Film Review: La quête d'Alain Ducasse

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Wednesday, 06 June 2018 02:56

Written by Gilbert Seah

THE QUEST OF ALAIN DUCASSE (La quête d'Alain Ducasse)(France 2017) ***

Directed by Gilles de Maistre   

The Quest of Alain Ducasse is an absorbing documentary about the most renowned 

chef and culinary mentor in the world.  With 23 restaurants across the globe and 18 Michelin stars, Ducasse continues to create restaurants, to build schools, and to push the boundaries of his 

profession with his boundless curiosity.  His quest is the perfect gastronomic restaurant in the Palace of Versailles, creating a modern vision of what the kings would have devised three centuries ago.

The film follows Ducasse on a journey of 2 years as the audience follows him around the world visiting his restaurants in Tokyo, the United States, Athens, China, the Philippines and elsewhere.  In the shadow is the opening of a new restaurant in Versailles with a menu ‘fit for kings’.

Despite the chef’s success, fame and wealth, Ducasse remains a humble man.  When asked about the ambition of being the ‘King of Gastronomy’ he replies that all he wants is to satisfy and leave memories of a good meal.  His idea of a good time is simple - to be alone in a garden with a vegetable.  To him being with a carrot or a courgette is to observe nature’s perfection.  He is an advocate for sustainable foods, with as little meat or sugar or dairy cream in his desserts.  He believes in change, working with a team to share and to come back to the same place.  Ducasse is shown as a wise man, not only excelling in gastronomy but in words and actions.  The film never shows him angry and hardly dissatisfied.  Ducasse is always journeying to observe, his aim to taste something he has never tasted before.

The doc is largely narrated by the director himself, who gives a good perspective on what is going on, on the screen.

There are lots to enjoy in this eye-opening documentary.  The one and foremost is the large assortment of foods on display.  Besides looking delicious, the food looks decorative and imaginative.  There are also lots to learn bout Ducasse the man and those inspired by him.  My personal best food scene is the sturgeon caviar segment.  It is explained that the best caviar in the world is from China waters, with  cultivation techniques imported from Iran.  The audience gets to witness a 10-year old bred sturgeon sliced open for its roe and how the caviar is eventually cooked in a oracular cylinder and brought to the dining table, in all its perfection.  Another superb segment has Ducasse having a meal with past-President Hollande as they plan the meal for the Climate Change Summit in Paris.  Hollande has his say in the film too.

The film contains a few contradictions.  Besides stressing Ducasse’s humility, there is a scene where he proudly walks across a garden in the Philippines with the locals carrying an umbrella for him to protect him from getting wet.  For sustainable food,s the harvesting of roe and destroying the sturgeon after looks like excessive decadence.

The Quest of the film’s title is the Master chef’s is the opening of his new restaurant.  This is where the film leads.  It is clearly not a biography of Ducasse.  Nothing is shown or revealed of his family or background except that he has a wife and 4 daughters, one of whom is shown on the screen as the father visits her on a farm she is in charged of.

The film culminates with the opening of the Versailles restaurant.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax0KtQzn4dc

De nouvelles tendances observées au Canada

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Category: Communauté - Community

Published: Tuesday, 05 June 2018 06:23

Written by Édition Nouvelles

En acceptant de répondre au questionnaire du recensement, vous avez contribué à ce qu'un record soit établi en matière de taux de réponse! Il est maintenant temps de regarder ce que vos données révèlent comme renseignements et réflexions sur le Canada. Voici quelques faits intéressants.

Un engouement pour les copropriétés : Associé à des tendances comme l'urbanisation, le secteur du logement connaît des changements, en particulier sur le nombre de copropriétés qui s'élèvent, au sens propre comme au sens figuré. Les ménages vivant en copropriété dans les régions métropolitaines ont connu un taux de croissance de plus de 16 % depuis 2011, et le tiers des logements privés occupés construits entre 2011 et 2016 étaient des copropriétés.

Des changements dans les déplacements : Les moyens que prennent les gens pour se rendre au travail changent. En effet, les gens sont plus nombreux qu'auparavant à utiliser le transport en commun. Près de 33 % des navetteurs utilisent un mode de transport durable — transport en commun, marche, vélo ou covoiturage — et les femmes sont plus susceptibles que les hommes d'utiliser un moyen de transport plus écologique.

Une main-d'œuvre aguerrie : Les Canadiens se dotent des outils nécessaires pour pouvoir occuper les emplois d'aujourd'hui. Parmi les Canadiens de 25 à 64 ans titulaires d'un diplôme d'études postsecondaires, 81,4 % choisissent des domaines importants pour la création d'une infrastructure sociale forte, comme l'enseignement, les communications, la justice, la santé et d'autres domaines.

