Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film Anne L. Bower 9780415971119

Reel Food is the first book devoted to food as a vibrant and evocative element of film, featuring original essays by major food studies scholars, among them Carole Counihan and Michael Ashkenazi. This collection reads various films through their uses of food-from major food films like Babette's Feast and Big Night to less obvious choices including The Godfather trilogy and The Matrix . The contributors draw attention to the various ways in which food is employed to make meaning in film. In some cases, such as Soul Food and Tortilla Soup , for example, food is used to represent racial and ethnic identities. In other cases, such as Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate , food plays a role in gender and sexual politics. And, of course, there is also discussion of the centrality of popcorn to the movie-going experience.
This book is a feast for scholars, foodies, and cinema buffs. It will be of major interest to anyone working in popular culture, film studies, and food studies, at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Anne L. Bower is Associate Professor of English at Ohio State University, Marion. She is author of EpistolaryResponses: The Letter in 20th-Century American Fictionand Criticism and editor of Recipes for Reading:Community Cookbooks, Stories, Histories.

"Anne Bower's Reel Food is an intellectual feast, where each essay serves a delicious new course filled with meaty morsels and delightful aromas. It provides thoughtful lenses in which to view the culinary dimensions of all films, but be prepared to reexamine the taste sensations of traditional food movies, such as Chocolat, Babette's Feast, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Tortilla Soup. I ignored the incessant urge to put the book down and head to out to the video rental store to pick up the films devoured in this book. I'll never look at a movie without seeing its culinary dimensions in new ways. So, make some popcorn and settle down in your easy chair--you're headed for a great read." -- Andrew F. Smith, editor-in-chief, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food andDrink in America
"From sci-fi to horror, from romance to adventure, the films discussed in this collection are enriched by cogent analyses of the ways food is used to signal issues of cultural identity, assimilation, and conflict. With ReelFood, you won't need popcorn
." -- Darra Goldstein, Editor, Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture
"Reel Food is the go-to book for anyone interested in the rich intersections between food and film studies. The compelling, wide-ranging essays gathered here demonstrate that if you are interested in film, then you can't ignore food, and vice versa
." -- Doris Witt, author of BlackHunger: Soul Food and America

"Anne Bower's Reel Food is an intellectual feast, where each essay serves a delicious new course filled with meaty morsels and delightful aromas. It provides thoughtful lenses in which to view the culinary dimensions of all films, but be prepared to reexamine the taste sensations of traditional food movies, such as Chocolat, Babette's Feast, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Tortilla Soup. I ignored the incessant urge to put the book down and head to out to the video rental store to pick up the films devoured in this book. I'll never look at a movie without seeing its culinary dimensions in new ways. So, make some popcorn and settle down in your easy chair--you're headed for a great read." -- Andrew F. Smith, editor-in-chief, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America

"From sci-fi to horror, from romance to adventure, the films discussed in this collection are enriched by cogent analyses of the ways food is used to signal issues of cultural identity, assimilation, and conflict. With Reel Food, you won't need popcorn." -- Darra Goldstein, Editor, Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture

"Reel Food is the go-to book for anyone interested in the rich intersections between food and film studies. The compelling, wide-ranging essays gathered here demonstrate that if you are interested in film, then you can't ignore food, and vice versa
." -- Doris Witt, author of Black Hunger: Soul Food and America