Food and Film: The Scent of Green Papaya
Co-presented with the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
In-person: chef and restaurateur Alice Waters.
Food and Film is a quarterly series designed to delight the senses and inspire the mind. Curated with renowned chef, activist and cinephile Alice Waters, who will be in-person for the screening, each program in the series draws on Waters’ philosophy that eating, like art, is a political act and that exploring the intersections between the culinary and moving image arts can help illuminate the path toward building more sustainable, thriving communities together.
Writer-director Trần Anh Hùng won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes for his debut feature, The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), a luminous portrait of the sensuous world as experienced by Mùi, a young servant girl to a troubled, middle-class family, in 1950s Saigon. Taking up her duties as a child, Mùi marvels at the small wonders that suffuse the open-air home — raindrops glistening on leaves, the hum of insects, the scent of papaya in the courtyard. Preparing and sharing meals becomes central to her attunement with the rhythms of nature and family life, as well as Hùng’s larger meditation on memory, desire and the grace of the everyday.
35mm, color, in Vietnamese with English subtitles, 104 min. Director/Screenwriter: Trần Anh Hùng. With: Tran Nu Yen Khe, Man San Lu, Thi Loc Truong.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
ATTENDING THIS PROGRAM?
Ticketing: Admission to Archive screenings at the Hammer is free. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis, limit one per visitor. Box office opens one hour before the event. Questions should be directed to the Archive at programming@cinema.ucla.edu or 310-206-8013.
Member Benefit: Subject to availability, Hammer Members can choose their preferred seats and pick up tickets for one additional guest. Members receive priority ticketing until 15 minutes before the program. Learn more about membership.
Parking: Self-parking is available under the museum. Rates are $8 for the first three hours with museum validation, and $3 for each additional 20 minutes, with a $22 daily maximum. There is an $8 flat rate after 5 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends.
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