The Taste of Others

Amazon.com

"Funny, I never thought it would work. He's so different from me." Agnès Jaoui, scripting with her longtime writing and performing partner, Jean-Pierre Bacri, makes a deft directorial debut with this delightful romantic journey of missed opportunities and second chances. Bacri is poignant and piercing as a gauche petit-bourgeois businessman who discovers a world of art and magic missing from his empty, self-contained existence after he watches an emotionally devastating theater performance. Equal parts buffoon and born-again romantic, he fumbles through a new world and emerges as the soul of this story. Jaoui brings a light touch and a fresh perspective to familiar situations. Behind the comic characters and wry wit is a sympathy for her lonely souls and a celebration of the painful joy of their rediscovery of the possibilities of life. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Fun, sexy, and richly rewarding, THE TASTE OF OTHERS earned an Academy Award(R) nomination as Best Foreign Language Film (2000). The lives and loves of several completely opposite men and women artfully intersect in what becomes a delightfully funny web of romantic entanglements! While negotiating differences in wealth and status, style and taste, this vivid collection of characters mix and match in outrageously volatile combinations! Internationally acclaimed for its sexy comic sophistication -- expect the unexpected from this uncommonly entertaining motion picture!

Customer Reviews:

Know what you are getting..........2007-07-08

It is a foreign film with subtitles...
You have been warned.
(Translation - a slow moving film that women seem to love).

Conceptions and preconceptions, and the role they play in everyday life..........2005-12-12

"The taste of others" is basically a story about conceptions and preconceptions, and the role they play in everyday life. The taste of the characters, when confronted with the taste of others, sometimes seems merely a pretext to judge and exclude them...

The plot is relatively simple: a prosperous industrialist, Castella (Jean-Pierre Bacri), needs to learn English, something that he really doesn't want to do. A subordinate arranges him a meeting with Clara (Anne Alvaro), an English professor that doesn't strike Castella as overly good due to the fact that she doesn't have a specific method to teach English. However, things change when he is dragged to the theatre by his wife and witnesses Clara playing the main role in "Berenice", a drama by Racine. By a strange twist of fate, Castella falls in love with Clara, and decide to take up English classes as a way to be near her. But will that be enough, when Castella is married, and Clara is so different from him?

Besides Castella, his eccentric wife Angelique (Christiane Millet) and Clara, this film includes other stories that relate to the main one but have their own dynamic. Castella's chauffeur, Bruno Deschamps (Alain Chabat), has a girlfriend that is living in another country, and about whom he talks a lot with Franck Moreno (Gerard Lanvin), Castella's bodyguard. The two men are vastly different, but both end up having an affair of sorts with Manie, (played by Agnes Jaoui, who is also the director), a bartender that happens to sell hashish.

All these characters relate to each other, and share their ideas and problems with the spectator, that cannot help but reflect on the same issues discussed in the film, even without noticing he is doing exactly that. I don't know for sure, but I think that might have been the purpose of the director, and that the stories are only the tapestry on which Jaoui weaves the ideas she wants to express.

All in all, I think that this movie is many things, but never boring. In my opinion, "The taste of others" is a very good French film that could have been excellent, if only the ending had managed to wrap up the concepts discussed throughout the movie a little better. All the same, I highly recommend it, and would see it again without hesitation :)

Belen Alcat

for ADULTS only!.......2005-02-04

No, this film isn't remotely pornographic, not even a single delectable bare breast the whole two hours...can you believe that it's really a FRENCH relationship drama???

Well, aside from the lack of pleasantly gratuitous nudity that normally adorns most French films...YES. Here's why:

1. It's about 90% character-driven. There is something of a plot, but it exists mainly to give the characters something to do while unfolding to us who they really are...and refreshingly, there is zero judgement on the part of the film of any of the main characters. They simply are what they are.

