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An elegant study of devious mind games and emotional perversion, A Matter of Taste makes the strangest of psychological dynamics completely plausible and utterly involving.

It's the merest chance that brings Nicolas Rivière and Frédéric Delamont together. A strikingly handsome ne'er-do-well with a history of odd jobs, including one as a department store Santa, Rivière (Jean Pierre Lorit, Three Colours: Red) is temporarily working as a waiter in a swank Parisian restaurant when a demanding customer asks him to precisely identify the ingredients in a troublesome appetizer. The customer turns out to be Delamont (Bernard Giraudeau, Ridicule), a powerful and wealthy tycoon with all the toys money can buy, from a private jet to a celebrated personal chef (Charles Berling). Yet there is something lacking in his life, a lack he may not be able to put his finger on, but one he senses Nicolas can fill. Rivière is flattered when he is offered the job of "personal advisor to the CEO", but what Delamont really wants is something more complex.

Anyone who enjoyed the malevolent machinations of The Grifters and Dangerous Liasons will be entranced by this extraordinary film. The unspoken, strange attachment between the two men is not conventional, nor easily described, but the connection (and the results) lingers in the mind long after the film has ended. A Matter of Taste was nominated for five Cesars, including best picture, best actor, and best screenplay - indeed Giraudeau's remarkable performance, conveying a creepy combination of warmth and distance, iciness and affection, works on the audiences as successfully as it works on his victim. Also, be warned: the film contains frequent (and mouth watering) depictions of explicit cuisine!

"A mental thriller about the loss of identity - this complex and cruel confrontation between two individuals is exciting and unpredicatable." (Laurent Djian - L'Evénement du Jeudi).

2000 France (90 min.)

Directed by Bernard Rapp
Writing Credits: Philippe Ballant, Bernard Rapp
Cast: Bernard Giraudeau, Jean Pierre Lotit, Florence Thomassin, Charles Berling, Jean Pierre Léaut
Distributed by: Pyramide SA.