A Matter of Taste

REVIEW
Recipient of five Cesar Award nominations this year, Bernard Rapp’s A Matter of Taste is a delicious affair, to say the least. A psychological thriller of the highest order, the film is adapted from Philippe Balland’s novel and drives a sharp skewer through class issues and society as its core pair of characters, a food taster and his rich employer, slowly change from friends to foes. Handsome, carefree Nicolas (Jean-Pierre Lorit) works as a waiter in a posh Parisian restaurant, far from his frills-free, but contented home life with Béatrice (Florence Thomassin), his loving and lovely girlfriend. One day Nicolas serves lunch to wealthy, high-profile executive Frédéric (Bernard Giraudeau of Water Drops on Burning Rocks), who professes a sensitivity to certain ingredients. Asking Nicolas to taste his food for him, Frédéric discovers the young man’s ability to identify every ingredient precisely, and smitten by his charms to boot, hires him as personal food taster. Well paid for his duties, the pair slowly grow close, although Frédéric begins resorting to cunning schemes in order to tailor Nicolas’ culinary preferences, lifestyle and moral values more precisely to his own tastes. This gels an obsessive codependency between the two, and leads to worsening games of cruelty. A Matter of Taste’s escalating look at dominance, economic seduction and questionable intents is in good company with such films as The Servant and Suite 16. A tasteful dish, regardless of the bitter aftertaste it can leave in your mouth. Bon appétit! (French with English subtitles)