Today I Learned Writer

Ratatouille was praised in France for technical accuracy and attention for detail

Yesterday I sat through a second viewing of the 2007 movie Ratatouille and this morning I find a TIL on Reddit1 about it. How poetic! Personally I have always liked Ratatouille, it is funny, emotional, profound, sweet and depicts nostalgia in a way that really resonates with me, especially the scene with Ego, where he remembers his childhood upon tasting the dish the movie gets its name from (Incidentally this is known as a Proustian moment or Madeleine Moment/Memory2).

Now you could say that the most accurate thing in the movie was the shitty Paris apartment with the great view3, but according to the French public, critics and even top chefs the movie shows great technical accuracy and attention for detail. Even the late Anthony Bourdain weighs in4:

I think it’s quite simply the best food movie ever made. The best restaurant movie ever made–the best chef movie. The tiny details are astonishing: The faded burns on the cooks’ wrists. The "personal histories" of the cooks…the attention paid to the food…And the Anton Ego ratatouille epiphany hit me like a punch in the chest–literally breathtaking. I saw it in a theater entirely full with adults–and the reaction to that moment was what movie making was once–a long time ago–all about: Audible surprise, delight, awe and even a measure of enlightenment. I am hugely and disproportionately proud that my miniscule contribution (if any) early early in the project’s development led to a "thank you" in the credits. Amazing how much they got "right."

I could not have said it better. If you haven't watched it yet, way don't you go ahead and do so?


1Posted here, by NervousLawyer.

3Paraphrased from here, by NervousLawyer.

4Gracefully found here, by Lemesplain.

2As pointed out here, by grubas.