2023-10-12 09:45:00
The historic film with Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche, which received the directing prize at the last Cannes Film Festival, was selected to represent France at the Oscars. A criticized choice. Its director responds to criticism.
The selection of The Passion of Dodin Bouffant to represent France at the Oscars was welcomed, at the end of September, with some critics from the cinema industry and specialized media, surprised to see that Anatomy of a Fall, the Palme d’Or, had been shunned.
Reactions which surprised its director Trần Anh Hùng, even though he was awarded the directing prize at the last Cannes Film Festival. “I didn’t understand this violence,” he reacted to First.
“No one came to question the decision of the Cannes Film Festival jury to award the Palme d’Or to Justine Triet’s film and that is perfectly normal,” he explains. “Why should we today call into question that of the committee which appoints the French representative for the Oscars?”
Les Inrocks had notably criticized the choice: “Anatomy of a Fall and The Passion of Dodin Bouffant are for us, respectively, the best and worst films of the year.” And Telerama had deplored “a somewhat indigestible ‘made in France’ choice”, in an article which renamed the film Anatomy of a Pot-au-feu.
Japanese influences
In the columns of Première, Trần Anh Hùng responds to the attacks: “I think, in fact, that I have translated it (the French spirit) with The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, through this refusal of exuberance and ostentation” , indicated the Franco-Vietnamese director, who ensures that his influences for this film “however remain Japanese”.
Produced by Gaumont, La Passion de Dodin Bouffant evokes the relationship between the gourmet Dodin-Bouffant (Benoit Magimel) – a character born from the pen of the writer Marcel Rouff in the 19th century and inspired by the French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin – and his cook Eugénie, played by Juliette Binoche.
The Passion of Dodin Bouffant follows Eugénie, an outstanding cook who has been serving the famous gastronome Dodin for 20 years. Over time, they fell in love with each other. But eager for freedom, Eugénie never wanted to marry Dodin. The latter then decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.
Leader Pierre Gagnaire participated in the film as a culinary advisor. “It was much more complicated than I imagined,” he told AFP last May during the Cannes Film Festival. The chef even makes an appearance in the film which brings together Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel for the first time on screen since 1999.
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