Opening 25 Nov 2010
Directed by:
David Pinillos
Writing credits:
Paco Cabezas, David Pinillos, Juan Carlos Rubio
Principal actors:
Nora Tschirner, Unax Ugalde, Giulio Berruti, Herbert Knaup, Susana Abaituna Gómez
Daniel (Unax Ugalde), from Bilbao, Spain, goes to Zurich to train at a famous restaurant called Wackerle. There he meets two other young trainees: Hanna (Nora Tschirner) from Munich and Hugo (Giulio Beruti) from Italy. Their boss is Thomas Wackerle (Herbert Knaup), supposedly a famous chef. The plot is relatively simple: Hanna is having an affair with the married Thomas. Daniel falls in love with Hanna, thus forgetting his at-home girlfriend Eva. Hugo is somewhere in the middle, but at least has enough sense to just dream of having his own restaurant. Hanna gets pregnant by Thomas, who more or less drops her, and she returns to Munich to have the baby. Daniel and Hugo are supportive. That’s more or less it, except for a lot of cooking and pot scrubbing and struggles to climb the career ladder. Hugo will certainly be successful: he can make a culinary dream out of two eggs, noodles, and half an orange.
Partway through the film, when the three young people were riding in a car, I had a slight déjà vu of two other more or less recent films: Renn Wenn du Kannst and Vincent Will Meer. All three films feature two guys and a girl who drive around, although Renn and Vincent seem to have more to say. Bon Appetit is fine as far as it goes, but it is mostly worthwhile because of the hopeful young actors, whom we will surely see more often in the future (especially if Nora Tschirner finds a good hair dresser. Her hair is a distraction). Naturally, the photography of the gorgeous Swiss scenery is splendid. Don’t watch on an empty stomach. Directed by David Pinillos. (Becky Tan)
