Customer Reviews

Food of Love

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

OK, so why isn't Kevin Bishop a huge star. I've never heard of him before this film and bought the dvd in search of a decent gay film. Bishop's performace is letter perfect in his portrayal of a young man's discovery of the power of his sexuality in his own life and in the lives of others. The courage of the filmakers in making a film that is true to the sensuality of attraction and the duplicity of love is wonderful to see. I gave this film 5 stars because it stayed with me for days afterwards. It's nice to see a movie that tells a story with gay characters that has universal themes. Outstanding.

All I can say to really sum up how I feel about this movie is: AMAZING. Being a fan of Kevin Bishop's (Paul Porterfield) is what motivated me to see this movie. And it was definitely worth it. The movie is based on a book called "The Page Turner", by David Leavitt, and beautifully tells the story of an 18 year old, Julliard bound Californian (Paul Porterfield) and his passionate feelings for a famous pianist named Richard Kennington (actor Paul Rhys). The acting was quite phenomenal, and Kevin Bishop kept things realistic. This is a movie most anyone can enjoy; it is simply a story of love and longing. I like to watch this movie over and over again; the emotions are projected so well on all of the actors' parts, and the story really touches my heart.

I caught part of this film on pay-per-view and was so intrigued I ended up buying the DVD. It is a very complex coming-of-age story about a young pianist, Paul Porterfield (Kevin Bishop), who falls in love with his idol and mentor.

Certainly NOT a typical gay-themed film filled with quirky, offbeat sidekicks. What a relief!

Shot entirely in Spain, which stands in for San Francisco and New York, the first half of the film is very visual. Some of the stilted dialogue can be attributed to the all-European cast and their "American" accents.

The DVD transfer is a little grainy, but it is in letterbox format. Some great interviews with the cast and director are included as extras on the DVD.

The intricacies of the relationships between the characters is engaging and this film does hold your interest from start to finish. It is so very familiar is many ways as to what does happen, that you become very empathetic to the main characters. A very engaging and enjoyable film.

The film has strong possibilities but doesn't quite accomplish what it set out to do. As with many independent films, certain aspects of the filmmaking process have been sacrificed (typically because of budget reasons), so the film winds up stagey and stiff at points. Despite a few strong performances, I found the acting unconvincing on the whole. While I have not read the book, the characterizations felt incomplete.

Certainly this isn't a bad film, but it simply fails to satisfy.

Very enjoyable and sincere effort to describe the thoughts and feelings

associated with a young man's awakening sexuality and coming out as a gay man.

Interesting and true parallels within the psychology used in the screen writing regarding the fact that the participants ie mother. lover, aquaintances and the young man; all 'know' about, and are aware of their individual 'problems', but cannot deal with these 'problems' until they help each to other bring them into the open.

Whether this be the young man's acceptance and expression of his homosexuality, or the mother's discovery and acknowledging of this; or the young man's realisation that he will not be pursueing a dreamt-of carreer and of his realisation of the existence of the relationship that the object of his desire is already in.

The point being that we always 'know' but are unable to admit these kinds of situations and circumstances in our lives until we assist each other (supportively) to name, own and accept the matters. Then we can relate to each other and go on to live, be real and be contented, happy and find peace with ourselves and with each other.

Kevin Bishop as the young gay man, is very good at expressing the passions and frustrations that he and so many other gay men go through at that age and stage of their lives.

Not that this movie is heavy on the message, or in any particular way dark. In fact I found it to be a 'feel good' movie. They have their difficulties, but work on them, so you have the sense that they will get through together in the end.

I must say that he is also a very good looking man, but this does not distract from the sincerity of his acting performance. Nor does it give any impression that he is being used, or using the older men with whom he has sexual/emotional relations. On the other hand the older men are attracted to him for his looks, talents, and pleasantness of manner; while he is attracted to the older men for their support,assistance and encouragement of his career, and no doubt their experience and worldly sophistication. An entirely believable set of relationships. After all, if you are 18 years of age, then just about everyone that you meet or make love too is going to be older than you are.

These gay men are generally good for and to each other, and neither shallow or selfish about their dealings with each other. The way it really is with the majority of reasonably mature and caring individuals.

Thank you to the director, writers, and cast. Well done.

Put together glorious Barcelona, wonderful chamber music, and a great score, and the stage is beautifully set for an intimate story that, no matter how hard it tries, does not measure up to its promise.

