I read an interesting article the other day about Sidney J. Furie’s The Ipcress File. Apparently the opening sequence – in which Michael Caine spends almost five minutes making coffee – is largely credited with quadrupling coffee sales in the UK during the sixties. Of course there’s nothing extraordinary about cinema enhancing the attraction of food (Sideways achieved similar results with wine sales in the United States), but The Ipcress File, with its fractious and oblique camera shots (Otto Heller’s cinematography is simply stunning) working in perfect tandem with John Barry’s distinctive score, does strike me as interesting for one other reason: it makes not just food but food preparation sexy.
To me these opening scenes appear to prototype just about every up-market TV chef programme aired today. Indeed, UK Chewers might notice that Nigella Lawson’s show apes TIF – shot for shot.
Can anyone think of a mainstream movie that precedes TIF and similarly attempts to glamorize food preparation, or is it truly the prototype?
To me these opening scenes appear to prototype just about every up-market TV chef programme aired today. Indeed, UK Chewers might notice that Nigella Lawson’s show apes TIF – shot for shot.
Can anyone think of a mainstream movie that precedes TIF and similarly attempts to glamorize food preparation, or is it truly the prototype?
