The Taste of Others
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Taste of Others (French title: Le goût des autres), is a 2000 French film. It was directed by Agnès Jaoui, and written by her and Jean-Pierre Bacri.
It stars Jean-Pierre Bacri, Anne Alvaro, Alain Chabat, Agnès Jaoui, Gérard Lanvin and Christiane Millet.
The movie won the César Award for Best Film, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Writing in 2001, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It currently ranks ninth on Rotten Tomatoes as best reviewed movie, with 100% positive reviews.
Plot
Castella (Bacri) owns a steel factory. To conduct a deal with Iranians, he is told he must learn English, so he hires Clara (Alvaro) to teach it to him. His wife, Angelique (Millet), is an interior decorator who is working on Castella's sister's apartment, and loves her dog. They go to the theatre, where their niece is performing in a production of Bérénice, accompanied by his driver, Bruno (Chabat), and his temporary bodyguard, Franck (Lanvin). While there, he sees Clara, who is an actress. Meanwhile, Franck sends Bruno to the bar to buy cigarettes. The barmaid, Manie (Jaoui), remembers having had sex with Bruno, but Bruno regrets that he does not remember her.
After the performance, Clara goes to the bar with her friends, including Antoine and Valerie, and their conversation reveals that she is afraid of never working again; after all, she is forty years old. Bruno, whose fiance is doing an internship in America, spends the night with Manie, who it turns out sells drugs on the side, and is frequently visited by clients. Franck meets Manie through Bruno and they start a relationship.
Previously uninterested in theatre, Castella attends with his wife and develops a fascination with Clara's bohemian lifestyle. He alone attends another production she appears in. He joins her and her friends for lunch and attends an art show where he buys a piece. However, his cultural ignorance makes him a laughing stock. Clara confides to her friend Manie that he is thick.
Castella's English is poor at first, but he soon makes progress. He and Clara move the classes from his office to an English tea room, and to mark his progress, he writes a poem dedicated to Clara; however, he is dismayed when she says that she does not share the feelings expressed in the poem. One day she waits at the tea room and he doesn't show up. Bruno practices his flute, which he plays in a band.
Castella and Angelique are drifting apart, as indicated by how she doesn't like the painting he bought from Clara's artist friend. Clara starts to feel that her friends are taking advantage of Castella and tells him. Castella leaves Angelique. Franck's contract finishes, and he breaks off his relationship with Manie. Clara lands the lead part in Hedda Gabler and invites Castella to the opening. After seeing an empty chair all night, Clara is overjoyed to see him later in the audience.