2. There are no simplistic "good" vs. "bad" guys. Instead this film is populated with (gasp!) very believable and human characters who are just familiar enough to elicit the smiling "aha, they remind me of so-and-so!" mental balloon from the viewer, yet free of glib stereotyping so as not to bore us or insult our intelligence. (Read: the French film industry doesn't rely on focus groups to dumb down its movies for the lowest common denominator like Hollywood does.)

3. Sex is treated just as...well, sex. No stupid puritannical or moralistic hangups, no hypocritical voyeurism, no infantile romantic fairy tales. It's just something men and women do, whether for love or simple random pleasure, and whether it's two men or a men and a woman is completely irrelevant. OH MY GOD...this film is just sooooooooooo RADICAL!!!

Aside from those three simply earth-shakingly audacious qualities, this film just has a wonderfully mature, elegantly restrained manner which is almost unheard of these days. Yes the pacing is leisurely (like most French movies) are but never drags (unlike many), because the characters prove to be so deeply human and real not formulaic, so we can't help caring about what happens to them next.

I was especially stunned to find out that the actress who plays Manie, a sexy but subtlely (and irresistibly) spunky, solidly independent young woman who tends bar and deals hashish, is also the film's (first-time) DIRECTOR. Holy Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and Elvis, I wanna move to Paris!

Life Imitates Art Imitates Life.......2004-05-15

THE TASTE OF OTHERS may not be for the taste of everyone, but for those who delight in the oh-so-French form of character examination, then this is a film for you. From the very beginning of the movie we feel as if we just dropped in on some French people who are having varying discussions that seem extemporaneous, loose and unrelated: nouveau riche businessman Castella (Jean-Pierre Bacri) discusses mundane notions with his clueless 'decorator' wife Beatrice (Brigitte Catillon); Castella's worldly bodyguard Bruno (Alain Chabat) passes the time with his rather boring buddy Franck (Gerard Lanvin); middle aged actress and English teacher Clara (Anne Alvaro) pines away at how her life in the arts is aimless; bartender Manie (director Agnes Jaoui) ponders why men are so fickle as lovers...you get the picture. But the beauty of this film is how the story interweaves these various isolated 21st Century people's lives and in doing so makes many valid comments on the importance of the arts in our lives, the power of 'opposites attract', the need for meaningful relationships to keep us on course, and the varied ways we all view our surroundings, our lives, depending on our individual vantages. Here is a film with wonderful acting, smart ideas well played out, and a musical score that is so varied and good that it is well worth a CD! But again, The Taste of Others will find its own audience depending on others tastes. In French with English subtitles.

Good Taste.......2003-04-13

This is one of my favorite 2002 movies (that's when it arrived in my town). Here is a movie that will surprise you, slowly subvert your expectations and (is it possible?) make you feel good. Ostensibly a movie about relationships, billed as a romantic comedy, it's really a meditation on a collision between the world of art and the world of the bourgeois. Can a businessman be moved to his soul by a moment of art? Can an artist who is sensitive and open to the world also be blind? Lot's of good acting, interesting characters, and a nice slice of contemporary French life. In French with subtitles but the DVD would have an English track.

Average customer rating:

A Taste of Cherry
Sweet Fruit
inexplicably good
Engaging
masterpiece of the cinema of lonliness

Taste of Cherry - Criterion Collection
Starring: Homayon Ershadi , Abdolrahman Bagheri , Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari , Safar Ali Moradi , and Mir Hossein Noori
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

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Art House & International | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Drama | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

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ASIN: 6305362688
Release Date: 1999-06-08

