THE FOOD CLUB
Denmark, 2020, 98 minutes, Colour.
Kirsten Oleson, Stina Ekblad, Kirsten Lehfeldt, Trols Lyby, Michele Venitucci.
Directed by Barbara Topsoe Rothenborg.
What is the Danish for “Eat… Pray… Love… For three women in their seventh decade�? Apparently it is, The Food Club – there is quite a lot of food, quite a lot of love… but practically no prayer. However, we guess what this film will be like.
Just before the credits we are introduced to teenage girls joining hands, yelling out their Icelandic warcry and jumping into a pool. And who are these girls? Before we have time to wonder, we see them five decades (at least) later. Some quick sketches, set at Christmas, so that we get a quick introduction and see each of the women in her family context. There is Marie, slaving away at accounts in her husband’s company, joyful at Christmas with her two sons and their families, her husband, Hendrik, ominously looking glum and doing a lot of texting at the giving of gifts. Then there is Vanja, tending her husband’s grave, his dying eight years earlier, then some glimpses of home with her daughter but, eagerly taking her dog, Miller (called after Glenn) for a brisk walk. And then there is Berling, rather haughty in manner, finding it difficult to hold her granddaughter for more than a minute, not immediately sympathetic.
And the eating…? Her sons give Marie a gift of a week’s cooking course at a hotel in Italy. Because of the difficulties with Hendrik, and despondent with unpleasant discoveries, she offers to give her gift to her two friends who, of course, persuade her to go with them. So, away from cold Denmark, into sunny Italy, welcome to the hotel by their host and chef, Alessandro, to a middle-aged couple who exercise, diet and fast, very trendy, and a landscape gardener, Jacob, who loves Italian food and wants to learn how to cook it.
Quite a number of cooking sessions each day. Some local tours, plenty of conversations, going out on the town…
While Vanja and Berling are rather one note characters (although those one-notes are interesting in their way, so perhaps one and a half note characters) but Marie is the complex character, our focus on her, sad, happy, disillusioned, disappointed with her friends, disappointing them, acting out of character (letting her hair right down).
But, the consequences for women who have an Eat… Pray… Love experience means that there will be challenges to their lives, for Marie to question whether she will break free or not, for Vanja whether she will respond fully to her attraction to the landscape gardener, for Berling whether she will admit her age – and babysit for her granddaughter.
Moments of cheerfulness, moments of kitchen versatility, moments of pain, which will appeal to, especially, a women’s audience, but not exclusively, and for older audiences to check out comparisons between their lives and the conflicts and challenges of Marie, Vanja, Berling up there on the screen.
1. The title? An elderly variation on East, Pray, Love?
2. The Danish setting, homes, offices, the Christmas season, celebrations and gifts? The musical score?
3. The trip to Italy, the countryside, the hotel, the kitchen, celebrations?
4. The introduction to the three girls, their warcry, jumping into the pool? Transition of half a century or more? The three women, Vania, at her husband’s grave, 80 is dead, her relationship with her daughter, her fondness for her dog, Miller? Going for walks? Berling, 40, her daughter and granddaughter, unable to hold her, tension? Marie, working nights for the accounts, the Christmas celebration, her sons, the grandchildren, the gifts, Hendrik and his texting? Cleaning up, his reactions, Marie’s questions, his going out, her following, seeing the woman, the garden gnomes, looking through the window, the confrontation?
5. The gift of the trip to Italy, Hendrik not wanting to go, Marie meeting her friends, offering them the gift, they’re insisting she go with them? Reluctance, agreement, in Italy, pushing the car, other Sandra welcoming them?
6. The middle-aged couple, jogging, exercising, diet, fasting, trendy? The woman and her fear of the menopause? Her husband drinking the wine in the dark? The change of heart, further trends, Berling and her giving the wife good advice?
7. Jacob, landscape gardener, Italian food, wanting to learn?
8. The cooking, the kitchen, the recipes, the daily menu? The meals?
9. The activities, New Year’s eve celebrations, parties, dancing?
10. The experiences of the three women, Berling, clothes, smoking pot, drinking, flirting, not revealing her age? Vania, Dowdy, enjoying the trip? Jacob and the attraction, tentative, the approaches, Marie and her dress, intervening with Jacob, dancing? Vania thinking of the future, of her dead husband, not willing to promise to meet Jacob? Marie, the messages for Hendrik, not answering, Skype, seeing Hendrik and the woman at the party? Her ups and downs? Letting go, buying the red dress, smoking the pot, her reactions? Throwing herself at Jacob?
11. Crisis, the women criticising each other? Berling, the mass arch, conscious of not being touched, breakdown, removing the mascara, praising the woman and her not wearing make up? Marie, realising the truth, ending the tantrum? Vania, the attraction to Jacob, his proposal, his leaving, the others persuading her, on the back of a motorbike, meeting?
12. The return home, Hendrik wanting Marie to work for him, the flowers, her going to him, the altercation, slapping him? And her returning, free, to her friends?
