The Toronto International Film Festival’s subscription series, Food on Film, will be back for a fifth season starting on March 2.
Bringing together film fans, foodies and chefs, it will be hosted by author James Beard and culinary photographer Naomi Duguid.
Fusing culinary themes with cinema and culture, it’ll present six screenings followed by discussions.
Here’s an “appetizer” in the form of a review:
The sense of smell is crucial in our lives. Without it, food would be bland, tasteless and flavourless, really nothing more than fuel for the body. Absent this ability, the joy of inhaling the fragrance of wine, moist earth and fresh-cut hay would cease to exist and could only linger on in the realm of books or one’s imagination.
This theme is explored in Kim Nguyen’s The Empire of Scents, a wide-ranging documentary scheduled to be screened on May 18.
This fascinating film is framed by the articulate observations of Molly Birnbaum, a young American journalist whose olfactory neurons were severed following a car accident. Her comments touch on food as well as romance.
Sexual desire, we learn, is inextricably intertwined with odour and aroma.
As one might expect, The Empire of Scents focuses on pleasures imparted by perfume and food.
Ambergris, the hardened excrement of sperm whales, is an essential ingredient in the best perfumes. Smelly at first, it ripens into an intoxicating substance of great value as it ages.
Channel No. 5, with its delicate floral notes, is the real deal when it comes to perfume. But maybe you’ll be bowled over by a German perfumer’s erotic vulva perfume?
As the film unfolds, we’re introduced to an Italian white truffle hunter and a Moroccan saffron harvester whose exotic products fetch top dollars. Did you know that 600,000 stigmas are required to make one kilo of saffron? And were you aware that truffles bring out thieves in the night?
A wine maven uncorks a 100-year-old bottle of French wine and breathes in the delightful scent of peaches and brown caramelized sugar. Magical, he intones. In Normandy, a man waxes poetic as he describes the heady smell of the ocean.
Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut, answers a question that may have been on your mind: What does outer space smell like? Like lingering cordite and brimstone after a gun is fired, he replies.
The lineup of films:
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
dir. Peter Greenaway | UK/France 1989 | 124 min. | R | 35mm
Set in a luxurious London restaurant, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover chronicles the fateful affair between the wife of a vicious crime boss and a quiet, well-mannered intellectual, which Greenaway transforms into an idiosyncratic allegory about the clash between cultural refinement and capitalistic barbarism.
The Singhampton Project.
dir. Jonathan Staav | Canada 2014 | 62 min. | PG
This engaging documentary follows Canadian farm-to-table chefs Michael and Nobuyo Stadtländer and French landscape artist Jean Paul Ganem as they collaborate on an ambitious project: to create seven gardens from which they will grow, harvest, cook and serve a seven-course meal every night for 20 days for hundreds of lucky guests.
Diner
dir. Barry Levinson | USA 1982 | 110 min. | 14A | 35mm
Six buddies in 1959 Baltimore face the hard facts of employment, marriage, and maturity in this classic comedy-drama.
The Empire of Scents
dir. Kim Nguyen | Canada 2014 | 84 min. | G
Academy Award nominee Kim Nguyen (Rebelle) directs this immersive, globe-trotting documentary about how the sense of smell connects directly to our cultural, culinary and emotional lives.
Good Things Await
dir. Phie Ambo | Denmark 2014 | 100 min. | PG
Director Phie Ambo follows biodynamic farmers Niels and Rita Stokholm as they defend their farm against government bureaucrats whose rigid interpretation of European Union laws is endangering an entire philosophy of sustainable agriculture.
The Angels’ Share
dir. Ken Loach | Ireland 2012 | 99 min. | 14A
A Glaswegian ne’er-do-well concocts a get-rich-quick scheme to make off with a case of extremely rare malt whiskey, in this light-hearted comedy-drama from British master Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes the Barley).
Series subscriptions to Food on Film include all six events and are on sale now: $153 for TIFF members or $180 for non-members. Single tickets available starting February 24: $28 for TIFF Members or $35 for non-members. Purchase tickets online at tiff.net/food, by phone from 10a.m. to 7 p.m. ET daily at 416.599.TIFF or 1.888.599.8433, or visit the box office in person from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West.