French fries. Karl’s obsessed with french fries. The diner scene with John Ritter is priceless. There’s even a passage at Wikipedia devoted to this scene:
Biscuits do figure in. Frank’s mom makes Karl some biscuits late at night.
Silly as this sounds, Fast Times At Ridgemont High might be an option for you. The scene where Spicoli (Sean Penn) has a pizza delivered during class comes to mind, here. People writing about this scene will probably end up describing the use of food as a symbol of power, and the way in which food can be used as a gesture of rebellion or as a way to reinforce the heirarchies already in place.
The food scenes in Annie Hall–the one in which white bread and mayo are shown as essential for conversion to Protestantism, the split-screen where you can see his family at dinner and her family at dinner–would work well, too, I think. “Oedipus Wrecks”–Woody Allen’s part of the film New York Stories–has a great scene in which the Woody Allen character realizes that he’s met the woman for him when she wraps up some extra chicken for him to take home. In Woody Allen movies, food is often a symbol of love and belonging, usually to one’s family or to one’s ethnic group.
I just realized how pretentious this sounds. I wanted to edit it out, but I passed the 5-minute deadline. Ah, well.
In any case, how about A Chef In Love?
Don’t forget the hunting of the lobsters!
Also, Theatre of Blood, in which Vincent Price plays a Shakespearean actor who gets his revenge on a critic by tricking him into eating a meat pie made from his beloved poodles.
This one’s obvious to me, but might not work for you because the food is referred to but not really on screen.
In The Godfather II, during Michael’s son’s huge communion party in Lake Tahoe (I assume that’s where it is, anyway), Frankie Pentangeli says “a waiter offered me cheese on a ritz cracker and called it can-a-pees. I said ‘can of peas? That’s a piece of cheese on a ritz cracker!’ What kind of food is this? Bring on the peppers and the sausage!”
The quote is probably not 100% accurate, but the point is to show the difference between the modern, ritzy (you should forgive the pun) life Michael has built for himself in Vegas and the old way the family lived back east. Michael has left Pentangeli and the old ways behind, including not only the old Italian foods, but the old values and loyalties.
Yes, I can. In one early scene, Cher and Danny Aiello are sitting and having dinner. Their favorite waiter, Bobo, comes over to discuss what they might order. Danny debates the fish, but said he is about to fly on a plane. They discuss what might sit best with him for a long flight, and Cher pushes for the pasta because it will establish a nice bed in his stomache and not bother him while he flies. ( paraphrasing ).
This scene, and the dialogue, COMPLETELY sets up the dynamic of who they are and how they are with one another. Danny is largely gone after that scene but it does not matter- the interaction and how he is more a mother to him than a girlfriend tells all. The food becomes the lens through which we see their interpersonal dynamic. How’s’ that?
Similarly, there are several scenes with food and alcoholic drink in that film. The drink is used to celebrate, mourn difficult encounters, and the food is used as food is always used, or frequently used- to bring people together so they can share and interact.
One more vote for Tom Jones and the only thing I thought of when I read the thread title. All other feeding movies have borrowed from this one, whether intentional or not.
I will say that my wife and I just had to go eat Italian after seeing Moonstruck so I’m not a one-trick pony. And Chocolat caused me to gain several pounds as well.
But they closed the book on food movies with TJ. Albert Finney is amazing and his “eat mate” is fabulous as well.
There is a scene in Pulp fiction where Jules is scaring the life out of some random guys by asking for a bite of an hawaiian hamburger. Took me ages to make heads or tails of what he was on about. The date between Vincent and Mia could be used as well.
The man with two brains: the two scenes where the wife serves her husband a meal made out of something he loves.
In What’s eating Gilbert Grape, there is an extended scene where various birthday cakes end up symbolizing one thing after another, culminating with Gilbert being seen by his boss with a bag from a competing store; the cake thereby becomes a betrayal, of sorts.
That’s a good one. The biscuits represent “family” to Karl, since he never had a real family of his own. It’s significant that after he kills Doyle, Karl (knowing he has sacrificed his life with his surrogate family) sits down at the kitchen table and has one last biscuit before the police come to take him away.
9-1/2 Weeks
Another “food as control” scene. Sexual control, but control nonetheless.
Would “Glengarry Glen Ross” be appropriate for your students? There’s a great restaurant scene in that one.
Would the Mr. Creosote scene in “Meaning of Life” fit here?
Would you like a mint? It is wafer thin…
I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned Se7en yet. John Doe uses food as sin, judgement, and power, all rolled into one.
Perhaps the scene in A Streetcar Named Desire where Blanche and Stella are discussing Stanley’s eating habits, accusing him of being vulgar and greasy and behaving like a pig and suggesting he clear the table, prompting him to establish with no doubt who is in charge of that household, and thereby setting the tone that escalates through the remainder of the movie, might be worth consideration.
I still like Tom Jones for almost every reason imaginable.
If we can include episodes of TV shows, the pilot episode of Firefly has to be worth SOMETHING just for the strawberry scene.
I mean, I know that scene made ME want to… erm…
Eat strawberries. Yes.
There are also various episodes of Babylon 5 where food and drink are important to various characters (ie: Commander Ivonova had coffee plants smuggled aboard and planted in the hydroponics section, against station regulations, and later on in the show as the theme darkens, she is shown to be a heavy consumer of vodka, Garibaldi makes Bagna Cauda every year as a family tradition, at one point having to have the fresh ingredients smuggled from Earth past an EarthForce blockade of the station at great expense, Sheridan trying (and failing) to enjoy or properly prepare Flarn, Delenn’s favorite dish, etc.)
The sandwich folding scene in Spinal Tap
The gluttony scene in Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different
Tom Jones, except I’m not sure the kids would follow it well enough to catch the importance of the picnic scene.
FlashDance, except understanding the nuances of the lobster dinner requires an awareness of the meaning of the Tom Jones picnic.
Maybe explain Tom Jones to them briefly before they view Flashdance?
How about my favorite 80s comedy, Better Off Dead?
“It’s got raisins in it…you like raisins…” …and the food crawls away from him…
…not to mention Badger and the cereal-box coupons…
…and “pat pig”…the David Lee Roth hamburger…
…and snorting the jello…or Ricky stealing food off the plates of the other students…
Ooh, another Firefly one:
In the pilot episode, we meet Badger, a local crime boss who, while near the bottom of the food chain as far as the social ladder goes on his planet (much less the Alliance as a whole), he is still far above our heros, able to tell them to just piss off after they finish a mission he sent them off on earlier. During the scene where he lords his superiority over them, he has an apple on an apple peeler (yaknow the things, where you skewer the apple and turn the crank to peel the skin and spiral-cut it from the core all at once) sitting on his desk.
He never actually does anything with the apple, he just idly plays with the apple peeler and then ignores it, whereas the crew of Serenity allow a man to pay his traveling fair aboard their ship with a box of strawberries and some fresh veggies. The scene demonstrates how much better off he is than Malcolm and his gang, even though his business office is inside of a shipping container near the docks.
The movie Antonia’s Line has dinner scenes that are kind of integral to the action - it has elements of the OP’s EDMW/Tortilla Soup and Babette’s Feast, in a way.