What is billed as the Third Annual Food Film Festival starts this Saturday in locations at the South Street Seaport and Long Island City, Queens. The festival features Big Night, a terrific film for true foodies and lots of short films about food, the production of food products and ingredients such as mushrooms. But New York isn’t the only place that food lovers can find a great film. The Westport Library collection includes some of the great movies that make restaurants or food another key character. Here are some of staff’s favorites.
Hungry for a Connecticut connection? Go ahead and sample Mystic Pizza (with a young Julia Roberts). Like ethnic food? How about Dim Sum, an independent film about a Chinese American family and the meals that bind them together or the Japanese film Tampopo (Dandelion) in which a young widow is struggling to make ends meet by running a noodle restaurant. Spanglish is a surprisingly sweet film about the relationship between a Mexican housekeeper, her star chef boss and their families. Speaking of chefs, make a reservation for the award winning animated film Ratatouilee or the romantic comedy No Reservations! For desert travel to Europe for a little Chocolat or visit Tuscany for a great home cooked meal served by Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun.
If all these films inspire you to cook, the library’s collection offers many instructional films on the art of cooking and popular series staring great chefs and cooks. Bon Appétit!
