La Table de Montaigne, Christian Coulon

Du jour au lendemain (4/20)

"Meeting Montaigne as a reader, you feel like it would be nice to sit down to dinner with him. Yet the author of The Essays hardly comes across as a gourmet. It has even been said that he lacked delicateness when eating: the "science of eating" leaves some doubt; his knowledge of all things culinary are rudimentary, to the point where he admits that he doesn't distinguish cabbage from lettuce and is not too familiar with the "diversity and nature of fruits, wines, meats"; he is unable to "carve at the table", doesn't understand "police of sauces"... "You can give me all the preparations in a kitchen, I will go hungry." Hopeless!

"When you take a closer look though, you realize that this avowed ignorance doesn't mean that the man is indifferent to all things cuisine. On the contrary. First, he has a great appetite, and even recognizes "eating gluttonously": "I often bite my tongue, sometimes my fingers, in haste." A precipitation that reflects a ferocious taste for life and natural sensual pleasures.

"In the Essays, Montaigne doesn't hesitate to provide us, in minute detail, with his table habits, his favorite dishes and the evolution of his tastes. He tells us how he adapts his diet to his digestive troubles, his age, his illness, without renouncing "natural pleasures", how he "loyally takes pleasure in his being" and "lives well", thanks to careful attention to the "culture of the body."

"During his voyage across Europe, Montaigne likes to discover and taste the specialities of the regions that he passes through, he thrusts himself on "tables thick with foreigners", castigating men who shy away "from forms opposed to their own" and call "barbarian" whatever is not of their land. A fine lesson in cultural openness.

"After having placed Montaigne's comments about cuisine and table manners in the context of alimentary habits of the 16th Century, La Table de Montaigne studies his culinary knowledge and sensibility, his tastes and appetite, the thoughts that cuisine suggests to him in understanding "the human condition", and the importance that he puts on the alimentary habits of "others" in understanding their cultures."

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Patrice Leconte

L'humeur vagabonde (4/7)

"I like women with short hair, I always have. There is no reason for it, that's just the way it is. Women with short hair make me shiver, they enchant me, fluster me, fascinate me, move me, touch me, attract me and overwhelm me. After years of close observation, I decided once and for all that women with short hair were more beautiful than the others. I say women, but I could also say young girls, teenagers, young women, mothers or older women. In the theater, in the street, in a crowd, a reception, a beach, a department store, on a train station platform, an airport, a restaurant, a public swimming pool, from a distance in the fog, even in the dark, anywhere, I always spot women with short hair. It's like a magnetism, a fascination, a happiness." - Patrice Leconte

"Women with Short Hair is the first novel by the director Patrice Leconte. A sort of fairy tale for old kids, it reads with a smile, with lots of images of a Paris filled with park benches for those who love post cards, where all the women are beautiful and and family meals are not at all boring. It's a novel..." -Kathleen Evin

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