The Taste of Others

Director: Agnès Jaoui
(2000)

Nominated for the Academy Award as Best Foreign Language film in 2000, Agnès Jaoui’s clever comedy proves that nothing is less sexy than bad taste, prejudice and appalling manners. Jaoui’s husband, Jean-Pierre Bacri, with whom she co-wrote the film, portrays a dull, industrial married businessman pursuing a gifted stage actress whom he’s hired to teach him English. While critics widely acclaimed this witty ensemble piece as hilarious, its humor is more aptly described as subtle and instead of audible laughs, viewers will find themselves nodding, gasping or feeling slightly jolted by incidents all too realistically portrayed. One downside is the casting director, who along with myself has a thing for tall, dark-haired men but a few of the main characters look a bit too similar and it takes a moment to discern which is which. Jaoui also stars in the film as a sexy bartender who moonlights as a drug dealer in order to pay the bills.