How do the films ‘Chef’ (2014) Jon Favreau’ and ‘JUICE (2017) Neeraj Ghaywan explore cultural identities through the use of cinematography and mise-en-scene?

PHOTOGRAPHS OF FOOD ARE RARELY JUST ABOUT FOOD. THEY HOLD OUR LIVES AND TIME UP TO THE LIGHT.

Bright, S. Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography (2017)

When exploring culture, food often can be the key to discovering cultural differences and similarities. The way food is cooked, served, eaten and enjoyed is interesting and can offer a real insight into specific cultures that other explorative devices cannot offer. ‘Chef’ and ‘Juice’ both provide an understanding of food culture in the US and India respectively. The food culture that both the films represent have deeper underlying links to cultural issues in both countries. Chef brings to light issues on familial and romantic relationships as well as workplace security. In Juice, it explores the systematic oppression of women. In art, food has been used to investigate culture and identity for millenniums with examples of food art being found in paintings such as “Fresco Depicting a Woman Holding a Dish” estimated to have been created between 1-79 AD, 2000 years ago. Food has always been used in art as an allegory for other substance, often being taboo subjects such as sex and pleasure but more often being used to signify power and wealth such as the commodification of the pineapple fruit to show status that only the richest in society could achieve. Photographer, Martin Parr is renowned for photographs of people and food that impart an incredibly intimate insight into different people’s cultures as well as providing historically significant simulacrum to educate years after his photography is taken, seen in work such as ‘Anniversary Tea’ and ‘Steep Lane Baptist’. 

Planning

intro- talk about history of food and art- introduction to central ideas of both films

chef- ideas of food porn- sexuality and food, food tourism, food in the western world- multiculturalism, culinary tourism

juice- systemic oppression of women, patriarchal society, food as allegory for freedom

conclusion- talk about ho0w own film connects and then reaffirm points

bibliography

Visual Feast: Contemporary Food Photography and Styling: Contemporary Food Staging and Photography by Gestalten

Re-contextualising the Spectacle of Online Gastronomy:
A Studio Investigation into Contemporary Food Imaging
by Nathan Taylor BFA (Hons)
School of Creative Arts

From around the 1990s, the chef as celebrity or celebrity chef was born. As such, food media took on another dimension of cross-platform branded style marketing. Chefs, like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson, have their own range of books, television shows
and cookware, stimulating another surge in the recent saturation of food imaging. Jamie Oliver is a pertinent example of how brand-based marketing is commonplace
within food media and directly impacts consumer activities.

Women do not have to necessarily absolve themselves of traditional duties to feel equal, all they need is to feel and act as equals in both responsibilities and privileges.- Hindustan Times  Nov 26, 2017

Chef is most engaging when it shows Carl at work, in scenes supervised by Roy Choi, who worked at Manhattan’s posh Le Bernardin restaurant before wowing L.A. with his Kogi BBQ Taco Truck. Carl will duplicate Choi’s success when he acquires a battered truck in Miami Beach and takes it on the road home through New Orleans and Austin.- time magazine BY RICHARD CORLISS MAY 8, 2014 10:30 AM EDT

Bright, S. Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography

martin parr anniversary tea-1978, steep lane baptist 1976

It looked greasy, satisfying, and deceptively simple – which is reason enough to try a recipe. Learn To Be Considerate And Forgiving With Italian Nonnas And Stanley Tucci – Entertainment News, Firstpost By Judy J. Beasley Last updated Jan 23, 2022

After finishing all of my shoots, I began to edit my film together using the adobe premiere software. I cut out a lot of unnecessary pauses, ums and ars as well as irrelevant pieces of conversation that did not tie in as well as other more applicable and consistent parts. This cutting created a fast paced and interesting piece of work and kept it to just about my time constraints. I ordered each interview to create variety having a young person and then an old person interviewed in order to follow Neale’s genre theory by not keeping everything the same, creating differences to keep audiences intrigued

In order to introduce each culture I began each interview with an image of each nation/regions flag to create a visual preface into each ethnology. To augment this I included a segment of a stereotypical non-diegetic piece of music indicative of each culture. This included traditional bagpipe playing for Scotland, Jersey’s anthem ‘Beautiful Jersey’ sung in our traditional language jerriais, ‘La Bamba’ for Mexico and a Lancashire folk song for Yorkshire, for which I sampled the part with the thickest accent in order to enhance the verisimilitude of the film.

