The Big Feast

A pilot, a cook, a choreographer, and a judge (+ a teacher!). Every key aspect of the western culture is present in this brilliant, surreal farce. The only ideology the men and the poor Andréa hold is one of hedonistic consumption of food and sex. The prostitutes are the sensible ones, leaving out of the game in time. They represent the "outsiders", people who refuse to take part in the destructive lifestyle, and are saved.

If you hate symbolism, you might watch this as a very funny and brilliantly acted comedy. If you don't mind the symbolism, every time you watch it again you'll find new depths in Ferreri's witty commentary of modern western lifestyle. Personally I don't mind it, hence 10/10. Belongs to my top 10 of all times.

'La Grande Bouffe' (aka 'Blow-Out') is an extraordinary movie, the kind of movie you just can't imagine getting made these days. While shot through with black humour it is very sad and depressing, and for me just as bleak as say, 'Leaving Las Vegas'. Instead of alcohol these dissatisfied men decide to kill themselves using food. Marcello Mastroianni is the best known of the four stars but Michel Piccoli (Belle De Jour), Ugo Tognazzi and and Philippe Noiret are equally impressive. The acting from all four is first rate and really makes the premise believable. Director Marco Ferreri went on to make the Bukowski adaptation 'Tales Of Ordinary Madness' another uncompromising, f*cked up and beautiful movie. I highly recommend both films which are difficult viewing, but worth the effort.

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.

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.

If you want to see what freedom of artistry and wild imagination is all about, don't miss this movie. It's a one of a kind and leaves you wondering - why don't they make movies like these anymore? OK, so it's grosse, and anarchic, and discomforting. But it's also a brilliant tragicomic story about four middle-aged friends who lock themselves away in a country house and feast literally to death. Plus there's this unbeatable quartet of actors - Mastroianni, Piccoli, Noiret and Tognazzi - playing roles with their own Christian names, which says a lot about artistic honesty. A pity there are no more Marco Ferreris around. 9/10