Catherine Frot has a new film out. Really that's all I need to know. Who cares if it's ultimately unsatisfying, it's a great all-round actress wearing her comedy hat, what more do you want. There's a nice in-joke that may well be lost on UK and USA viewers; the role of the President (Mitterand in all but name, the film is based on a book by Daniele Depeuch, who really was summoned to the Elysee Palace by Mitterand to be his personal chef) is played by Jean D'Ormesson, a journalist, not an actor who was, in real life, Mitterand's bete noir. Little more than a series of vignettes the film covers the two years that the chef from Perignord spent in the Elysee Palace, the backs she put up and the friends that she made. There is, for example, a recurring battle between chef and the treasurer who can't understand why the ingredients she needs for the provincial dishes favored by the president can't be sourced in local Paris markets and need to be shipped in. Bottom line? Catherine Frot has a new film out. Hooray!
Review of Haute Cuisine
