LWLies 85: Food & Film Spe­cial – On Sale Now!

Pro­duc­ing an issue of Lit­tle White Lies under lock­down con­di­tions has been a chal­leng­ing and excit­ing task, a lit­tle like com­plet­ing a Rubix cube against the clock while blind­fold­ed and whistling ​‘Frère Jacques’ on a loop. Okay, maybe not that tough. With cin­e­mas closed, release sched­ules oblit­er­at­ed, the film indus­try on fur­lough and most peo­ple right­ly squir­relling away in their homes to safe­guard from viral infec­tion, it meant that the option of mak­ing what you might see as a ​“reg­u­lar” issue of the mag­a­zine was not there to be taken.

Yet neces­si­ty, as they say, is the moth­er of inven­tion, and so the LWLies brain trust rubbed their heads togeth­er over a video con­fer­enc­ing plat­form and came up with some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent: an issue ded­i­cat­ed to the inter­sec­tions between the worlds of food and the worlds of film.

This idea was born from the fact that, dur­ing those ear­ly months of COVID lock­down, most of the world were in social uni­son and con­ver­sa­tions that peo­ple were hav­ing tend­ed to be about films and TV shows they had streamed, or recipes that they had tried with vary­ing degrees of suc­cess. It was as if, when the tak­en-for-grant­ed lux­u­ry of human con­tact was vio­lent­ly removed from the equa­tion of how we live our dai­ly lives, all that was left was food and film.

This issue is a cel­e­bra­tion of how food is depict­ed on screen, how food can be used as a sto­ry­telling device in nar­ra­tive cin­e­ma, it’s about cook­books writ­ten by movie folk, and the eat­ing habits of movie folk, and how food is pre­pared, pho­tographed and served on movie sets, and of course, an answer to that eter­nal ques­tion: why does Brad Pitt spend so much time eat­ing in his movies? It’s a way for read­ers to expe­ri­ence the vic­ar­i­ous plea­sures of a hearty meal with friends, but also a look at how one of the most pop­u­lar art­forms of the mod­ern age deals with a rit­u­al that is vital to exis­tence, but is so often tak­en for granted.

On the cover

This spe­cial cov­er was cre­at­ed by LWLies’ own art direc­tor Lau­rène Boglio and it depicts the inte­ri­or of a fic­tion­al Lit­tle White Lies restau­rant, whose walls are bedecked with secret clues as to the con­tent inside. Din­ing at the cen­tre of the image are our star inter­vie­wees Bar­ry Jenk­ins, direc­tor of Moon­light and If Beale Street Could Talk, and Lulu Wang, direc­tor of The Farewell.

In this issue

Acts of Love
A per­son­al con­ver­sa­tion between cinema’s pre­mière super­cou­ple, Bar­ry Jenk­ins and Lulu Wang.

My Din­ner With…
Six mag­nif­i­cent movie folk recall a mem­o­rable meal.

Col­lage de Cui­sine
Ace cut-up artists Ben Giles, Ori­ane Dufort and Zach Sebas­t­ian remag­ine icon­ic scenes from movies by reap­pro­pri­at­ing images of food.

A Feast for the Sens­es
Food his­to­ri­an and artist Tasha Marks explores how see­ing food and images of eat­ing on screen can trans­late into real world sen­so­ry explosions.

Vin­tage Vit­tles
Car­o­line Golum heads on a cook­ing odyssey with a copy of Pho­to­play magazine’s 1927 ​‘Cook­book – 150 Favourite Recipes of the Stars’ under her arm.

The Gour­mands
Christi­na New­land offers a short his­to­ry of the movie stars who loved to live high on the hog.

Table Talk
Sophie Monks Kauf­man meets the mak­ers of a bril­liant new film which decon­structs the emo­tions and the­atre that are the unin­vit­ed guest at every din­ner party.

Blood Feast
Most of us would rather not know what goes into movie gore, but as Charles Bramesco learns, much of it could be served at your aver­age picnic.

A Mat­ter of Taste
The hushed domes­tic dra­mas of Japan­ese mae­stro Ozu Yasu­jiro are pow­ered by extra­or­di­nary and emo­tion­al din­ing scenes, argues Trevor Johnston.

Meals on Reels
Adam Wood­ward meets three pro­fes­sion­al film folk to explore the dif­fer­ent, prac­ti­cal ways that they pre­pare and exper­i­ment with food for the camera.

Le Grande Nosh
Guest restau­rant review­er Jack Abel­ham­mer (along with his ghost writer David Jenk­ins) tours Europe and the US to dis­cov­er the finest fic­tion­al film eateries.

A Brad Pitt Eat­ing Odyssey
One of the world’s most famous movie stars loves noth­ing more than to non­cha­lant­ly eat on screen. Han­nah Wood­head inves­ti­gates further.

Illus­tra­tions in this issue by Lau­rène Boglio, Stéphanie Sergeant, Sophie Mo, Emma Bale­bela

In the back section…

John David Wash­ing­ton gives Kam­bole Camp­bell some top secret whis­pers from his time on the set of Christo­pher Nolan’s eager­ly antic­i­pat­ed Tenet.

Bruno Dumont reveals to Ele­na Laz­ic how you go about mak­ing a new and excit­ing cin­e­mat­ic state­ment about Joan of Arc.

Claire Oak­ley talks to Ele­na Laz­ic about how she went about mak­ing her intrigu­ing and atmos­pher­ic debut fea­ture, Make Up.

All illus­tra­tions by Sal­vador Ver­a­no Calderón

In review…

Ludovic Bernard’s In Your Hands
Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods
Nin­ian Doff’s Boyz in the Wood
Sal­vador Simó’s Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Tur­tles
Thomas Clay’s Fan­ny Lye Deliver’d
Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc
DW Young’s The Book­sellers
Matt Wolf’s Space­ship Earth
On the Record by Kir­by Dick and Amy Zier­ing
Carmine Street Gui­tars by Ron Mann
Richard Tanne’s Chem­i­cal Hearts
Claire Oakley’s Make Up
Xavier Dolan’s Matthias & Maxime
Alex Thompson’s Saint Frances

LWLies 85 is on sale 10 July. Order your copy and sub­scribe here.