Taste of Things, The

image for Taste of Things, The

Short takes

Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 12 (nudity, themes, subtitles). May lack interest under 17.

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Taste of Things, The
  • a review of Taste of Things, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 9 May 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 11 Not suitable due to nudity, themes and subtitles.
Children aged 11–12 Parental guidance recommended due to nudity, themes and subtitles.
Children aged 13 and over Ok for this age group, though may lack interest under 17.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Taste of Things, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild nudity
Length: 135 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) is an incredibly talented chef, she is an artist in the kitchen, who has been cooking for Dodin (Benoit Magimel), a perfectionist gourmet, for over 20 years. Together they create spectacular dishes the world has never dreamed of and impress anyone who is fortunate enough to try their fare. Eugenie is assisted in the kitchen by Violette (Galatea Bellugi) an aspiring chef with poor skills, and her young cousin Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire) who has an astounding talent when it comes to identifying ingredients and flavours and who yearns to be a chef as well. Dodin is very much in love with Eugenie who has an intimate relationship with him but who is reluctant to accept his proposals. When Eugenie becomes ill Dodin begins to cook for her and she eventually agrees to marry him. She passes away suddenly, and Dodin is left bereft, unable to eat, to cook, or to even think straight. Violette and Dodin’s friends are unable to reach him but young Pauline and her desire to learn to cook as Eugenie did might just be the one thing that can lift Dodin from his misery and help him learn to live again.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Illness; Death; Grief.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • A reference is made to a child that is left in the street and told that he can never go home as the family has too many children and there is not enough to eat.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • None noted.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • None noted.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A man notes that he watched a newborn babe greedily throw itself at its mother’s breast and that this has given him an appetite.
  • Dodin asks Eugenie if she will leave her door open to him in the evening. They occasionally have this conversation alluding to their sexual relationship and Eugenie mentions that as a wife she wouldn’t have the luxury to shut the door on him if she wasn’t in the mood for his affections.
  • It is noted that her door is “often open to him”.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Eugenie is bathing in her room one night when Dodin comes in to watch her. She is standing completely naked and can be seen from her backside.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • There is frequent consumption of alcohol, specifically different wines or champagnes used through different meals and paired with different foods.
  • Men drink liquor in a ‘salon’.
  • Men smoke cigars after dinner.
  • Pauline, though a minor, is given wine to try as well.
  • Wine is used in cooking.

Coarse language

  • None noted.

In a nutshell

The Taste of Things is a slow-paced French film with English subtitles. The film largely takes place in the kitchen of an old chateau and long stretches are devoted to the preparation of food, often without words. There is beautiful cinematography and the gentle plot of an older love story, the likes of which is often missing from modern cinema. The film is likely to be of little interest to children or teens and is better suited to older, adult audiences or fans of French films.

The main messages from this movie are to be true to yourself and to your talents; and to enjoy your food and to savour it, as well as your relationships, for we never know how long these may last.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Helpfulness
  • Community
  • Compassion
  • Creativity
  • Industriousness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Insisting that you are fine, even when you are not.
  • Pushing yourself beyond your own endurance.
  • Allowing grief to get the better of you.