Foodies -- March 21 2012

I guess there is a common theme in the last three movies I have watched.  Food.  Firstly, I went to see "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen", which is playing in the theatres now.  (does this sound like a trailer??)It stars Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, and Kristin Scott Thomas.  I took my friends to celebrate a birthday and it was a great fun movie with a preposterous plot.  If you put aside the idea that a rich Sheik is willing to spend fifty million POUNDS on building and then importing Salmon into a artificially constructed river in the middle of the desert, you can move on with the main story. Ewan, who is adorable, plays a geeky, straightlaced marine biologist who is in a very neglectful marriage and is crying out for someone to introduce him to fun.  Emily, the consultant who is overseeing the whole project is the person to provide that romantic distraction that he needs, but there is the little problem of her boyfriend... Kristin Scott Thomas has a hilarious role as the government advisor who is trying to find a story to float to the British press to put a positive spin on middle east catastrophes.  Where does food come into it?  OK that is a bit of a stretch, but I suppose the sheik would eat the Salmon?

Next up, I watched a movie I downloaded on iTunes last year and just got around to watching.  I downloaded it when I was in one of my "eat less meat" phases.  It is a documentary called "Forks over Knives".  It is about the research done by a couple of doctors in the US who have studies that show that there is a direct correlation with western diseases and the modern western diet.  This film is not as compelling at convincing me to give up my steak this weekend as others that I have watched in the past, such as Food Inc., and Fast Food nation.  Nevertheless, I do believe that it has merit and I have stored it in my brain that getting protein from animal products alone is probably not the healthiest way to eat.

Then last night it was the next in the series I go to at TIFF called "Food on Film", I have a subscription to this but you can go to single shows.  Last night we watched "Julie and Julia", which I have watched many times and previously read the book.  The movie holds up to multiple viewings very well.  I laughed heartily all the way through.  I love watching cooking in films, it makes me want to go home and cook.  I will not bother going into the details of the film because I am sure everyone (is anyone reading this?) has seen it.  But, having just started to blog, I was very interested in Julie and her blogging.  HOW on earth did she have the time.  In the story she is working full time in NY, commuting and then getting home to cook all those time consuming receipes and THEN she finds time to blog (maybe she found that part easy, but writing takes time).  One interesting fact, at the end of the movie there is a note to inform as that Julia Child and her husband Paul both passed away within a couple of years of each other, both in their 90s.  That is after a life of enjoying a diet very rich in animal fats with many delicious buttery, creamy sauces!  Make of that what you will!