Une affaire de goût

Bernard Rapp's previous feature Tiré à part (Limited Edition) had prepared me for this stimulating exercise in domination by mind games. It is very impressive, the way Rapp lays out the slow decline of Nicolas Rivière through luxury, laziness and the unwillingness to look squarely at the danger he's in. His job description is taster, but really he is living a surrogate life for his boss Delamont (for the latter, think Howard Hughes). The older man wants to watch the younger go parachuting, skiing, take a trip into the desert to sharpen his senses,even make love to a blonde at a party. For those who are looking for a homosexual basis for the relationship between these two men, the scene with Nicolas starting to warm up the blonde in bed, only to be dismissed by Delamont who wants to claim his prize will provide more than enough ammunition.

Bernard Giraudeau is splendid as Delamont; he understands how to make a young man feel favored then inadequate through a minimum of words. He used that purring voice and sly grin before, in Drops of Water on Burning Rocks (Ozon), where he made life hell for his teenage lover. Jean-Pierre Lorit is adequate, but no more, as Nicolas. Florence Thomassin reminds me of a fashion model who has strayed into acting; her height and good bones don't make me forget how stiff she is.

Bernard Giraudeau plays Frederic Delamont, a wealthy, and eccentric, middle aged man who hires Nicolas Riviere, a waiter in an upscale restaurant, to be his "taster". It's a premise that is at least unusual, if not downright unique. Delamont has phobias for certain foods, especially fish and cheese. It's up to Nicolas to shield Delamont from these offensive foods.

As the story unfolds, Nicolas, who has a girlfriend and seems reasonably well adjusted, becomes gradually more ensnared into Delamont's life, to the dismay of the girlfriend. But the perks are nice for Nicolas, so he continues. It's a trap, though, and the question becomes: can Nicolas escape the trap before it's too late.

Although the film's premise is interesting, the plot is slow going, and at times tedious. I'm baffled at Delamont's motivations. He's a powerful businessman who can presumably pull the strings of any number of employees or business associates. Why does he feel the need to control someone in his personal life? I would think his impulse would be the exact opposite.

In any event, this psycho-drama has a "spider and fly" quality to it. The screen story is told in flashbacks, which makes the film confusing, at the beginning. The acting is quite good, overall.

Ultimately though, I just could not identify with the characters in this film. They seemed too remote and too thinly drawn to care about. And the film's dry plot quickly becomes tiresome and dull.

This movie isn't a whodunit, since we know from the start pretty much what happens--it's just a question of WHY? And the movie answered that question to my satisfaction. Interesting and plausible psychologically, and the food presentations woven throughout are mouth-watering. Best of all to a non-native French speaker, I found it fairly easy to understand all the dialogue.

This is a very unconventional and one of the more "un-Hollywood" films I have seen in quite some time. It is a somewhat slow-moving story about one strange rich man and the way he gradually seduces another man in a seemingly non-sexual way. The acting and writing are excellent, but what I really like are the MANY many ways that the movie can be interpreted and nothing is completely spelled out for the viewer. Some will no doubt find this maddening, but I thought this made the film a dandy psychological study. You are left with so many possible questions such what exactly was psychologically wrong with the rich guy (clinically, he's pretty hard to pin down), is the poor guy also out of his mind, was there deliberate mind control, did the rich guy plan the film's conclusion all along and was there some sort of homosexual undercurrent. I'm sure if you see the film, you'll have even more questions. And, for me, I like this ambiguity--it makes for a great movie to discuss with your friends.

Bernard Rapp's "Une affaire de gout" has an unusual take on the controversial and sensational subject of homosexual love and passion:the leitmotif is food and the eroticism is more on the psychological than on the physical side.

A big-shot businessman employs a young and good-looking waiter to be his "taste-tester," as he is extremely meticulous when it comes to food quality, suspects that someone might put his life on danger by poisoning him, and is particularly averse to cheese and fish.He pays the young man a hefty salary, shelters him in a nice and comfy mansion and subjects him to a rigorous "fasting" and "asceticism"---in the process, he becomes the businessman's most trusted and influential right-hand man.The young man is all too willing to let all this pass,as, according to him, he wants to be absorbed in the tycoon's "craziness."

In the course of the film, we learn that the tycoon harbors a deep-seated pain and trauma, for his father died of drowning brought about by a ship mishap as he was about to bring them home some "cheese" and when his body was found, it was discovered to have been eaten by "fish" (thus, the businessman's aversion to them).

Therefore, we may reasonably assume that by having his food tasted first by the young man, the businessman is seeking once again the approval and assurance of a father-figure (though admittedly much younger than him)---the things which he never had because of his father's untimely death.

Or, conversely, the wealthy man is trying to act out the role of a caring and concerned father to the guy, a kind of living up to the legacy of his late father so that his death may not be so much of a burden and a source of guilt for him.

But, as the relationship between the two men is pathological in nature, it reaches the point where the wealthy man starts insulting and eventually abandons among the rags the young man, culminating in a tragic event that, in a different mode and context, makes the former suffer the same fate as his father.

With this, "Une affaire de gout" feels like a case history by Freud or, in some respects, by Menninger, as the homoerotic element is subtly manifested in certain forms of behavior and action that the characters take, whether they're aware of it or not, and the instances wherein they injure themselves or suffer from certain kinds of organic illness suggest a form of self-destruction that they're covertly aiming at, both as a means of punishment (for some "guilty" and "immoral" act) and a source of pleasure (serving as an "outlet" for homoerotic impulses and cravings).

Well, I guess it's "a matter of taste" whether one can accept the film's revealing and disturbing premises or not.