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Master chef Hippolyte marks his retirement by holding a
stunning feast for friends, family and restaurant patrons on the last
night of the old-fashioned family bistro’s closure. The many different
characters recall their memories and gradually we see their place in the
plot. A wonderful ensemble cast, dazzling script and mouthwatering food,
whose preparation, cooking and consumption is a consumate art which echoes
the classic Babette’s Feast (which also starred the luminous Audran).
One of the major drawbacks of this movie is the number
of characters the viewer is expected to keep track of. For a lot of the
characters, their relationship to the owners is never completely clear. As
a contrast to this, the brother and sister twosome constantly refer to each
other as "my brother" or "my sister", painfully
spelling out their relationship. As long as you are happy to let it flow
over you and not try to remember who was who or who was married to whom,
the movie is quite pleasant.
As well as the overhead of keeping track of all these
people, we never really get to know anyone very well. The little snippets
of people here and there are mildly interesting but vaguely dissatisfying.
And why are they throwing a party for their son’s friends rather than their
own friends? The implication seems to be that these are their friends also
but it seems a strange mix with no-one from their generation present, not
even the wife’s gossiping partner. Perhaps this is just another example of
movie makers’ fascination with youth.
This is less a food movie and more an ensemble cast set in a restaurant. As
such, Au Petit Marguery is a pleasant film with mildly diverting
characters, lacking the soul of Big Night
and missing the sumptuousness of Eat, Drink, Man
Woman.
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