Food in the Movie - Les Émotifs Anonymes

Released on: 2010

Language: French

Genre: Romantic Comedy/ Drama

Directed By: Jean-Pierre Améris

Screenplay By: Jean-Pierre Améris, Phillipe Blasband

Starcast: Benôit Poelvoorde, Isabelle Carré, Lorella Cravotta, Lise Lamétrie, Swann Arlaud, Pierre Niney, Stéphan Wojtowicz

As simultaneously tasty and insubstantial as the bite-sized pieces of chocolate that its characters create, Jean-Pierre Améris’s  Les Émotifs anonymes is a typically anodyne rom-com given a certain poignant piquancy by the paralyzing shyness of its romantic leads. As chocolatier Angélique (Isabelle Carré) explains to potential boss Jean-René (Benôit Poelvoorde) during her job interview, it’s the bitterness that defines a bar of chocolate, a quality that also characterizes the lives of both characters, who are so overwhelmed with fear (of life in general, but especially human contact) that neither can seemingly function in the world. Jean-René oversees a failing chocolate enterprise whose terrible product proves the operation’s downfall; Angélique is a brilliant chocolate maker and her recipes the key to saving Jean-René‘s trade, but she’s so morbidly self-effacing, she can only practice her art anonymously and thus won’t cop to her skills. Instead she’s assigned the position of sales rep until her secret talents eventually reveal themselves and she comes to the rescue of not only Jean-René‘s business, but his stopped-up heart.

Although never straying too far from the conventions of the genre (unexpected romantic opportunities, missed connections, comic set pieces), the film’s whimsical tone is continually undercut by an air of subdued melancholy and its mode of humor is less riotous than pathetic. Which is to say that even the farcical antics of an extended comedic sequence are tempered by the look of perpetual sadness on Jean-René‘s face and the air of disappointed optimism on Angélique’s. In other words, this is pathetic humor in the sense that it generates pathos along with laughter (or, often, in its place). In the film’s most extended set piece, a squirm-inducing first date between the central couple is continually interrupted by the sweat-drenched Jean-René‘s constant trips to a restaurant bathroom to change his besotted shirts. By the time he bails on the evening by escaping through the washroom window, he’s ceased to be a figure of fun and become an object of pity.

But pity isn’t the central attitude evoked by Améris’s film, even if its main characters are legitimate subjects for our emotional charity. A winningly sympathetic look at individuals whose irrational fear of life has reduced them to the margins of functionality, Romantics Anonymous suggests that even the most hopeless cases can be helped by sympathetic support groups (the eponymous organization that Angélique frequents), friends, and the romantic possibilities afforded by a similarly afflicted partner. The film may not dig much below the surface in its portraiture of these individuals, and it may not offer much in the way of laughs, but it’s sweet in a way that’s not cloying and it’s not unpleasant going down. A few chocolate-oriented scenes are especially enjoyable: those that articulate the unique sensory and sensual pleasure of eating fine chocolate, and one about making the chocolate itself. It is our heroine’s unique gift with chocolate that is vital to the future success of the factory, and the scene really pins down what makes her chocolate so special-the flavor combinations including chocolate and paprika, green tea white chocolate, and even some sort of mushroom tuile, the textures, and having an innate feel for the very nature of the medium-as well as the joy that comes from creating something wonderful. Like a good piece of dark chocolate, Améris’s movie is tasty enough, but with just that right amount of bitterness.

 

Green Tea White Chocolate

Ingredients

400 gms                        White Chocolate Bar

125 ml                         Heavy Whipping Cream

25 gms                         Unsalted Butter

2 tbsp                         Green Tea Powder

Method

• Cut the white chocolate and butter into small pieces.
• Bring heavy whipping cream in a saucepan to almost boil over medium heat. Remove cream from heat when bubbles appear around the saucepan.
• Immediately add the white chocolate and butter to melt while the cream is still warm. Mix all together with rubber spatula until the mixture is smooth.
• Sift and add green tea powder into the mixture. Combine all together until the color is homogeneous. 
• Pour the mixture into a prepared baking dish lined with parchment paper. Flatten the surface with spatula to remove any air bubbles.
• Refrigerate for 4-5 hours.
• Remove the green tea chocolate from the baking dish once it's firm. Warm knife under hot water and wipe it dry completely.
• Slice the chocolate block into 4 blocks, then cut each block into 9 small pieces (36 squares total).
• Dust extra green tea powder on top of the chocolate.
•  Store the chocolate in the refrigerator until serving.

