Food on Film: Bringing Something New to the Table

(Hardback)

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From early cinematic depictions of food as a symbol of ethnic and cultural identity to more complex contemporary portrayals, movies have demonstrated how our ideas about food are always changing. On the big and small screens, representations of addiction, starvation, and even food as fetish reinforce how important food is in our lives and in our culture. In Food on Film: Bringing Something New to the Table, Tom Hertweck brings together innovative viewpoints about a popular, yet understudied, subject in cinema. This collection explores the pervasiveness of food in film, from movies in which meals play a starring role to those that feature food and eating in supporting or cameo appearances. The volume asks provocative questions about food and its relationship with work, urban life, sexual orientation, the family, race, morality, and a wide range of appetites. The fourteen essays by international, interdisciplinary scholars offer a wide range of perspectives on such films and television shows as The Color Purple, Do the Right Thing, Ratatouille, The Road, Sex and the City, Twin Peaks, and even Jaws. From first course to last, Food on Film will be of interest to scholars of film and television, sociology, anthropology, and cultural history.

Reviews

Pleasure layering takes center stage in Tom Hertwecks Food on Film. The author explores depictions of food from the earliest days of movies up to the present. * Campus Circle *
True to the collection's title, the contributors to this volume use food as a trope to engage in novel analyses of a number of films and television programs already well worn by conventional interpretations. Hertweck organized the book into five parts, the first of which, 'First Courses,' comprises essays meant to demonstrate the new directions through which food might be used in film analysis and criticism. The remaining four parts focus specifically on African American film, non-American film, television, and films broaching the subject of cannibalism. The contributors use film to connect to larger social and cultural issuesfor example, the authority of the male and the commensurate impotence of the female in black culture, national and personal identity, and the impact of globalization and genetic engineering on societies generally. . . .[A]t its best, the collection is creative, provocative, and epistemic. It can be read in conjunction with Reel Food, ed. by Anne Bower, and James Kellers Food, Film and Culture. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Tom Hertweck teaches courses on film, adaptation, the poetics of food, and various topics in American literature and cultural history at the University of Nevada, Reno.