Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, her old flame IRL, combine to dizzyingly romantic effect in Tran Anh Hung’s Cannes-prize-winning period piece. The Scent of Green Papaya man delivers what’s basically ‘The Intoxicating Aroma of Flash-Fried Loin of Beef’ in a movie so in love with the sensuous pleasures of food, its opening 30-odd minutes of Nigella-style sizzling, chopping, roasting and saucing that it might leave you gnawing your arm in hunger. And in the spirit of great foodie films – Babette’s Feast, Big Night, Tampopo et al – it’s about more than just the culinary arts. Binoche is luminous as a gifted cook whose tender bond with the man she works for (Magimel) is entirely on her own terms. With its rural, 19th century setting, it’s a swooning time machine to past pleasures.
