The Hundred-Foot Journey

A story from the director of such hits as "Chocolate" and "Hatiko: Best Friend". Madame Malory (Helen Mirren), the owner of the Weeping Willow restaurant, is proud that her establishment has been awarded a Michelin label. In addition, its waiters serve meals even to the President of France himself! When a family of emigrants from India moves into the town, whose main kitchen belongs to Madame Mallory, a little chaos and... competition comes into her life! The fact is that the head of the Indian family plans to open his restaurant, which will be distinguished by national cuisine, which, according to the husband, will be a proper competition for "weeping willow". The passion subsides when Helen Mirren's heroine sees in her son a genius chef, her rival, whom she, with her diamond taste, undertakes to teach the peculiarities of French and not only cuisine. Read more. One of the main features of director Lasse Hallström's films is that he bases his works on already existing stories taken from literature. "Spices and Passions" was no exception, and the plot of his new film is based on the bestseller by Richard C. Morais. The originator of the idea to make a film based on this author's book was Juliet Blake, who, after reading Morais' work, was very moved by the story of a kind of tolerance through the reconciliation of two nationalities and cuisines. Only the feature film, the main producer of which was a woman, was preceded by a documentary. Her desire to transfer the story to the big screen was picked up by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, who acted as producers. Lasse Hallström was approved as the film's director at the beginning of July 2013. Famous chefs, both of French and general cuisine, and specifically of Indian cuisine, were specially invited for consultations. For Charlotte Le Bon, whose heroine the Indian Hassan falls in love with, the role in "Spice and Passion" was the first, if we take the film of American production. She was approved for the role by Steven Spielberg himself, who accidentally came across an article about her in one of the magazines after the casting.