The depiction of food in films and television shows often evokes strong emotions and desires in viewers. From lavishly prepared meals to simple comfort foods, the way characters interact with food can be a powerful storytelling tool. However, some scenes are particularly memorable, sparking cravings and discussions long after the credits roll.
One of the most evocative scenes is the "dinner in prison" scene from Goodfellas. The naturalism with which it depicts its many, many moments gathered around the dinner table is one of the Cannes-approved drama’s biggest strengths. When you’re surrounded by people you love and are comfortable around, you’re not so concerned with how you’re eating. Noodles get slurped, pasta drips onto your jeans, and nothing really matters except who you’re with.
Another film that expresses a hunger many have encountered is The Breakfast Club. The lunchtime detention scene provides character studies with each person’s food choices, it always takes one back to the hunger pangs of high school, and the frustration of not being in control, unable to eat when you’re hungry, instead forced to anxiously await what amounts to a dinner bell.
Even seemingly unappetizing scenes can trigger unexpected cravings. For example, the Pale Man’s table from Pan’s Labyrinth, with its lurching, hideous guardian, can still make one want a taste of that thin, delicious-looking cake with the bright red cherries on top. So it’s hard to fault poor Ofelia for giving into her instincts and plucking a ripe grape from the bounty, especially since bucking fairy tale tradition and sticking to her mission would mean we’d never get to see Doug Jones’ transfixing physical performance as the beast.
Here are some other examples of scenes that evoke hunger:
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- Chocolat: Juliette Binoche opens up a lovely shop in a small French town and is even dressed in shades of chocolate as she whips up truffles and cocoa and tries to guess everyone’s favorites.
- Pulp Fiction: The Big Kahuna burger from Pulp Fiction, with its glistening bun and tiny amount of ketchup, never fails to make one hunger for a nice thick burger.
- God Of Cookery: Steven Chow’s God Of Cookery is both absurd and delicious-looking. One taste sends a customer into a transcendent hallucination of running along a beach dressed in robes of flowing linen.
- Like Water For Chocolate: In the film, based on Laura Esquivel’s novel, food is such an integral part of the story. The meal is so infused with lust it causes her other sister to promptly sleep with a passing revolutionary.
- Big Night: It’s a ludicrously rich pasta dish filled with what Tony Shalhoub’s uncompromising food artist proclaims, “all of the most important things in the world…”
- Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory: The candy room sequence in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. The idea of entering someplace where everything is edible is one of those concepts that can cause a child’s (pure) imagination to run wild.
The movies that make one hungriest are the ones where the characters are hungry. There’s nothing like watching someone else’s desperate, ravenous hunger to make one appreciate every last kernel of popcorn being eaten. As Matt Damon and Casey Affleck wander aimlessly, their desperation mounting, the film’s pacing is slow to the point of monotony. You really start to imagine yourself in the characters’ place, forcing yourself to march onward, not knowing whether you’re heading toward salvation or damning yourself further.
More so than any food-porn movies, the depictions of food that has given me the most visceral reactions have been, weirdly, cartoon depictions of pizza. I have no idea why, but the simplified versions of pizza slices that I’d see on DuckTales or Tiny Toon Adventures as a kid would make me hunger for the real thing, and thinking of it still kind of does, even though real pizza never looks much like its clean, detail-light, often sauceless-looking animated counterpart.
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Ultimately, the power of food in film lies in its ability to tap into our senses and emotions, creating a visceral experience that resonates long after the movie ends.
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