The Big Feast

What can be a better protest against hedonism than to kill oneself in the most hedonistic way: to sate oneself with food and luxury and sex to death? So four old friends gather together in the luxuriant family villa belonging to the one of the participants and start devouring their way to exotic quietus, I should warn you though, the spectacle isn't for the hungry, and however difficult the task may seem it turns out to be quite feasible. What is the most great in this movie is its thick atmosphere of absurdity and surreality of everything happening on the screen and at the same time a verisimilitude of this occurrence. This movie also brilliantly managed to catch a zeitgeist of its epoch. At the time the film was announced to be a scandal of the year.

This movie was so colorful...I just never forgot it and the concept was engaging. I saw this movie in San Francisco in '73 or '74... I cannot remember all the details in order, but yes, three guys went to a villa in the countryside of France and ordered huge amounts of food to be delivered. At first, you just thought it was a fun party, then it got to be bigger and bigger...women came by, etc, etc. I had lived in Europe just prior to seeing this movie and I so enjoyed the scenery and just the ambiance. I assumed it was not a what they would call a full running movie and just played in certain theaters but a place like San Francisco in the 70's had the right audience.

Four affluent middle-aged men (Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret & Ugo Tognazzi) close themselves off in a château for a weekend of stuffing themselves with gourmet food. They are joined by three prostitutes and a school teacher. It gradually becomes clear that this is a suicide pact ... the four intend to eat themselves to death. I love this film. It's somewhere between Bunuel and "Salo" ... or a version of "Salo" that is not hijacked as an indictment of fascism and is perhaps closer to De Sade. What starts as a fairly sensual enjoyment of food and sex gradually transforms into a grim and tawdry march to death. The film doesn't blink, but it also isn't really condemning men for their bloody minded self-hating lust for pleasure. It's both satire and celebration in an odd way.

The aircraft pilot Marcello, the chef Ugo, the TV choreographer Michel and the judge Phillipe decide to terminate their lives with a great pleasure, eating and having sex with three prostitutes and one school teacher invited to participate in their orgy.

I watched this unforgettable film in the 70's and I was very disturbed with this impressive metaphoric movie. In Brazil, it remained unreleased on video until a couple of months ago, when fortunately it was 'rescued' and released on DVD by the Brazilian distributor 'Versátil', specialized in masterpieces such as Fellini, Rosselini and Visconti. Now I have just had the chance to watch again this weird and daring movie about the decay of the society of consumption, empty and compulsive, searching for "sex and food" (material goods) much more than they need. The main characters use their Christian names. This movie is also a great black humor comedy. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "A Comilança" ("The Binge")

Superb black comedy of an ageing quartet gathered for a feast of epic proportions in which they indulge every gluttonous whim with culinary abandon. Their erotic gorging, groping and fondling of food and flesh is both appetising and arresting, as one by one, they stuff themselves to morbidity. It's with a tinge of sadness that their food fornication gradually comes to a halt, when the last man can no longer manage another morsel.

Those who appreciate gourmet cooking might find appeal in the vast menu, but will likely be shocked by the flatulence-passing, naked-backside food preparation techniques of these randy chefs. The cast periodically combine their appetite for food with unbridled sexual encounters while they prepare meals, to which the viewer is treated in heaving detail. But while the sets, costumes and dialogue are all, equally colourful, there's a distinct lack of momentum and coherent storyline in the near two-and-a-half hour epic.

The cast are formidable in their distinct characterisations (and appetites), and it seems as though each has resigned to his own despair at a life unfulfilled. While Mastroianni does little cooking by comparison with Piccoli, he more than compensates with his sexual appetite at any number of the prostitutes assembled for their last supper. "Le Grande Bouffe" is a raw, uncompromising dark comedy like no other and needs to be seen to be believed.