Recipe for Love

"Recipe for Love" Film Set

I just finished watching Recipe For Love, a beautiful & attractive film creation of writer, director & producer, Chauncey Wales. "Recipe for Love" is showing in Montreal on November 5th at the Image+nation film festival this coming weekend. To quote Image+nation's website: "The way to the girl of your dream’s heart is always through the palate.". Starring Coriander Stasi, & Fernanda Jimena; I didn't know anything about the film before hand. I enjoy not knowing, because of the adventure of the experience with no preconceived notions.

Make-up Artist Anna Vida working on actress Fernanda, "Chance".

Being an artist, I really enjoy the abstract display of colours, textures, and movement of the background behind the opening credits. The music is pretty, the film is high quality and there seems to be a Latin-American influence. It's sexy. I love the introduction, setting the stage with the market place, the use of the Portuguese language. Despite not understanding what is being said, it gives depth to the way characters are being introduced. Unfortunately the subtitles are sometimes difficult to read, sometimes going by too fast. What I do enjoy about the subtitles is that I can see an effort has been made to make them gel with the over all artistic presentation of the film.

Characters, Chance and Juliet first noticing their mutual attraction to one another.

 I like the attention to the minutiae, her dancing feet, the passion of food selection & preparation, the scent of olive oil, taking in every detail. The acting is very good quality, the characters are easy to believe in, and get drawn into the world that is being created. Party way through watching the movie, my fiancee walked in the door over hearing parts of the film. At first he commented the script was a bit artificial, but then he stayed, and after a few scenes he spoke up, saying that he was changing his mind about his original statement. He elaborated that the acting just needed more context. The more he watched, the more the story hooked him in.

Dinner scene, where Juliet is initiating a big thank-you to Chance for her amazing cooking skills.

 The characters, Juliet and Chance, meet because of a cleaning contract, but there is a clear attraction between the two women, despite the fact that they are supposed to be employer and employee. Juliet has just gotten out of a heterosexual relationship, but it's unclear if she is bi-curious or actually bi-sexual. I personally think this is good since it allows a larger audience to potentially appreciate the film. Chance turns out to be a genius with cooking, and so Juliet hires her to cater an important family dinner. Needless to say, a late night leads the women into other adventures. I don't want to give away too much of the story, so I'll hold my tongue on saying more.

Chance's artistic dinner presentation.

I didn't realize it was going to be a short film, it has the feeling of a feature film. With the pace the story was taking, I was expecting a much longer story. When the film reached the end, I was taken off guard, it seemed like an abrupt ending. Despite the sudden conclusion of the film, I like the ending itself. Beautiful & thought provoking sentiments. I did find myself reflecting on my own life experiences in order to relate to the film, and the message. Just a reminder of how sometimes the little moments in life can be so transformative, sometimes changing the entire direction of your life.