Italiano
The Menu di Mark Mylod, distributed by The Walt Disney Company Italia, will be released in Italian cinemas on Thursday, November 17th, 2022. The film was presented in the section Grand Public of the 17th Rome Film Fest.
THE MENU
Director
Mark Mylod
Nations
USA
Year
2022
Duration
100′
Cast
Ralph Fiennes
Anya Taylor-Joy
Nicholas Hoult
Hong Chau
Janet McTeer
Reed Birney
A couple flies to an island in the Pacific to dine in a restaurant where a famous chef has prepared a menu for a lucky few: three young brothers, drunk at the start, an elderly, well-off couple, a food critic and his editor, and a middle-aged female film star with her assistant. The tension grows throughout the evening: the dishes are shocking, and events take a violent turn. It becomes clear that there is one last terrifying dish on the menu.
COMMENTARY
He isn’t a chef. He’s a storyteller: meet the famous chef Slowik, who considers cooking conceptual art and works with a perfectly trained staff in his exclusive restaurant on a remote Pacific island. The wealthy, chosen few alone are admitted to his molecular cuisine dining experiences: “We pick the produce, we ferment, we freeze.” Laconic, dapper, and, yes, unsettling, Ralph Fiennes welcomes, somewhat ambiguously, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, and the evening’s other paying guests. They don’t know what they’re in for. A black culinary comedy (verging on horror) directed by Mark Mylod, with one nod to comedy and another to the thriller genre (he did both, in Ali G Indahouse and The Big White), the film has surprises galore in store: for the diners and for us.
MARK MYLOD
Born in 1965, Mark Mylod has directed and produced numerous TV series, such as Shameless (both the British and U.S. versions), United States of Tara, Once Upon a Time, The Affair, Game of Thrones, Amazing Stories, and Succession (for which he earned an Emmy® nod for best director, and won two as an executive producer). The film Ali G Indahouse marked his directorial debut on the big screen in 2002, followed by The Big White, starring Robin Williams, and (S)Ex List.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I described the tone and the way I wanted to work in this Altmanesque fashion of having everybody present on set the whole time. I needed the kinds of actors who were intelligent and confident enough for that and to leave some room for improvisation. Gradually, one by one, we built each guest table. I look at those chefs who maintain that level of artistry and invention and evolution. I have no idea how they do it, and there’s sheer, incredible work that goes into that from every level. From the people bringing your order to the people creating the menus, it’s an incredibly hard industry. To do that night after night, I have a huge respect for them. I hope the audiences will get a sense of that, as well.