Amazon.com

Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for this contemplative film about a Muslim, Mr. Badi (Homayon Ershadi), who drives around the barren hills outside Tehran, flagging down passersby and offering good money for a simple job that he's hesitant to explain. He's planning his suicide and seeks someone to perform something of a symbolic eulogy. Most of his subjects refuse (personal morality aside, suicide is forbidden to Muslims), but he finds an elderly taxidermist (Abdolrahman Bagheri) who agrees only because he needs the money for an ill child. Yet the old man gently pleads with him to choose life, to embrace the joys of earthly existence, to remember the taste of cherries. Though initially greeted with critical acclaim, A Taste of Cherry received poor distribution in the U.S. The meandering, deliberately paced drama is composed of long conversations and long silences, and the camera is locked in the car for entire sequences, staring at the protagonists in still closeups with the dusty landscape rolling past the windows of the Land Rover in the background. Kiarostami's film is not for everyone, but if you can embrace the quiet power and grace of his deceptively simple style, the film becomes a remarkably rich celebration of human dignity and resilience. By the astonishing conclusion we can see past Badi's age-etched face to the soul peering out from behind his sad eyes. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry is an emotionally complex meditation on life and death. Middle-aged Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) drives through the hilly outskirts of Tehran-searching for someone to rescue or bury him. Criterion is proud to present the DVD premiere of Taste of Cherry in a beautiful widescreen transfer.

Customer Reviews:

A Taste of Cherry.......2007-07-11

Kiarostami's obliquely moral tale about a seemingly average man who, for some unknown reason, wishes to end his life- plays out a huge taboo in Muslim society. Using a unique mix of long exterior shots showing Badii's car snaking through the hills, trolling for a passenger who will assist him, and more intimate point-of-view shots from within the vehicle, Kiarostami's film subtly coaxes us to consider the divide between inner life and the outer world of societal constraints. "Cherry" is also a strong meditation on the meaning of life, enhanced by the appearance of a Turkish taxidermist (Bagheri) who, fighting his own self-interest, challenges Badii to reconsider. An enigmatic yet cumulatively powerful film from Iran's preeminent director.

Sweet Fruit.......2007-05-23

The plot of Kiarostami's 1997 film Taste of Cherry can be summed up on one sentence: Mr. Badii wants to die, but he cannot find anyone to help assist him in his suicide. The film opens with Mr. Badii driving along in his Range Rover across the dry and dusty Iranian landscape, passing by several men looking for jobs as daytime laborers. Listening closely, Mr. Badii tries to overhear the conversations, especially those who are suffering financial hardship, so he can find his man to assist him. It seems that a number of individuals find Mr. Badii a bit suspect, because they answer him with almost open hostility when he offers them an easy job for good pay. Maybe it is because such a job would damage their egos, but it also might be the case that they believe the middle-aged man is gay and trying to pick them up. However, Mr. Badii is eventually able to pick up a young soldier from Kurdistan and it is during their conversation that we learn of Mr. Badii's desire to die. He does not want to take his life in a violent fashion nor does he want his helper to actually have any thing to do with the actual suicide. He just wants to have someone check to see if he is dead or not and if so, to cover him with twenty spades of dirt, but, as is almost immediately evident, the task of finding someone to help him die proves to be quite difficult.

I had heard of Kiarostami's films for a number of years before my girlfriend recommended that I watch this film last year. Being my first Kiarostami film, and also my first Iranian film, I really did not know what to expect, but I must say that I found this film to be one of the most quiet and meditative films on the subjects of life, death, and suicide that I have ever seen. Most of the action takes place within the confines of Mr. Badii's Range Rover and these sequences generally consist of long shots directed on the speaker. Mr. Badii and his companion are rarely in the same shot because Kiarostami was normally within the other seat filming. For those who do like films that consist mainly of talking heads, this film will probably not float your boat. The critic Roger Ebert said it was one of the worst films of all time, but if you want to see a film about desperation and about what limits some individuals will go to free themselves from pain, grief, and the mere hardships of being alive, Taste of Cherry might strike a chord. However, be forewarned, the ending might leave your mind boggled or infuriated.

inexplicably good.......2007-04-18

I'm afraid this is one of those films that you just have to see. No attempt at paraphrase or rhetoric can add to what's already there on the screen. You might want to talk about the technical features, the lack of music, the point of view shots in the car, the beautifully desolate views of the hills around Tehran,the ambiguity of the ending - it's all just noise in my opinion. This film (like any other of true quality) is not what people say about it. It's to be experienced. You have a feeling of being taken somewhere else for 95 minutes, even though the realist feel should rightfully keep you grounded - somehow it has an element which uplifts you. I was extremely happy and alive for the rest of the day after seeing this - perhaps surprising considering the subject matter. I don't know anything about Mr Kiarostami (aside from his reputation) or the actors involved, but I am so glad I watched this film and look forward eagerly to see another of his.

