November 01, 2006
SEE YOU IN THE LOBBIES
So, my OCD is kicking in.
I'm trying to think of all the great movies scenes that involve food. I want to do a list and then do a story in the paper for Oscar time.
"The Godfather" films are riddled with great food-related scenes.. (Canoli, Enzo the baker, the dinner table scene with Sonny, Roth's carving of the cake in Cuba, the spilled oranges when Don Corleone gets killed, etc.)
You can't ignore the blindfolded-eating-in-front-of-the-fridge scene in "9 1/2 Weeks."
The scariest scene in "Alien" was when the alien zygote pushes through John Heard's chest while they're all having dinner.
Pretty much the only thing most people remember about "Five Easy Pieces" was the chicken-salad sandwich scene.
The dinner sequence in "Beetlejuice" when everyone gets attacked while singing a possessed version of "The Banana Boat" song? Classic.
"Tom Jones" features a pretty erotic dinner scene with Albert Finney. The lobster-sucking scene in "Flashdance" is pretty hot. The "Aunt Jemima Treatment" administered in "Stripes" still makes me laugh. Then there's the spaghetti and meatballs sequence in "Lady and the Tramp."
Okay, so that's more romance than eroticism. You've got me there.
I particularly love the scene at the drive-thru in "American Beauty" when Kevin Spacey sees his wife making out with "The King" of real estate and utters the line:
"You don't get to tell me what to do ever again."
For my money, though, it's hard to top the Mr. Creosote scene in "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" when John Cleese offers Terry Jones "a wafer-thin after-dinner mint."
When Jones, as Mr. Creosote, refuses, Cleese entices him by saying, "It is only... wafer-thin."
Then all hell breaks loose.
Classic stuff.
So let's hear it: Which one is your favorite movie scene with food?