For some time, this was my favourite Pixar film, and also my son's.
It is another love letter to Paris, with music by Michael Giacchino.
Remy the rat escapes his rural life to follow his dreams of being a chef, inpired by a TV chef called Gusteau. He also needs some help from the human chefs.
It is surprising of course that the sous-chef Linguini is able to offer on his wages a flat which is very cramped but also manages to have the most astonishing view over Paris towards the Eiffel Tower.
There are plenty of images of Paris within the film, wet cobbles, the banks of the Seine and the food culture that is celebrated. The sense of place of the city is evoked well, although of course it is a partial one and draws on a limited range of cultural perspectives of the city.
There has been some scholarship on the representation of the city as well. Sadly not open access, but it refers to the imagery of Ratatouille/Paris to be found at Disneyland Paris.
I've visited Disneyland Paris and have also eaten at the Ratatouille restaurant at the theme park when my children were much smaller and loved the furniture and tables which were large versions of small items and food such as mushrooms. The food was OK as well.
Montmartre is an area of the city that was also celebrated in the film 'Amélie'.
I will be exploring Paris this summer and will aim to go and see some of the locations of films and visit other culturally related places - as long as attending the IGU conference of course.
Films I watched today:
Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948) - dir. John Paddy Carstairs.
A black and white film with some familiar faces - intrigue on a train on the way to Trieste. A little tedious but accompanied me as I worked. Popular in the USA. Bonar Colleano played an American serviceman, as he did in 'A Matter of Life and Death'.
Doctor in Trouble (1970) - dir. Ralph Thomas
Another old film, part of the 'Doctor' series (the final one) and with some problematic elements e.g. the waiter Graham Stark pretending to be Indian with black-face. A few saucy jokes from Harry Secombe. Weak
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