Engaging.......2006-02-06

When I first saw this movie I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I was obviously touched by this movie and at the same time I agreed with the critics that it was a bit slow. But I couldn't help think about it more and more as days went by. Then I saw a brief interview of Abbas Kiarostami. At one point he mentioned the kind movies he wanted to make and those he didn't. He didn't want to make movies that would hold the audience hostage with high suspense and after the show when the adrenaline drops down the audience would feel cheated. What he wants to make is "boring" movies and he mentioned that he actually felt asleep in some movies he considered to be great.There's no need for pulse rates to go high, the greatest achievemnt of a filmamaker comes when the audeince thinks about the movie for at times length after they get out of the cinema hall. When they can't shake off the feeling of seeing the movie and that feeling lingers on for a long long time.

And for sure, he was absolutely right. I couldn't shake off this movie. It actually hit me slowly, literally. This is a great movie. It has served its purpose. Why Mr Badi want to kil himself is totally irrevelant, that's not the point. We see a desperate man who has lost all will to live. It's as simple as that. All the characters in this movie feels real, too real..like watching my neighbours and friends go about their business. The movie is slow albeit one point. When Badi snaps a picture of a couple, he feels a sudden rush of doubt about what he is about to do. He says to the taxidermist to make sure he's still alive before putting the dirt on him. A stunning scene.

I'm a great admirer of roger ebert but I've to disagree with him on this one. I think this is an important movie.Even though it won the the palm d'ore, it's not taken serioulsy all around and many past great movies have been misunderstood. I've an instinct that after some dozen odd years this movie will stand the test of time and be considered a remarkable achievement.

masterpiece of the cinema of lonliness.......2005-10-02

"taste of cherry" is kiarostami's most complete work while-surprisingly-simultaneously being his most personal.i regard it as personal for reasons that to ME are obvious:homayoun ershadi(lead actor)looks a bit like kiarostami,he(in character) apparantely is of an intellectual atheism,his situation(driving around in his car for most of the time of the movie)can be depicted as a metaphor of either the director viewing through his camera or the spectator watching the movie and generally he is easy for the modern artist to identify with in terms of extreme lonliness.kiarostami wisely chooses to give no direct reason for his decision to attempt suicide.instead he focuses on his attempt to make human contact just before departure and from this premise forms the powerful drama of the film.kiarostami can be regarded as one of the most important figures of post-modern cinema:in use of new narrative devices,in this case the dialogues resemble comic book characters conversations where lines are written in white clouds above the characters heads,on the other hand the movie is another take by the director on the subject of life as narrative.each passanger has a "story" to tell,and in the end its about which story will us and Badi'ee(Ershadi) swallow.also its compatible with the post-modern notion of the re-invention of the "text" in the readers conception due to its "open" ending,we can't tell whether Badi'ee commit's suicide or not because neither for us and nor for him that is not the point anymore,we have taken part in hearing differrent stories and and experienced different approaches towards existance.kiarostami reminds us that narrating life IS itself LIFE,just like cheherezad keeps on telling stories to remain alive in the thousand and one nights.taste of cherry is the most sympathetic and lyrical attempt of contemporary cinema in illustrating the urban mans loveless-ness.a word about the DVD:though i'm grateful to the creators of Criterion and not only because of this movie,i hope there will be some improvement in the extras of iranian movies in general.the interview with kiarostami is to old for this movie and due to the importance of this film in kiarostami"s canon, a fresh and extensive interview with the man is necessary,plus reviews by kiarostami-liking critics and praises of international fellow directors.

