by Alessandra Busacca @alessandra_busacca

Stories swinging from imagination to reality, compelling scripts, unassailable aesthetics, mouth-watering shots, and casts worthy of an Oscar. It’s exceedingly difficult to choose between Sofia Coppola and Wes Anderson.

Which ones are the most Gourmode films ever? Might they be the ones that interpret magically the gourmet à la mode lifestyle?

It’s now time to take a seat on a smooth velvet couch – line G, bien sûr! – and munch some still-hot popcorn. Lights, camera, action, c’est Gourmode cinéma!

Manhattan, pearls, a Givenchy little black dress, and a freshly baked croissant: there’s nothing to add, except for praising Audrey Hepburn’s charm. In the film, she’s playing the role of Holly Golightly. A dreamer who has fun. With no fathers, masters, or life companions, apart from her nameless red cat, she is unconventional and true to herself. Holly does not like ordinary life, she prefers the jet set and parties. Until she encounters a fascinating writer.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S by Blake Edwards

The glories of a mythical past, as perfect and glorious as memories always are in our minds, are in danger of disappearing at the Grand Budapest Hotel, a victim of a slow and relentless decline. It will take cooperation, the right staff, and a trusting, forward-thinking lobby boy to save its reputation. Anyone who claims never to have craved filled cream puffs from Mendl’s bakery, baked by the lovely Agatha, is lying. Covered in pastel icing and enclosed in pink boxes with a light blue bow, they are an extremely Gourmode creation, don’t you think? Yes, yes, it’s a certainty she/he is definitely lying.

GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL by Wes Anderson

So, let them eat brioche! Queen Marie Antoinette, in Sofia Coppola’s film, would have never given up trying one Mendl’s cake. Among hostility and masquerade parties, at the court of Versailles, the young and naive bride of Louis XVI of France will soon be forced to abandon her beloved converse shoes for much, much more uncomfortable ones.

MARIE ANTOINETTE by Sofia Coppola 

Any summer plans? Italy. Ischia, precisely. But also Capri and Procida. A dream. Tom Ripley, played by a very young Matt Damon, is a willing and talented American. Dickie (Jude Law) is his peer, rich and spoiled, determined never again to leave the corner of paradise where he lives on the coast. So, Dickie’s father assigns Tom the duty to convince him to come back home to the USA. But soon Tom, amidst nightclubs, boat trips, jealousies, and love affairs, will forget the purpose of his journey… which will become increasingly dangerous.

THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY by Anthony Minghella

The pastel tints of 1970s New York represented a sequence of flashbacks of a wonderful family: the Tenenbaums. If it is difficult to pronounce their surname it becomes a challenge to understand their grotesque lifestyles, which fascinate and shock at the same time. The lawyer dad, the archaeologist mum, and three talented children: Chas, a math and business genius, writer and Richie, a tennis champion, and Margot, who we all dream to copy the fur coat and loafers outfit and her mysterious charm. Between dotted mice, rooftop reading, and preppy aesthetics, every secret and obsession of the family will come to the surface. They will make us lose our minds! And a finger too…

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS by Wes Anderson

Who didn’t hate Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) in the first fifteen minutes of this film? A snooty London banker, all money and career, forced into a little trip to Provence to sell the inheritance left to him by his uncle Henry: an estate bathed in sunshine, in a lush vineyard. A meeting with Fanny (Marion Cotillard) and her genuine French charm will shift Max’s certainties on the needle of love…

A GOOD YEAR by Ridley Scott

Liberté, égalité, fraternité. The best cliché for a ménage à trois. Paris, summer 1968. During the occupation of the Cinémathèque française, Isabelle (the divine Eva Green) meets a young American Mattew and decides together with her twin brother Theo (Louis Garrel) to host him in their apartment. The three thus begin an intimate, dangerous, and shameless cohabitation under the sign of free love and student revolution.

THE DREAMERS by Bernardo Bertolucci 

A woman’s only love is diamonds. But in this film, chocolate jewels are worth more. And Jonny Depp’s smile, of course. The calm of the village of Lansquenet-sur-Tannes, so religious, so ordinary, is soon disturbed by the arrival of Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) who starts a magic chocolate shop at the time of Lent… France and love are thus united by a subtle plot of freedom and spicy sins of gluttony.

CHOCOLAT by Lasse Hallström

Sudden urge to read under the sun, biting juicy peaches, and diving into the pool? That’s the Guadagnino effect. Based on the book of the same name by André Aciman, this film explores the first love between two young people, 17-year-old Elio, and 24-year-old Olivier. They both discover and desire each other over a long summer in the scenic, light-colored town of Crema. In the picturesque and romantic villa surrounded by nature, where time seems to stand still, and scents, noises, and love to intensify.

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME by Luca Guadagnino

“So, what are you doing here?” This a very simple question to begin the story of a bizarre friendship, a stroke of lightning in a bright Tokyo. In a very monotonous Park Hyatt, Charlotte and Bob meet at the bar of the hotel, after a series of sleepless nights thinking about their respective lives as a newlywed she and in a marriage crisis, a declining Hollywood star. The dialogue is meaningful but perhaps all too mysterious. No one will ever know what Bill Murray whispers in Scarlett Johansson’s ear before leaving for America. Sorry, not sorry.

LOST IN TRANSLATION by Sofia Coppola

And who knows if there will be a sequel, if the lights have been turned on, but we are only at the first half and a second half is yet to come. In our hearts Cat will live nine lives, we will taste Mendel’s pastry bulging with cream tomorrow at breakfast with a glass of Uncle Henry’s Coeur Perdu, we will dive with Dickie into the crystal-clear waters of the Amalfi Coast, and Bob will whisper “I love you.” Because we are a bit like that, cinephile dreamers. Enjoy your viewing at Gourmode cinéma!