“The Taste of Things” (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant) is France’s candidate for the 2024 Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. It is a historical romantic drama film written and directed by Trần Anh Hùng, 60.
Tran Anh Hung
Tran was born in Da Nang, Vietnam. At the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, he moved to France.
While pursuing a bachelor’s degree at a university in France, he saw Robert Bresson‘s 1956 film “A Man Escaped“, which made him decide to study film instead. He then studied photography at the École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière in Paris, France.
Tran’s first feature film “The Scent of Green Papaya” starred his wife Tran Nu Yên-Khê. It won the Caméra d’Or prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1993 Academy Awards.
Written and directed by Anh Hung, the romantic historical drama film “Eternity” was based on Alice Ferney‘s 1995 novel “L’Élégance des veuves” (The Elegance of Widows). Nu Yên-Khê narrated the film.
“The Taste of Things“
On May 24, 2023, “The Taste of Things” had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. On October 6, 2023, it was screened at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival in Busan, South Korea.
The film stars French actors Benoît Magimel, 49, and Juliette Binoche, 59, who were in a romantic relationship from 1998 to 2003. They have one daughter born in 1999.
Set in France in 1885, the was shot primarily at the Château du Raguin in Chazé-sur-Argos, Maine-et-Loire, France from April 2022 to May 2022. The story revolves around Dodin Bouffant (Magimel) and Eugénie (Binoche).
For 20 years, Eugénie worked as a chef for Dodin, a famous restaurateur. Feelings arose between them but she never wanted to marry him.
“We separated and it was not always easy,” Binoche said of her breakup with Magimel in an interview with Vanity Fair. “Being able to actually go into another level with him and express each other’s love, because they have this relationship, this love relationship that seems to be so smooth, even though she’s resisting him in a way because she doesn’t want to get married, was very moving to be able to reconcile in that way and also to give this film to my daughter, to our daughter. It was a big gift that life gave us.”
2024 Academy Awards
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, 56, the 2024 Academy Awards will be aired by ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA on March 10, 2024. Directed by Hamish Hamilton, the ceremony will be produced by Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan.
This is the 96th edition of the awards ceremony also known as the Oscars and the fourth time Kimmel is hosting it. The ceremony is annually presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is based in Beverly Hills, California.
On December 21, 2023, it was announced that “The Taste of Things” is one of the 15 shortlisted films for the 2024 Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. On January 23, 2024, the official nominees will be revealed.
CONAN Daily 