The Taste of Things is a thorough dissection of gastronomy almost a love letter to food’s sense of taste in emotion and memory. Offscreen Central had the opportunity to talk to the director and writer Trần Anh Hùng about creating such a delicious opening sequence, time as a central theme, and how he immersed the audience into the full taste of the kitchen.

Jillian Chilingerian: This film inspired me to get back in the kitchen and start cooking to make the dishes from the film. So first, I want to start with that beautiful introductory sequence. I feel like it’s so unique to spend the time to walk through each process of the dishes and it also tells us so much about the characters without explicitly giving an exposition. The way the camera moves is very dance-like. How was it with the script and working with your actors and your DP to figure out this beautiful masterpiece, right at the beginning of your film?
Trần Anh Hùng: I always liked watching people working with their hands so for this cooking scene, I will have a lot of hands working in there. It was quite complex to shoot the scene. I divided it into three long shots that we shot in three days because the idea is that all the dishes cook at the same time in the same movement, you see one state of the dish, then you move, to another dish, it needs to be at the right state of this dish. There was this idea of harmony in the way that they worked together because they knew each other and had worked together for more than 20 years. I needed to bring this harmony to the audience to create that kind of ballet, then we shot it with a Steadicam so I had to put my hands on the hips of the Steadicam and move him, push him so he can be closer to some details.

Jillian Chilingerian: When you are watching it you are thinking about how did they do this. It tells us so much about Dodin and Eugénie’s relationship and how it’s expressed through cooking, we don’t see a lot of intimate scenes between them, but we see them preparing dishes for each other and he wants to watch her eat. How did you form that central relationship to communicate the 20 years they’ve had together and just the shared passion?
Trần Anh Hùng: I think that their whole life is dedicated to sensuality because food and love are two sources of the same sensuality in our lives and they practice both every day. So it’s, it’s quite amazing.

Jillian Chilingerian: With the hands, watching people put things together with their hands, there’s just something about it. We see each process and there’s something about like watching someone craft something not necessarily for the outcome, but the whole experience. There is a naturalism and craftsmanship to this menu and capturing that authenticity for the period. How did you figure out the menu of all these fantastic dishes?
Trần Anh Hùng: In the beginning, during the script writing, I worked with a historian to make sure that everything on the menu was at that period. The next step is with Pierre Gagnaire, who is a great chef, he reviews the menu and changes it by discussing it with me because I always ask him how to describe it so I can imagine how it would be on the screen. We had the menu that he cooked for me for five days in his kitchen, so I could see everything and at the same time, I realized that the way he’s cooking is quite natural. He cuts things normally like me, so it gave me the spirit of this movie and I get rid of everything that is like beauty shots on the dishes, or how we cut something in a very amazing way I didn’t want it for the movie. So everything looks natural and very real.

Jillian Chilingerian: Recently in the past few years, when we’ve seen cooking represented in media, there’s always a toxicity with the work environment around it. This film is about the love behind food and how it holds so many memories and emotions and I like that aspect. We see that within this relationship someone can follow a recipe, but it’s like her specifically, what she’s able to add and make it her own and how it impacts, everyone and her space, you feel her presence there through her food.
Trần Anh Hùng: Yes, I think that you said it very well.

Jillian Chilingerian: Going back to that real-time thing. Time is an ingredient, the time of cooking a meal and the time these lovers have together. While you were writing the film and going through the shooting process was that a theme that you wanted to touch upon, we go through the seasons too, and just you can feel every ounce of this relationship even though we as the audience we’re not there for like the first 20 years but you can feel it.
Trần Anh Hùng: Oh yes, you made the right move because time is everything in this movie even in very small details. When I talk to the actors, I always tell them to take their time and everything that they have to say the meaning is already inside the words so they don’t have to express this meaning you just have to say so very simply, but they have to taste it to keep it in your mouth and let the audience wait for the so everything was about time. Wait for the moment where you say it and then it would come out more delicious and the time is something that I gave to the actors by having these long shots so they manage the time, the rhythm, and the musicality of the scene. It’s a gift that I gave to them and at the same time a gift to the audience.

Jillian Chilingerian: It gave us time to breathe because it’s we’re always so go, go, go go until this was you sit down and you intake every single sight, and sound, the relationship develops a little connection.
Trần Anh Hùng: The thinking is fast, but the filmmaking is slow, because when it’s slow, you can get all the taste of it on the flavor from a scene, but at the same time, the thing is fast. In the end Pauline, she wants to be trained and we see Dodin refusing it, but in the next scene, she’s there, and the thinking is very fast. All the scenes we take time for this so we can get all the flavor from it.

Jillian Chilingerian: Thank you so much for your time to discuss this beautiful film that you metaphorically eat up.
Trần Anh Hùng: Thank you.

Perfect Days is currently playing in select theaters.
You can read our review of The Taste of Things here.