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Since the dawn of cinema, food has always been intrinsically linked with film. From grazing on popcorn and sweets to the way food and drink have contributed to some of the most iconic cinematic lines, such as James Bond’s martini creating the line “Shaken, not stirred”; movies highlight how food plays a vital role in reflecting the culture of the time.
Food is used within films to help transport the audience into another country or world and has the power to evoke emotion and memory as well as being used as a key marketing tool to sell and advertise brands. The iconic and beloved beverage coca cola being a prime example, being a dominant fixture from the silent films of the 1920s to modern day.
Below, we have brought together some free content from across the Bloomsbury Food Library which examine the ways in which food and film have interacted throughout the years, looking at topics such as gender, food placement, and the humble concession snack.
Get your popcorn at the ready, and read on to learn more!
A cinema trip for many people would entail a visit to the concession stand to pick up snacks for the film. Many brands over the years have capitalised off of this, including Ben and Jerry’s who have ice cream available at most cinemas, and even film franchises who use popcorn buckets as a marketing tool, such as the Dune popcorn bucket from Warner Bros., or the Taylor Swift popcorn bucket for The Eras Tour Movie. This chapter from Food and Drink in American History (2013) describes the resistance theatre owners had to selling snack foods when motion pictures began to rise in popularity in the early 20th century, and explains that it wasn’t until the Great Depression that theatre owners began to significantly change their attitudes. They detail how popcorn became the most popular snack, partly due to its aroma that filled cinemas and drew customers in, and explain why popcorn is still popular to this day
The Joy of Eating (2021) delves deeply into the cultural celebration of food which is prominent in contemporary American culture, exploring how the recent food renaissance has seen a rise in food-based media, including food-themed television shows, documentaries, and networks. This chapter details how food has been present in films since practically the beginning of cinema, but in the 1980s corporations began to make deals with film studios to use food as product placement in movies. A key example of this was in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 hit, E.T., in which the extra-terrestrial is seen eating Reese’s Piece’s candies. Hershey’s “went on to see skyrocketing sales of Reese’s Pieces as a result of the exposure in the film”, proving that food product placement in films was a complete success for both industries.
Throughout cinematic history, food and drink have been used as props to help reinforce a place or setting, whether that be a time period, an atmosphere, or an actual location. For example, in Back to the Future 2 (1989), a futuristic version of a Pepsi bottle was seen in the film to help indicate that the characters had travelled to an alternate future, showing how products can be used to contextualise a scene or movie more generally. This chapter from Dumplings (2015) details how the animated film Kung Fu Panda (2008) contains “entertaining scenes that revolve around dumplings”, helping to establish the setting as Ancient China. The dumplings play a large role in the main character, Po’s, identity, “a clumsy, dumpling-loving panda who aspires to become a kung fu master”.
In many cultures, food and cooking have often been deemed as feminine realms, as they have been frequently associated with domesticity and housework. Cinema is often used to reflect culture by continuing to represent women in these domestic settings, but it also has the potential to subvert this ideology in various ways, breaking away from society’s stereotypes. In Food, Masculinities, and Home: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2017), the authors explore the long-held associations between women, home, food, and cooking, and detail how food practices can shape ideas of masculinity and ‘the home’. In this chapter, Fabio Parasecoli examines several American mainstream comedy movies from the early 1990s to late 2000s which portray men and food in interesting dynamics. In the film Mrs Doubtfire (1993), the gender conforming identities are subverted immediately through the use of drag, which allows Robin William’s character of Daniel to enter into the realm of the kitchen. In the film, food helps Daniel’s character “negotiate his role as father and his duties as caretaker”, and therefore becomes “an empowering tool”.
Food is often associated with pleasure, but What’s Eating You?: Food and Horror on Screen (2017) details how food is used in horror films to portray the contrasting emotions of both pleasure and disgust. The author discerns that horror movie directors that utilise food within their plots are more likely to evoke disgust in the viewer, as they understand that “the quickest way to the audience’s gag reflex is through its stomach.” This chapter argues that horror movies depict the well-known saying “you are what you eat”, showing food to be the pivot point between the normal and the monstrous American family. The author highlights three key films in the horror genre in order to examine the relationship between food and horror, focusing on Psycho (1960), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and Poltergeist (1982), and examines the correlations between the slasher film narratives and the farm-to-table ethos.
If you’ve enjoyed this taster of what the Bloomsbury Food Library has to offer, why not let your librarian know about this new collection? Recommend it to your librarian here.
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Homepage image credit: Canapés with edible flowers / Irena Sowinska (Getty)