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I decided not to edit the colour palate instead opting for a more natural amateurish feel with quality reminiscent of early louis Theroux interviews

Mood board

I include my mood board to remind me of my initial idea for the direction I wish for my film to go, providing a firm link between the dishes and the cultures that they belong to.

Due to camera difficulties including shakiness, blurriness and the accidental inclusion of the books used in lieu of a tripod, some clips, specifically from the interview about Yorkshire is not visually appealing and is in some cases virtually unusable. To fix this I plan to use an J cut technique to allow a voiceover to continue the linear narrative but overcut with archival footage relating to the relevant culture/dish or alternatively just something being discussed.

When reediting my film after publishing the first draft I gathered archival images to add over the film and hide imperfections such a camera shakes and blurriness

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I also replaced the flags with more real looking flags with visible movement in order to keep all regions the same as well as adding a sense of verisimilitude.

Chef, John Favreau (2014)

In ‘Chef’ Jon Favreau explores parental roles and the impact of social media on job security, set to a backdrop of a culinary road trip across the US as main character Carl, played by Favreau, rediscovers his passion for cooking after a career destroying social media meltdown. The beautiful cinematography and extensive mise-en-scene of Chef is what solidified it’s status as a cult film and helped to adequately explore the vibrancy of Latin-American cooking and culture. The beginning of the film see’s Carl fall victim to cancel culture as he serves a popular but boring and overused menu to a food critic who gives a negative review which sparks Carl to respond with abuse on twitter, this exchange being familiar to contemporary audiences where cancel culture is a common occurrence that many celebrities falling victim to. By using film to deep dive into food culture, Favreau effectively brings a new medium to the phenomenon of food porn. One scene in particular stands out as displaying an erotic side of cookery as Carl prepares a dish of ‘Aglio e olio’ for love interest Molly. The simple dish shows off the sensual nature of Italian cooking and culture and the scene is now iconic for the way it does this. This scene reiterates the zeitgeist of food as a love language, as the dishes mimic the characters personalities and storylines. A scene where Carl makes a grilled cheese for his son Percy shows the beginning of Percy’s own culinary journey as the grilled cheese connotes an all American and childlike personality which is juxtaposed by a later scene where father and son bond over making Cubanos. Initially Percy asks why so much effort has gone into making the meat for the sandwiches, remarking “You could’ve just bought this at the store” but soon changes his tune begging to try the dish and helping his dad run the food truck, in turn putting him more in touch with his Latin heritage showing how food has brought people together “Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people eat together.¹” Carl’s identity as a white male forces audiences to read the film with a postcolonial lens, as he is effectively taking from other countries cultures and profiting from it. In an era of food tourism this cultural appropriation can often be misconstrued as appreciation as epi-curious, gastronomes endeavour to boost their cultural capital, especially considering that for many Latin immigrants in North America, a food truck is their livelihood and a way to share their culture with the public whilst for Carl this is a brief fixation that will ultimately bring him back to suburban life in middle-class Las Angeles as a top chef. The film utilises overhead shots when filming cooking scenes which help to bring more attention to the dishes being made. Lots of colour is used when creating the food, making it look more appealing but also more exotic to show Carl’s peregrination from the samey and traditional menu enforced at Gauloises where he was completely restricted in his ability to create anything contemporary, to the opening of his own restaurant with the freedom to experiment. In cooking scenes with multiple chefs’, actors were instructed to improvise a majority of their lines in order to emulate kitchen banter which effectively elevated the verisimilitude of the film. ‘Chef’ heavily relies on its score to enhance to atmosphere of the film, using iconic and nostalgic music by artists such as Gente De Zono, Pete Rodriguez and Perico Hernando’s whose Lain heritage and mariachi style deepen the roots and tone of the film. 

