You will read everywhere that this is Fred Wiseman’s documentary style, and therefore it’s a fabulous example of his style. The reality is, if you aren’t prepared for a plotless, wandering, rambling four hour movie, you will give up about half way. Less a style and more a let’s-film-some-stuff-and-stick-it-together-in-no-particular-order, the moments of visual beauty, kitchen vibrancy, and service intimacy are all diluted by other stuff. There literally is zero rationale for the film being this long.

This was the first movie by Frederick Wiseman that I saw, but from what I gather about him, he has an eye for the mundane that is also not mundane at all. For the Troigros family running a prestigious restaurant in French countryside is a mundane activity, as this is what they do all their live, and Wiseman captures the mundanity of it. At the same time for us, viewers, this is something new and exciting, and this excitement is also here, though the primary lens is still the one of the mundane. This movie, interestingly enough, has almost no structure, no story to tell. We jump from conversations about food to food service to food preparation and then again to service or maybe scouting for good ingredients without any internal logic to it, as it seems. In a sense, this is not a movie about the “Troigros” restaurant – a traditional documentary about it would explain to us the story of the family and their businesses trough mix of off-screen narration and interviews, and we have none of that here. Instead we are invited to take an excruciatingly close look at details of their life and its textures – lamb chop, asparagus, sause, cheese etc. This can have almost hypnotic effect on the viewer and is indeed very immersive, it is a practice of almost sensual experiences rather than exercise in knowledge. Wiseman chose his subject wisely (nomen est omen) – the Troigros are interesting people with their own quirks that show on the screen. We don’t really see their personal lives, though, and sometimes I would be hard pressed to explain the amount of tension between some of the people on screen. Overall, this is a unique documentary, quite unlike any food documentaries that I saw in the past. I am certain that some of the images presented here will stay with me for a long while and factor into my imaginations on what prestigious restaurants should look like. Some of the smell and tastes I will almost remember, too.

Fantastic movie, in every way. I'm looking forward to watching this again.

The 4-hour length adds to the film. Beautiful. Food and restaurant cinema verite film masterpiece.

It's quite long, but you don't even notice. An incredible film.

I really liked this film

I loved this film. Highly recommended. I took my grandson and he loved it too.

I saw this film and was transported to a wonderful world where I did not want to leave. I cried when it was over it was so beautiful.