MLA Proseminar: Food and Film

Are you intrigued by the role food plays in our lives and our world? Have you noticed that the food film has become one of cinema’s most durable subgenres not only in the US but in global cinema as well? Are you willing to test the proposition that the food film is more than entertainment? That the food film, in fact, provides us unique access to a range of fundamental questions about passion and desire, family, survival, art, gender, race, and ethnicity? This seminar explores numerous aspects of the food/film nexus, starting with the classics (Babette’s Feast and Tampopo), and grazing across a menu of Hollywood, independent, and international documentaries and feature films that throw light on food production and global warming; chefs and the restaurant business; the erotics of food and cinema; eating and the self; and moral and religious aspects of consumption. Designed for lovers (or potential lovers) of food and film alike, this course will introduce you to the art of film analysis and the pleasures of cuisine.