The Taste of Others (Le Goût des autres) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2&4 Import - Australia ]

Average customer rating:

The Taste of Others (Le Goût des autres) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2&4 Import - Australia ]
Director: Agnès Jaoui
Manufacturer: Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 2&4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: French (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Subtitles), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SYNOPSIS: Agnes Jaoui co-writes and directs this romantic comedy of manners set in France's rustic Provence. Unpolished and ultra-pragmatic industrialist Jean-Jacques Castella (co-scripter Jean-Pierre Bacri) reluctantly attends Racine's tragedy "Berenice" in order to see his niece play a bit part. He is taken with the play's strangely familiar-looking leading lady Clara Devaux (Anne Alvaro). During the course of the show, Castella soon remembers that he once hired and then promptly fired the actress as an English language tutor. He immediately goes out and signs up for language lessons. Thinking that he is nothing but an ill-tempered philistine with bad taste, Clara rejects him until Castella charms her off her feet. SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Scene Access, Photo Gallery, Interactive Menu, Biographies,

Average customer rating:

Know what you are getting...
Conceptions and preconceptions, and the role they play in everyday life...
for ADULTS only!
Life Imitates Art Imitates Life
Good Taste

The Taste of Others [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

ASIN: B000059SJ0

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Know what you are getting..........2007-07-08

It is a foreign film with subtitles...
You have been warned.
(Translation - a slow moving film that women seem to love).

Conceptions and preconceptions, and the role they play in everyday life..........2005-12-12

for ADULTS only!.......2005-02-04

Life Imitates Art Imitates Life.......2004-05-15

Good Taste.......2003-04-13

Average customer rating:

Know what you are getting...
Conceptions and preconceptions, and the role they play in everyday life...
for ADULTS only!
Life Imitates Art Imitates Life
Good Taste

The Taste of Others
Starring: Anne Alvaro , Céline Arnaud , Jean-Pierre Bacri , Robert Bacri , and Marie Agnès Brigot
Director: Agnès Jaoui
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00003CXYA

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Know what you are getting..........2007-07-08

It is a foreign film with subtitles...
You have been warned.
(Translation - a slow moving film that women seem to love).

Conceptions and preconceptions, and the role they play in everyday life..........2005-12-12

for ADULTS only!.......2005-02-04

Life Imitates Art Imitates Life.......2004-05-15

Good Taste.......2003-04-13

Average customer rating:

Le Gout des Autres
Director: Agnès Jaoui
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Charlie Rose with Ephraim Sneh; Agnes Jaoui; Edward Albee (March 20, 2001)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Ephraim Sneh; Agnes Jaoui; Edward Albee (March 20, 2001)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Educational | Genres | DVD | Video

Description

Ephraim Sneh, Israeli minister of transportation, discusses Ariel Sharon's landslide victory in February and looks ahead to the next stage of negotiations with the Palestinian leadership. Then, French filmmaker and actress Agnes Jaoui talks about her directorial debut in The Taste of Others. Finally, an interview with the playwright Edward Albee on the Broadway production of his latest work, The Play About the Baby.

Average customer rating:

Know what you are getting...
Conceptions and preconceptions, and the role they play in everyday life...
for ADULTS only!
Life Imitates Art Imitates Life
Good Taste

The Taste of Others [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

ASIN: B00005MGJ6

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Know what you are getting..........2007-07-08

It is a foreign film with subtitles...
You have been warned.
(Translation - a slow moving film that women seem to love).

Conceptions and preconceptions, and the role they play in everyday life..........2005-12-12

for ADULTS only!.......2005-02-04

Life Imitates Art Imitates Life.......2004-05-15

Good Taste.......2003-04-13

DVD:

DVD

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