‘Juice’ an independently produced Hindi language film by Neeraj Ghaywan, explores gender roles in India through a dinner party hosted by housewife Manju. There is a clear divide between the men and women from the start as the husbands enjoy themselves chatting and eating whilst Manju serves them, and the rest of the wives stay in the hot kitchen cooking and cleaning, becoming domestic caregivers in lieu of guests. While gorging themselves on chicken, the men gossip (a traditional feminine activity) about the ineptitude of a female superior at work treating one of them men as a subordinate and making him send unnecessary emails. The men show little knowledge on the topic they are discussing but that does not stop them from blathering on, another man asking, “do you have a problem with the email or the female?” illustrating male entitlement and a general distain for women who are viewed to be inferior and better suited to domestic roles like their wives in the kitchen. Gender roles in India are seen to be defined in childhood as a young girl playing video games is told “Food is ready come and serve your brothers” Manju looks on disgusted by this example of systemic sexism, like much of this short film she prefers to communicate with actions and facial expressions rather than words which makes her look of antipathy much more meaningful and crucial in driving the narrative as audiences begin to see her resentment towards the patriciate that demands girls to become slaves to men before even maturing into young women. This theme of children is repeated later when a wife suggests that having children is the key to marriage “If there no excitement in a marriage just get a baby” reinforcing the idea that a child, especially one that is female, is merely a versatile tool. This links with another line “But which book of law states this that either you can raise kids or pursue a career?” as Manju questions why the hegemony has created a dominant ideology that women cannot balance life in both the workplace and the home. After burning her finger whilst cooking and being subjected to an onslaught of verbal abuse as the men become increasingly impatient in their wait for additional food, Manju takes a stand by pouring a glass of juice, dragging a chair into the living room, and sitting, sipping her drink and relaxing with the cool breeze of the fan. She then engages in a pseudo staring contest with her husband who loses when he awkwardly looks away, allowing Manju to assert her dominance over the situation and empower the rest of the wives who have gathered to watch this spectacle. As Manju goes the grab the juice the whole atmosphere changes, with a non-diegetic crescendo of dramatic music increasing tension and the diegetic quieting of background noise as the house guests are shocked into silence upon witnessing Manju’s defiance. The prop of electric fans adds drastically to the mise-en-scene and as a narrative device, effectively showing the gender segregation and discrimination between the men and women. Despite arduously working in the incommodious and uncomfortable kitchen, the women are left with a broken fan that does nothing to alleviate the wife’s malaise, whilst the men who lounge around doing nothing have the amenity of the large working fan that allows them to relax. The contrast of this scene shows a paradoxical subversion of expectations as, by western standards, women sit and gossip and men do physical handiwork such as the attempted repairing of the faulty fan. Manju disrupts this convention when she moves her chair in front of the good fan to give herself a break from the harsh conditions she has been subjected to, displaying the power of female rage which she uses to dismantle the patriarchy in the microcosm of her home as seen in the quote “In anger, I have lived more fully, freely, intensely, sensitively, and politically. If ever there was a time not to silence yourself, to channel your anger into healthy places and choices, this is it” ‘Juice’ displays perfectly bell hook’s theory of intersectionality, in an age of 3^rd wave feminism many people in the west believe that women are now equal to men and that feminists have achieved all that they set out for however hooks acknowledged that women of colour are excluded from this narrative and face adversity from both the feminist movement and the hegemony especially outside of the western world in countries such as India where women are still discriminated against and treated as inferiors, saying “As long as women are using class or race power to dominate other women, feminist sisterhood cannot be fully realised”³ 

I have a clear idea for how I want my personal study to come out. I have researched many documentaries such as ‘heavenly bites’ a Mexican food documentary, as well as several short YouTube videos focusing on themes of ‘food around the world’ to educate myself on specific food cultures as well as gain inspiration for my own film. To manage time within the film itself I have set a 10 minute timeframe in which to present to present each culture. To give each culture enough airtime I aim to explore 4 different areas with around 2 and a had minutes of airtime each. The cultures I am going to explore are from Yorkshire, Jersey, Mexico and Scotland, which is very scaled down compared to the initial 8 cultures I wanted to investigate. I chose to do this because I felt that the film would be more fulfilling if each culture had the ability to be explored in depth rather than many cultures with limited information because of insufficient allotment of time.

