The world of cuisine is fascinating. This proves the popularity of cooking shows, the fact that personalities like him Anthony Bourdain they’ve been adored as “kitchen rock stars” but that’s the fiction he prefers to tell stories that pass through the stomach.

Like he did last year in a movie with an extraordinary “Boiling point” from Philip Baradini, a shot at a restaurant that is both a crash course in the world of the restaurant and an exploration of how to create tension around dishes that a thriller would envy. But also “Bear” his recent miniseries Christopher Storer about the story of a gourmet chef who ends up running the family sandwich shop we now see on Disney+.

Well, behind the scenes of the kitchen, of course, but we were looking for films in which the food was already served so that a lot of things happened at the table. Or, 10 movies that revolve around the dinner party.

“My Dinner with André” (Louis Malle, 1981)

My Dinner with Andre, as the title suggests, is a dinner between two friends, and in reality, Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn play little more than slightly teasing versions of themselves. Although static and theatrical, the film, although it begins as a typical meeting between two New Yorkers and theatrical figures, ends in an intense race against existentialism itself, the only means of which is dialogue.

Destroying Angel (Louis Buñuel, 1962)

No director loved the dinners and evenings of the aristocracy more than Luis Buñuel. One of them was told in 1962 in one of his best and most enjoyable films, The Exterminating Angel. In it, we watch a dinner party from which its guests … cannot leave. Ideal for a double bill with the “Secret Charm of the Bourgeoisie”.

“Murder by Death” (Robert Moore, 1976)

There is no better place for a dinner party full of surprises than a castle, or at any rate, some large and remote luxurious house. So Lionel Twain, played by Truman Capote, invites 5 of the best detectives in the world, who are nothing more than parodies of famous crime investigators, for an evening that, in addition to food, includes murder, but also hilarious characters. such as the blind butler and the deaf cook. If you want to continue in the “detective” mood, you can do so with “Hint”.

“The Great Beaver” (Marco Ferreri, 1973)

With a midlife crisis, some lose meaning, while others find it. The film company seems to belong (?) to the second category. Or, at any rate, four friends played by Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and Hugo Toniazzi meet in a villa and decide to enjoy what they love to death, namely food and sex. Literally. (Mr. Creosote from Monty Python is around here – boom – nods in agreement.)

“Guess Who’s Coming Tonight” (Stanley Kramer, 1967)

Black Lives Matter and the inclusivity of recent years may now bring black stories to the fore, but that wasn’t the case in the ’60s. So, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” was one of the first films dedicated to the history of an interracial couple, in the roles of which we saw Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn.

“The Last Supper” (Stacey Title, 1995)

Dinner parties that end in or involve murder are not uncommon in cinema, but here the protagonists “played” harder. In fact, five twenty-year-olds decide to invite guests with extremely conservative views to dinner at the house where they all live together, with the sole purpose of … killing them.

“Crime in Gosford Park” (Robert Altman, 2001)

The list could for the most part be retitled Food Crazy in a Mansion. Here the action takes place in the 1930s and gathers wealthy friends and acquaintances for the weekend. Numerous guest stories are presented in the unique way that Robert Altman was able to build parallel narratives.

“Family Vacation” (Thomas Winterberg, 1998)

Of course, no matter how much we wrote “detectives”, none of them managed to make the concept of “dinner” as creepy and dark as the film that started “Dogma-95”.

“Invitation” (Karyn Kusama, 2015)

Of course, horror couldn’t help but take the opportunity to set a creepy movie around the dinner party. In this case, 35-year-old Will returns to his ex-wife’s house for a birthday dinner, and the mysterious atmosphere will intensify over time, as the genre demands (but, in truth, it could have been better).

“I’m Thinking of Ending It” (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)

Even the most fanatics of Kaufmann have struggled with this chatty, otherworldly and supposed undertaking in which the creator was more absorbed in his own thoughts and vanities than actually telling us anything coherent. However, whoever decides to watch it, be prepared to spend half an hour watching the main couple (Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley) spout existential nonsense in the car, and the rest at a weird dinner party with the girl’s parents, to say the least.

On the side:

Chickens that… dance on a plate in “Eraser” David Lynch / The Whole Family Who Sees Only a Jew in Woody Allen in Annie Hall / Christmas Table with Bergman’s Blessing “Fanny and Alexander” /O “Psalidocheris” go crazy with cutlery / All the love Lady and the Tramp in some spaghetti / “How cool?” “So much that I eat live octopus” “Old Boy” / “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover” but also… cannibal tendencies in Peter Greenaway’s masterpiece / Immortal Italian mother, even if she cooks for his company “Good guys”.