Francesca Rudkin: The Bikeriders and The Taste of Things

The Bikeriders  

Over the course of a decade, a Midwestern motorcycle club evolves from a gathering place for local outsiders to a sinister gang, threatening the original group's way of life. 

 

The Taste of Things  

Cook Eugenie and her boss Dodin have grown fond of one another over 20 years, and their romance gives rise to dishes that impress the world's most illustrious chefs. When Dodin is faced with Eugenie's reluctance to commit, he begins to cook for her. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b It's.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Time to catch up with our film review of Francesca
Rudkin for her picks this weekend. Hey Francesca, don't mind Jack.
Let's start off with a movie that is showing in
cinemas at the moment. We'll have a listen to the
bike Riders.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm beIN going to start in a rating club.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Why all those clubs who are sit around talking about
motorcycles if you.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Don't belong nowhere else or they belong together?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Read are not.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Okay? Is this a comedy?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
No?

Speaker 1 (00:49):
No, no.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
This is by Jess Nichols, who is a director of
film such as Nun Takes Shelter in Love and this
is probably hisst main screen film he's made, and he
takes a look at the change in nature of banking
games with the viewers from sort of the late sixties
through to the early seventies and it's actually depth.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Francisca, I'm really I'm really sorry to interrupt you. Are
you where are you standing right now? Can I can
we get you to just move to try and moving
around a couple of meters or something.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
I can't move absolutely again, not if anything sounding.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Okay, what have you done?

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Now?

Speaker 4 (01:31):
What have you done? Have you moved your hand? Is
your hand on the microphone?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:34):
No, I just ran across the room. It's very technical.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Does that turn be it's not going to describe as better.
I'll tell you, hey, are you there?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Yeah, okay, that's selling a bit better. Are you there?

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Okay? Hello?

Speaker 4 (01:49):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that's it. Don't move, don't do not move. Okay,
tell us about the bike riders.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
I'm standing underneath the toll frame. It's perfect that there's
a newsquake. Okay. So uh. This is, as I mentioned,
adapted from the photo book by a photo journalist, a
guy called Danny Live, and they've used him kind of
as a narrator in this film. So he went in
and he followed. After he finished at college, he went
and he sort of joined the Chicago Vandals and he

(02:18):
did interviews with them and he photographed them, and he
created this book. So the film is based on that book.
And in the film, he then he interviews Kathy, who
is the wife of one of the bikers. Benny Ben
is played by Austin Butler, and he is by far
one of the probably more self destructive and toughest, the sexiest,

(02:41):
and definitely the cleanest of all the bikers in this gang.
And so she sort of tells the story of meeting him,
falling in love. She was a well respected, working class
girl who didn't anticipate that she would end up kind
of in this biker land, and she talks us through
how it did start out as a group of guys
just trying to find their place in the world by

(03:02):
they love their motorbikes. They got together and rode their bikes,
and then how it kind of became a popular movement.
There were more franchises and then really kind of the
violence and more gangs, the aspects of it kind of
took over. So you're kind of just looking at this
the way the gang's kind of morphed into something else.
And Tom Hardy plays Johnny, who's the president, and really

(03:27):
it's kind of a bit of a love story, a
bit of a triangle love triangle between Johnny and Kathy
and Benny. Johnny wants Benny to take over, Kathy wants
Benny to leave the leave the gang, and to be
honest with you, Bennie doesn't say huge amount of this film.
He's a pretty emotionless kind of character who's just this
is where he fits and he just goes along for

(03:47):
the ride. Look, it's really interesting and I quite like
the way that they've told us from a female point
of view, but I feel like it only scratches the surface.
It's a little bit pretty. It feels like a sanitized
version of actually what was really going on. There's not
a huge amount of these guys. They like to sit
around and drink the you know, ride their bikes, being

(04:08):
a gang and hang out together. But I think that
it doesn't really put a touch on a lot of
that kind of beliefs and philosophies in the way they
decide to kind of grow and live their lives. So, yeah,
it looks good, sounds great fun, but I just think
it just sort of probably scratches the surface of what
really is going on.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Okay, so that's the Bike Riders also showing and cinemas
tell us about the taste of things.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Oh look, if you love foody films like The Best
Feast or Chocolat or Big Night, then you're going to
love this French film. It's by trying on Hung and
Him about thirty years ago debut with a film called
The Greenpa Part the Sink of the Green Apart of Grempapyre,
and that one The act Can and then this year

(04:54):
The Taste of Things one best director at Can. It
is a slow, gentle film about basically a love of
film a food. It is set around kitchen of one
of France's greatest epicure. It's eighteen eighty five and Dobana
is like the Napoleon of culinary art, but he is

(05:16):
the first to credit his chef, Eugene, who brings all
his ideas to life. As I mentioned, it is pretty
much set in the kitchen. The first twenty minutes you
literally just make them, You just watch them make a meal.
So you really need to be a foody. Do not
go to this film hungry. It's twenty fifteen minutes long
and you'll just sit there just salivating and refreshing the

(05:40):
fact that you're there. Very much a love letter to
sort of fresh ingredients and creativity and cooking from scratch
and making a meaningful moment out of a meal. So
quite divine, Juliet Binoche. Quite divine.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
But it is.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Quite a slow film and it is completely focused on
film with a touch of romance, So I think you'll
know if that's for you.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yes, yes, well okay, so that's the taste of things.
Your first film is The Bike Riders, and of course
both of those will be up on the News Talks
dB website. We try and put everything from our show
up there just as soon as it's been on the radio,
So go to NEWSTALKSB dot co dot NZ forward slash
Jack and you will be able to find.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
That For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen
live to News Talks EDB from nine am Saturday, or
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