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Feeding the Frame: Food, Cuisine, & Cinematic Meaning

  • Long Island University, Lorber Hall 720 Northern Boulevard Greenvale, NY, 11548 United States (map)

Food operates as a cinematic and cultural language, shaping narrative, character, and identity. This lecture examines both symbolic food moments in broader films (The Godfather (1972), Pulp Fiction (1994)) and works where cuisine is central to the plot, such as Big Night (1996), Chef (2014), Tampopo (1985), Ratatouille (2007), “Pig” (2021)), Julie & Julia (2009), & Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). We will consider how meals on screen reflect themes of desire, memory, migration, labor, and power. We will also reveal how directors use food not just for realism or mood, but to serve narrative and ideological functions.

Link to Hutton House Lectures
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October 28

The Cultural & Cinematic Legacy of The Godfather