Moderate drinking can lower risk of heart attack, says study

Drinking in moderation helps protect heart, with study finding it lowers risk of many conditions compared with not drinking

Moderate drinking can lower the risk of several heart conditions, according to a study that will further fuel the debate about the health implications of alcohol consumption.

The study of 1.93 million people in the UK aged over 30 found that drinking in moderation - defined as consuming no more than 14 units of alcohol a week for women and 21 units for men - had a protective effect on the heart compared with not drinking.

Previous studies have suggested that alcohol has a positive effect on the levels of good cholesterol in the blood and proteins associated with blood clotting.

The research, published in the British Medical Journal, found that moderate drinkers were less likely than non-drinkers to turn up at their doctor with angina, heart attack, heart failure, ischaemic stroke, circulation problems caused by a build-up of fat in the arteries and aortic aneurysm than non-drinkers.

But the research found that heavy drinking - more than 14 units for women and 21 units for men - increased the risk of heart failure, cardiac arrest, ischaemic stroke and circulation problems caused by fatty arteries.

The authors of the study, from the University of Cambridge and University College London, welcomed the findings but cautioned: “While we found that moderate drinkers were less likely to initially present with several cardiovascular diseases than non-drinkers, it could be argued that it would be unwise to encourage individuals to take up drinking as a means of lowering their risk.

“This is because there are arguably safer and more effective ways of reducing cardiovascular risk, such as increasing physical activity and smoking cessation, which do not incur increased risks of alcohol-related harm such as alcohol dependence, liver disease and cancer.”

Moderate alcohol consumption has long been associated with a lower risk of heart disease compared with abstinence or heavy drinking but the authors described their study as the most comprehensive to date on the relationship.

Non-drinkers were separated from former and occasional drinkers. With previous studies, concerns have been raised that people who have stopped drinking due to illness could have skewed results among non-drinkers.

An independent review of evidence, which formed the basis for last year’s change in the official advice on alcohol consumption, lowering the recommended limit for men from 21 units to 14, making it the same as the guideline for women, found that the benefits of drinking for heart health only apply for women aged 55 and over and the greatest benefit is seen when they limit their intake to about five units a week, equivalent to about two standard glasses of wine. 

The new study found that heavy drinking resulted in an increased risk of a range of heart diseases compared with moderate drinking, but carried a lower risk of heart attack and angina.

The authors cautioned that this did not mean they were less likely to experience a heart attack in future, just that they were less likely to present these conditions at first diagnosis, compared with moderate drinkers. Also, as the study is observational, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect.

One unit of alcohol is about equal to half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider (3.6% alcohol by volume) or a small pub measure (25ml) of spirits. There are one and a half units of alcohol in a small glass (125ml) of ordinary strength wine (12% alcohol by volume).

Dr James Nicholls, the director of research and policy development at Alcohol Research UK, said that given the increased risk of other health conditions from drinking, moderate alcohol consumption within existing guidelines was unlikely to curtail or lengthen life expectancy overall.

 “While the findings provide convincing evidence for protective effects, the authors sensibly point out that this doesn’t mean it would be wise to take up drinking in order to lengthen one’s life - not least because any protective effects tend to be cancelled out by even occasional bouts of heavier drinking,” he said.

“There are better ways to strengthen the heart such as exercise and good diet. All things being equal - and given the increased risk of suffering other health conditions linked to any amount of alcohol consumption - if you drink within the existing guidelines it is unlikely that alcohol will either lengthen or shorten your life.”

Source: www.theguardian.com