Food, glorious food. It may be primary and basic, but it's also a mark of civilization and artistic expression. Here is a short list of movies featuring restaurants or chefs that use food to explore passion visually.
--Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974). Ellen Burstyn won an Oscar for her performance as Alice Hyatt, a funny, spirited widow who takes a job as a waitress to support herself and her son. Alice is horrified she has to take a job waiting tables at Mel's diner. But there she gathers courage and self-respect. Diane Ladd is great as the wise-cracking waitress Flo. The movie inspired the long-running TV series ``Alice'' that starred Linda Lavin.
--Big Night (1996). Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott co-directed this intimate movie about two Italian immigrant brothers struggling to make their restaurant a success. Tucci plays Secondo, a pragmatic entrepreneur, and Tony Shalhoub is Primo, a brilliant chef who is unwilling to compromise his art. The brothers' deep, conflicted love is tested when they stage an elaborate meal thinking trumpeter Louis Prima will visit and help launch their restaurant.
--The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989). Director Peter Greenaway's film is grotesque, horrifying and fascinating. The stylized fable about love and revenge, civilization and barbarism is set mainly in an opulent restaurant. We see food in every stage, from carcass to preparation, fanciful display to wrecked aftermath. Michael Gambon, the tyrannical thief, holds court there with Helen Mirren as his wife.
--Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). Food is at the center of director Ang Lee's story. Master chef Chu, played by Sihung Lung, has lost his sense of taste and is losing touch with his three daughters. A ritualized Sunday night dinner provides a stage for the family to communicate complicated, tightly held emotions. The footage of Chu preparing their elaborate meals is tantalizing.
--Frankie and Johnny (1991). Al Pacino plays Johnny, a short-order cook who falls in love with Frankie, a waitress played by Michelle Pfeiffer, in this adaptation of Terrence McNally's play. The play is set in Frankie's tiny New York City apartment, but the movie lets us see a kaleidoscope of characters at the Apollo Cafe. There was a lot of guff at the time about casting Pfeiffer as a lonely, frumpy woman but she's vulnerable and believable in the role.
--Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). This is a quirky, captivating film that tells two tales of loving relationships. The frame story is set in the present and focuses on the friendship between Evelyn Couch and Ninny Threadgoode, played by Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy. The central story, set in the 1920s and '30s, is about Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, played by Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker. These women create a haven at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
--Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978) This comedy- mystery directed by Ted Kotcheff opened the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1978. The late British actor Robert Morley plays a pompous gourmand, the chief murder suspect as famous chefs are found dead in comic situations related to their specialties. Jacqueline Bisset plays a sexy pastry chef and George Segal is her ex-husband who owns a fast-food franchise called the Humpty Dumpty Omelette Shops.
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