The Passion of Dodin Bouffant on France 4: a fascinating pure sensory pleasure (review)

Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel transcend Tran Han Hung’s new film, at once a romance between a gastronome and his cook, a praise of the culinary art and a treatise on directing.

The Passion of Dodin Bouffant is broadcast for the first time unencrypted this Saturday evening on France 4, and will be available for free streaming the next day on the France Télévisions website. An ode to French gastronomy, Tran Han Hung’s film, starring Benoit Magimel and Juliette Binoche, won the Best Director Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival before being chosen to represent France at the 2024 Oscars, to the detriment of Anatomy of a Fall. A choice which had unfairly tarnished the reputation of this brilliant work that Première strongly advises you to catch up on. Our review:

Dodin Bouffant makes a young apprentice taste a sauce. She must guess its composition and, with each element found, the sauce recomposes itself on the screen. In one magnificent sequence, Tran Han Hung has just summed up the power of his new film. The Passion of Dodin Bouffant will be a work on French culture (cooking as a total, supreme art), as much as a portrait of characters (who must learn, love, tame) and a sumptuous staging…