Une population plutôt solitaire : Les ménages formés d'une seule personne représentent 28,2 % de tous les ménages canadiens, soit la proportion la plus élevée de personnes vivant seules depuis la Confédération, une tendance qui est semblable à celle observée dans d'autres pays, comme les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni. Pour la première fois, en 2016, les ménages formés d'une seule personne sont devenus le type de ménage le plus répandu, dépassant les couples avec enfants, dont le pourcentage est tombé à 26,5 %.

Des milieux de travail diversifiés : Une hausse de la représentation des diverses communautés ethniques se produit également dans le milieu du travail et de l'enseignement. Par exemple, plus de la moitié des immigrants récents sont titulaires d'un baccalauréat ou d'un grade supérieur, et les femmes forment maintenant la majorité des employés qui travaillent dans le secteur de la santé et de l'assistance sociale.

Pour obtenir davantage de renseignements, consultez le site statcan.gc.ca/recensement.

Benefits of raising your kids bilingual

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Category: Style de vie - Lifestyle

Published: Tuesday, 05 June 2018 06:37

Written by Édition Nouvelles

As parents, we want to offer our kids every advantage for a happy, healthy and successful life. Many think this means ensuring our children do well in math and science and doing better in school overall. But did you know that learning a second language like English or French also offers many unique rewards? Here are some reasons to raise your kids bilingual.

A better, bigger brain. Research shows learning a second language actually changes the size and structure of our brains. Speaking two or more languages is like mental exercise that trains the brain, leading to improved attention, memory skills, problem-solving abilities and multi-tasking.

Greater empathy. Bilingual people also have better social skills, allowing them to be more empathetic towards others and read them better. Experts think this is because bilingual people are better able to block out their feelings and ideas, allowing them to focus on those of others more easily and accurately.

Protection against illness. Your kids will have plenty of reasons to thank you for encouraging them to be bilingual when they get older. Studies show that being bilingual can delay the onset of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, for an average of five years. Bilingualism can also protect against brain injury — bilingual stroke survivors are twice more likely to experience cognitive recovery than monolingual people.

Practical benefits. Learning two languages when started early follows your kids in every sphere of their lives. Whether it's getting a good job, travelling to exciting destinations, experiencing more connections to different cultures and people, or contributing to diverse communities, a second language offers enrichment for a lifetime.

Since English and French are Canada's official languages, why not start with those? And because our official languages belong to everyone, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is holding public consultations and invites you to share your ideas online at officiallanguages.gc.ca.

Film Review: Let the Sunshine In

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Saturday, 26 May 2018 03:59

Written by Gilbert Seah

LET THE SUNSHINE IN (Un beau soleil intérieur)(France 2017) ***
Directed by Claire Denis

LET THE SUNSHINE IN has been touted by critics as Claire Denis in lighter form.  From the film’s opening scene with Juliette Binoche having sex with an older man taking too long to reach orgasm, lighter form might still be very serious to the average moviegoer.  Denis’ films as the director herself, is not always say to take, the director recently giving her interviewer for THE GUARDIAN a hard time at all the questions asked, but her films are often more rewarding and a challenge than the typical Hollywood kitsch.  LET THE SUNSHINE IN is not a comedy but a drama.  It follows its heroine, Isabelle (Juliette Binoche), a middle aged divorced painter living in Paris, as she looks for love.

Isabelle’s love encounters, each lasting some months or so.  The first is the banker (Xavier Beauvois), next, a good-looking actor (Nicolas Duvauchelle), then, a fellow artist (Alex Descas) and lastly her ex (Laurent Grevill).  The film can be divided into 4 separate segments bound by one theme followed by a conclusion.

For each of the segments and lovers, Isabelle exhibits the same personality - that of a head strong, intelligent woman wanting to find true love and a relationship but just meeting the wrong men.  The common trait is her frustration often leading to anger when she is unable to get what she wants.  She ends up ditching the lover and moving on to the next one.  It is interesting to note that she always starts off on a wrong footing.  The first one, she tries is a married man, another she picks up at a club, and another one her ex, whom she had, had before.

Denis allows her audience to see what is wrong with each man and emphasizes their faults.  The banker is seen to be the worst, abusing a waiter at the bar where they have a drink.  “Put the water there,” he insists to the waiter.  “I need hot water.”  He also has the gall to tell Isabelle that his wife is extraordinary but she only charming.  It takes great pleasure later to see Isabelle tell him off and slam the door in his face.

The film has a unexpected ending in the form of a segment involving Isabelle and a fortune teller played by no less than Gerard Depardieu.  Depardieu delivers a speech on Isabelle’s love lives even going down to specifics on whether a particular lover might or might not work out.  This ending looks like a cop-out with a too all written out conclusion dished out to the audience, which goes against the flow of the rest of the film.

Denis’ film is a very intriguing watch as Denis makes very emotional wrenching films often dealing with characters unable to get out of the rut their themselves have gotten themselves in as in CHOCOLAT, her first and one of there best films.  LET THE SUNSHINE IN is aided by an extraordinary and charming performance by her star Juliette Binoche.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps_Sau7xqQY