The Metaphorical Meaning of Food in "Soylent Green"

Soylent Green is the "modern-day" Film Noir that forces its audience to truly understand the importance of how we should cherish the aspects of life that we take for granted - such as the abundance of various types of food, clean, running water, a vibrant ecosystem, and comfortable living spaces- through a futuristic, dystopian lens. As I watched this film, I felt as though the director (Richard Fleischer) used "soylent green" as a symbol and a warning for our planet's future.

Of course, the immediate message one can take away from watching this movie is that if we do not find a solution to fix climate change, pollution, and overpopulation soon, we will see ourselves in a similar fate as the citizens in Soylent Green. But I found myself interpreting a different message. I felt as though the symbolism behind the physical soylent green was referring more to our humanity towards each other. Soylent Green, a dry, brittle, perfectly manufactured, manmade (literally) supplement made into a perfect square is an interesting parallel to the society it hails from. This dystopian society lacks empathy and human decency that every society needs to flourish. The government seems to care nothing about the wellbeing of any of its citizens that aren't considered wealthy or "furniture".

Laurel Foster references the psychological effects that occur with this type of civilization. She states "This deception of a hungry general public into a reworked cannibalism is depicted as symptomatic of a corrupted and divided society, where social and moral codes have disintegrated alongside the collapse of any urban infrastructure." In this society, there is no clear line between good vs. bad, right vs wrong, harmony vs. chaos. I can't say that I would be completely morally righteous, but what does it say about a country's government when it's own policemen, who are meant to protect and serve, steal from those who are supposed to be protected and served.

To be completely truthful, I have no idea what I would do if I found myself in this dystopian setting. I know that this future is very much a possibility, but it still frightens me nonetheless. As much as I want to say that I would try to escape, I feel as though I would immediately be turned into a soylent of some sort, preferably blue.

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Vianne's Many Roles Within "Chocolat"

It's without a doubt that Vianne Rocher is "the falcon" of Chocolat. She enters our story as a literal force of nature to be reckoned with. Just like her chocolates, Vianne is a mixture of many things; two of those things being of both French & Mayan descent. Some other important aspects of Vianne's character is that we see her cook and heal throughout the film. Because of Vianne and her cooking & healing, we see the French town of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes transform from drab and subdued to vibrant and full of life. The role that I want to focus on is her role as a cook. Without cooking, we wouldn't have a story! Vianne's job as a cook allows for her to heal & help the villagers around her because she heals through cooking. When she first opens her shop, we see the townspeople reluctant to venture into her store. She convinces her first customer, Yvette Marceau, to by a bag of unrefined cocoa nibs from Guatemala that will waken the passion be

Final Blog Entry: The Reel Food & World Cinema Experience

Now that the semester is coming to a close, I decided to go back and reread my previous blog posts. I can't say that I've taken the time to go through my entries after the initial publishing. It's strange to go back and read them and remember my headspace when writing them or what was going on in my life during that time. Memories rush back of sitting decker auditorium, locking eyes with my friends when something unexpected or hilarious happened, hearing Dr. Esa laugh at a scene that no one else found as funny, and chuckling at the one person who was always asleep and snoring during the screening. Overall, I didn't really find this course challenging. After taking both Intro to Cinema & Film Analysis: Hitchcock , I was used to this style of class. It was difficult to keep up with the journal entries from time to time. I really appreciated the variety of films we watched (even if I didn't agree with the choices of the films). I don't think I would hav

How Food Helps Discover Personal & National Identities in "Como Agua Para Chocolate"

Food is the most coherent, articulate, persuasive, and powerful speaker within the entirety of Como Agua Para Chocolate. Communication is a very important aspect of this film. The very first thing that we, the audience see is an onion being chopped as we hear the narrator explaining a trick to prevent crying from onions (we find out later how important this moment truly is). Although we've seen food being used as a means of communication in previous films- such as Mostly Martha - this film best executes the idea that food can speak louder than words, especially when words can't be spoken amongst main characters. The first time we see an example of this is when Tita and Nacha are preparing the Chabela Cake for Pedro & Rosaura's wedding. We can see how absolutely torn up Tita is by this, despite knowing Pedro's true intentions. She is succumbed by anguish and nausea that she begins to cry into the batter. The next day at the wedding, we witness Tita's grie

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