Meatumentary by Franck Ribière, France 2014
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2827708/?ref_=fn_ft_tt_1
The way by which we eat beef has changed throughout history, and the 20:th century saw a shift towards leaner, and thereby less flavoury meat, where quality has needed to budge in favour of quantity. Perhaps the pendulum is beginning to swing back, and Franck Ribière travels the globe in search of the world’s best steak.
Whether the shaky camera and the crappy and sometimes unsynced sound are deliberate to give that ‘documentary’ feeling or just a result of budget priorities I leave unsaid. However, soon enough one is pulled into the world of enthusiastic breeders and butchers worldwide, who strive towards a future in which cattle care not only produces tasty meat, but also one in which the environment and small businesses thrive. Personally, as I just returned home from Argentina, I hold the belief that the free-range, grassfed cows of the Pampas (many hundred green miles) give the tastiest meat evah, but Ribière’s journey shows that dedication and craftsmanship can conjure excellent meat in, for instance, Japan, Sweden and Scotland. Some of the people we get to meet are more colourful than others, yet it’s interesting the whole time. I now feel that I want to, and should, raise the bar on the quality of beef I indulge in from now on, and perchance learn a thing or two about cutting and marbling. But first and foremost I got a big craving for a nice steak, and so had my Google Maps out as soon as the credits had rolled, in search of a nearby steak house. Do not watch this film on an empty stomach!
Bechdel test: Fail
4 tummies of 6