Name	Culture	Food	Date	notes
Erin Middleton	Scotland	Irn-Bru, Shortbread, Caramel wafer	29/12/21	tartan hairband
Margaret Williams	Jersey	Bean crock (les pais au fou)	10/12/21	bring extra light as environment is dark
Carmen Kirchner	Mexico	Guacamole, Micheladas, Elotes	27/01/22	Bring gluten free beer for michelada
Glyn Williams	Yorkshire	Yorkshire pudding	28/01/22	bring extra light as environment is dark

To add to the mise-en-scene and create a atmosphere relating to the specific cultures I plan to create backdrops with specifically stereotypical decoration, subtle enough to blend in with the rest of the scenery. Speaking from hindsight this did not happen as decorations felt gaudy and offensive to cultures represented, instead background indicitive of the subjects homes where used as they gave a more personal representation of how each culture lives.

To prepare for filming I created a storyboard. Despite making a documentary and not having specific scenes to storyboard I felt that this was the best way to visualise my idea and plan my frames.

Before taking my final images, I did a practice photoshoot in order to find out which kind of lighting I need to use to create delicate shadows and soft highlights.

This screenshot shows the process of choosing which images I want to reject and keep based on first glance. The images I want to keep have a white flag in the corner and the rejected images are faded to a grey colour.

I used the star rating system to select how much I like the images from a 1-5 rating. The images with 5 stars underneath show the images I like the best, and Images with a lower star rating I still like but aren’t quite successful as the others.

I cut down the view of my images to only the images that were flagged in order to see them in a clearer view. I also used the colour system of highlighting my favourite images in green and those I am still unsure about in yellow.

As I start to edit my images in Lightroom, I duplicate the image I want to edit to see how it looks in black and white to compared to the image in colour. I also edited the exposure, highlights and tint of the image to make it look almost worn and weathered as to make the image seem as if it had been taken years ago.

After editing my images and choosing between whether I want the images in black or white or an altered coloured edit, I used the colour system again to decide which final images I liked the most and wanted to keep.

Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life. It usually refers to a time period beginning late 19th century and concluding mid 20th century at the beginning of the second world war. It was a reaction to and rejection of the period of enlightenment, in which society as we know it was shaped to make people ‘proper’ The movement looks at human nature and progress and criticises the idea that everything has to be looked at realistically. It functions under the idea that institutions are oppressive and works to subvert expectations and break down traditional photographic customs. In photography, modernism rejected the idea of a soft focus, instead creating harsh lines with sharp focus similar to Straight photography.

Alfred Stieglitz

Stieglitz’s fetish for young women was well known throughout his career, his explicit photos making his preference obvious and hard to ignore. A majority of his photos are erotic in nature and focus on themes of femininity from his ow perspective. Stieglitz is credited with bringing modernism to America, starting the movement in the country and making modernism a popular medium on a global scale. In accordance with the style of modernism, Stielglitz photographs usually follow a narrative, telling a story with just one photo.

Postmodernism refers to the majorities stylist movement of the second half of the 20th century, directly following modernism, hence its name Post-modernism. The movement denied the existence of any ultimate principles, instead focusing on conceptual ideas stemming from modernism with a sharp departure from typical conventions of traditional photography with the addition of random objects that subvert expectations.

Kenneth Josephson uses the conventions of montage to create postmodern photographic art, often including the addition of physical photographs in the frame of his photos to add depth and meaning and evoke feeling of nostalgia through a genre of coming of age.