the lunch meat over her shoulder. Her demeanor is unapologetic, if not mildly off putting. The other students watch, captivated as she creates a new sandwich of Pixie Sticks and sugar cereal to replace the original with something more palatable to its creator. She takes a large bite of the sandwich, chomping away, daring anyone to make a comment on her actions. The call for attention is obvious, though it goes unanswered. The viewer can see that Allison feels neglected. Yes, she has a lunch to eat but clearly it is not one she would choose for herself. Later we can see that Allison is looking for a reaction, any kind of reaction, to her behavior.
Claire, the princess, is the counterpoint to Allison. Where Allison makes a statement by flaunting her weirdness, Claire is desperate to fit in. Her meal is a stylish serving of sushi, with matching soy sauce jar and chopsticks. Today, sushi is served at many restaurants across America and the world, but in 1985 sushi was a foreign dish that a blue-collar student like Bender would have had no exposure too. Too her popular friends, sushi might have made Claire look cool, but to this room full of misfits it’s just a plate of raw fish. Claire, like Allison, longs for attention but unlike Allison who will take any attention, Claire wants a very specific reaction. She wants to appear worldly and sophisticated but under her desperation, she is still a scared girl longing for acceptance.
Finally, we have Bender, the criminal, who does not have a lunch at all. He accepts a can of soda from Allison, but spends the rest of the scene judging or examining the lunches of his classmates. Bender is on his own, and while Brian and Andy eat their carefully packed meals, he uses sarcasm and cruelty to hide his own pain. A student without a lunch can mean many things, but the lack of meal in this case is only a symptom of the greater neglect, as the audience will learn. Bender is a bully, but only out of self-preservation. His reactions to kindness both from Allison, who brings him a soda, and to Claire who gives him her trust, show that his bravado is a wall of protection.
As the scene plays out, the camera catches the students in different formations, showing each reaction and reinforcing each stereotype as if building a house of cards. Each student sees their meal or situation as status quo, but by putting their normal on display to a group of strangers, the audience can compare both the students and the meals to each other, and form superficial opinions of each character, just as the characters are doing on screen.
As the story progresses, the house of cards topples and we learn that each of the students is fighting against stereotype. Brian is struggling with not being perfect. Andy wants to make amends for his wrong doing. Allison accepts Claire’s agenda free kindness. Claire comes clean about her inexperience. Bender let’s his cruel guard down. They learn to become a part of a community is to be given the strength of many instead of having to rely on the strength of only one.
When in a teen’s life, does the transition from child to adult happen? Is it one moment of clarity? Or a series of events or choices that make a child grow? Is it both? In the film Allison states: “When you grow up, your heart dies” and this sentiment from a girl who makes sandwiches out of cereal and candy seems to be older and wiser than her appetite would assume. Each of the students is traveling through the spectrum of adolescence, each stalled on a plateau, looking for the next step in their journey. They start as a group of strangers, eating lunches that come with a helping of expectation.
The scene is built layer by layer to show each teen juxtaposed not only to each other but also to the viewer. Whether we see ourselves as lunchbox sushi, a sugary sandwich or a thermos full of soup, we each struggle against stereotypes to carve out a space to belong.
Using food as a way to gain access to the struggle of a teen character is an indispensable storytelling tool. We all have to eat, and we each have our own distinct taste, which makes food a visual cue for personality. We can see the physical differences of each dish, where we cannot see the emotional differences of each teen simply by looking at them. By introducing each character via their meal, the audience is given a visual cheat sheet to refer back to, thus making the character development feel more tangible.
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Join us next week as we breakdown another cinematic meal here on Eat the Pictures.
Stay Hungry.