lorraine-benn

This film got a bit boring (to me) as it didn't have an interesting story or a good setting. The last film that I saw Laure Calamy in was "Antoinette in the Cevennes" which had an interesting story where she hires a donkey, to follow the walk in the Cevennes that her lover was planning to take. The scenery was lovely as well. Unfortunately "Iris and the Men" is nowhere near as interesting. For one thing, it lacks the fun supplied by the donkey, and there is no great scenery. The men she meets are not as appealing as her husband, and also the dialogue is not scintilating. She is a great actress but couldn't do much with this boring story.

Finley, a violinist from the US, goes to Ireland to attend a college and hopefully pass an exam. She meets Becket, a famous film star on the plane to Ireland. By coincidence, they meet up again as Becket happens to be staying at the same accommodation as Finley. There are some wonderful scenes of Ireland, fairly rare in romantic movies, and joyful pub entertainment scenes with an Irish fiddle player. With Vanessa Redgrave as an elderly woman in a nursing home, there is much to like about this film.

After chef Manceron is sacked by his fussy aristocratic boss, a woman appears out of nowhere and asks him to let her be an apprentice chef. He is unwilling as he thinks that chefs should all be males. She hands him some money for her tuition fees and finally pursuades him to teach her. He teaches her how to identify plants suitable for eating, and how to cook animals. She becomes an excellent cook, and we see some of the delicious looking food that she produces. We learn about the poverty of the local peasants and how many are starving. The arrogance and condescending attitude of the Duc de Chamfort and his fellow aristocrats give us a taste of the unfair treatment given to the poorer people which eventually led to the French Revolution.