Manipulation and secrecy drive "Food of Love". Everyone has his (or her) own agenda of desires and uses everything to get what he wants. No one is up front with anyone. Caught in the middle is semi-hunky 18-year-old Paul (perfectly played by Kevin Bishop, an aspiring concert pianist who turns pages for turning-forty pianist Richard Kennington (tall, ghoulish Paul Rhys). Sparks fly across the keyboard during the performance, but they are thwarted by the young man's hyper mother hovering about.

They meet again in Barcelona. For Richard it's lust at first sight. He seduces Paul with the obligatory back-rub leading to bed inside of five minutes. Even so, the love scenes are intimate, quiet, and well-done. Paul announces that he is in love on the spot, and gazes at Richard with his startling eyes. He gets his first lesson in life when Richard suddenly and coldly abandons him without a word of explanation, and returns to his lover/manager, Joseph, in New York. It was, apparently, just a one-week stand for Richard. Paul's wise old Russian piano teacher tries to cheer him up by telling him that great artists are like vampires. Oh, I almost forgot: Paul's mother falls for Richard, too. It is, perhaps, her ghastly flirtation that drives him away.

Their orbits collide again six months later when Paul attends Juilliard. He's pretty busy in New York. He watches a classmate get a big manager (Joseph). He has an affair with one older man and sex with another (Joseph). It is suggested by their evasive demeanor that Paul's older man and the ubiquitous Joseph have a history, too! Paul's mother shows up to 'save' him from Richard's clutches. But nobody ever fills poor Paul in on the machinations that are driving his life, and affecting his music.

As a graduate of Juilliard in piano, I found Ventura Pons' film (his first in English) a vivid reminder of the musical demi-monde in New York with its thinly veiled artistic Darwinism.

The photography throughout is stunning, but the disc itself has some strange flaws. The soundtrack is ever-so-slightly out of synch, and is at times overly loud while at others barely audible. Still, it's a nice little movie. Should probably get one less star, but I had to throw in an extra for the Three B's: (beautiful Kevin) Bishop, Barcelona, and Brahms.

Food of Love is difficult to sum up in a few words. It is intimate and earnest, but never lives up to its promise. I wanted so much to like this film, but it has so many flaws it's hard to know where to begin in listing them.

The story seems simple enough: boy meets pianist, falls in love, gets dumped. But add in a few other ingredients -- like the boy's hyper neurotic mother also falling for the pianist; the pianist having a lover (his manager) who also sleeps with the boy; the boy having a lover while he's sleeping with the manager -- and you have a real Freudian stew. What holds this fractious story together is secrecy: nobody tells anybody anything about anyone else. Why state a simple truth when a deception will do?

Another problem is that all the leads are British actors playing Americans as seen through the eyes of a Spanish director, which goes a long way in explaining the stilted characterizations. There certainly should have been a classical music consultant to at least tell the actors how to properly pronounce the names of composers and pieces, not to mention how to place a piano in a recital situation. The script is oddly stiff in general, which is surprising since it comes from an American novel. Some of the dialogue is so arcane that it cannot be understood it after repeated viewings.

The nicest thing about the movie is semi-hunky Kevin Bishop who plays the boy, Paul. He is adorably preppy, has a lovely body, and truly startling grey-blue eyes with which he gazes at Richard (tall, ghoulish Paul Rhys as the turning-forty pianist). It's hard to understand why Richard abandons this beautiful boy without a word of explanation, until you remember the mother's ghastly flirtation.

The locations and the music are magnificent but the disc itself has problems: the dialogue is ever-so-slightly out of sync; the sound is over-loud at some points, and inaudible in others. But the film brilliantly captures the classical music demi-monde of New York -- the elegant Central Park West apartments, the predatory older men who run the business, the exclusive hierarchy which devours young artists who want to compete but cannot due to inexperience or inaptitude for the game -- with its thinly veiled artistic Darwinism.

Still, having said all that, I like this movie! Probably only deserves three stars but got an extra, with thanks, for the Three B's: (beautiful Kevin) Bishop, Barcelona, and Brahms.

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. The erotic scenes toward the beginning between Paul and his "hero" was very moving. The delicate dialoge and tender touching, massage and kissing was something I have rarely seen.
The many bits of nudity were also very pleasurable.

It was an easy to watch film. A great gay date film.

If you love classical music, this is a good movie to buy. However, I had problems with the unbelievable storyline, the sterotyping, the lack of a noticable plot, and the main character (Paul) acting like crack addict with his mood swings between seducing older men to further his career. The sound quality was very bad unless the music was playing. At one point I found myself looking to turn on the subtitles (there weren't any) because it was impossible to make out the dialogue. This is a huge disappointment from TLA Releasing.