And behind door number 22... a guide to some music of the more traditional kind
Catherine Munn and Jacob Martin list their Top 5 programmes to watch over the festive period.
And behind door number nine... some dazzling musical delights
The complete arts guide, for week 9
-10. Big Night (1996)
Italian immigrant brothers Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and Secondo (Stanley Tucci) struggle to keep their restaurant afloat in New Jersey and maintain their culinary integrity, especially when set up for failure by fellow restaurateur Pascal (Ian Holm).
-9. Sweeney Todd (2007)
Barber Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) is deported to Australia by a corrupt Judge (Alan Rickman), but returns some fifteen years later to wreak his vengeance, leaving a trail of bodies behind him. These bodies are then turned into pies his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter). Not one to watch on steak night.
-8. Chocolat (2000)
Johnny Depp returns, this time as gypsy Roux in this film about a chocolatier (Juliette Binoche) trying to make it in a small French town during Lent. Eventually, her chocolates bring comfort and joy to the simple townsfolk.
-7. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967)
Food triumphs over racism, as Katherine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier are the newly engaged interracial couple, returning to San Francisco to meet her parents. Thus proving once and for all that it’s not what you look like that matters, but what food you eat.
-6. Bottle Shock (2008)
Man cannot live by food alone, for he must also have wine. The real story of how the Californian wine industry came to challenge the French, when British wine shop owner Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) decides to pair the two nations against each other in a blind-taste test.
-5. Waitress (2007)
Jenna (Kerri Russell) lives an unhappy life, working as a waitress and married to a borderline psychopath. She escapes her misery by baking pies, fantasizing over which concoction best suits her current trouble. When she begins an affair with a doctor (Nathan Fillion) she’s inspired to take charge of her life. Heart-warming stuff.
-4. Simply Irresistible (1999)
Young chef Amanda (Sarah Michelle Gellar) inherits her mother’s restaurant, but lacks her cooking ability. Cue an encounter with a mysterious stranger and a magic crab (no joke) an Amanda’s cooking becomes magically becomes imprinted with her own emotions, helping her find success.
-3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Gene Wilder’s classic performance, based on Roald Dahl’s classic book. If you don’t know the story then you really are starved of decent cinema. Urchin Charlie Bucket finds golden ticket in chocolate bar, and gets to visit chocolate factory with weird orange workers that sing, etc.
-2. Ratatouille (2007)
Young Remy longs to be a chef, but the only snag in his chosen career path is that he’s a rat. After his family’s home in an old lady’s attic is exposed, Remy journeys to Paris to live his dream against the odds. You tell me the ending doesn’t make you cry.
-1. Julie & Julia (2009)
Julia Child (Meryl Streep) is the wife of an American cultural ambassador, living in France in the ‘50s. Julie Powell (Amy Adams) lives in the ‘00s, working at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, answering calls from victims of the September 11th attacks. Their stories become interwoven when Julie sets herself the challenge of cooking all the recipes in Julia’s famous cookbook, intermingled with Julia’s struggle to become a published author. Excellent stuff.
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