I Ate It At the Movies

No, this isn't about Raisinets, an annoying box of rattling non pareils, or overly salted popcorn.... I'm thinking of great eating scenes on film. If peanuts and a shot and a beer constitute a meal, Marlon Brando's moment in the Hoboken tavern with Eva Marie Saint in "On the Waterfront" certainly qualifies. The naturalism of popping the peanuts in from the side of his hand--pure genius. Then there's the starving urchin's "Please, sir, I want some...more" in "Oliver" which leads to pandemonium and the musical number, "Food, glorious, food!" (What is a saveloy, anyway? Aha! According to wikipedia, it's "a type of highly seasoned sausage.") One of my favorite animated films, "Ratatouille," is completely delightful from beginning to end. Remy's fastidiousness is just hilarious. When Judy Garland as Esther Blodgett aka Vicki Lester replays the musical number she rehearsed all day for unemployed James Mason in "A Star is Born," using the salt and pepper cellars for maracas, whirling their dinner tray around the room... it's a tears-and-laughter prelude to the tragedy of Norman Main's suicide. In the end, I think, the best eating scene I can recall in the movies is Albert Finney's seduction of Joyce Redmond with a succulent roast in "Tom Jones." I must see "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover" someday. Lust for food is lust for life.