FILM ratatouille Ratatouille (2007) is an American computeranimated comedy film co-written and directed by Brad Bird. The title refers to a French dish, ratatouille , which is served at the end of the film and is also a play on words1 about the species of the main character. The film stars2 the voices of Patton Oswalt as Remy, Lou Romano as Linguini, Ian Holm as Skinner (the restaurant s dishonest current head-chef and Gusteau s former sous-chef3), Janeane Garofalo as Colette Tatou (the staff s only female chef), and Peter O Toole as Anton Ego (top restaurant critic). A SYNOPSYS An idealistic and ambitious provincial rat named Remy, who has a wonderful sense of smell and a sophisticated palate, dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family s wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat. When he ends up in the sewer4 beneath one of Paris finest restaurants, made famous by his culinary idol Auguste Gusteau (author of Anyone Can Cook ), the rodent gourmet5 finds himself ideally placed to realize his dream. At Gusteau s, Remy meets Alfredo Linguini, an inexpert young man employed as a garbage boy6, who desperately needs to keep his job at the restaurant, despite his lack of cooking abilities. To save the soup that Linguini accidentally messes up, Remy throws in some ingredients; the soup is a success and Linguini s career as a chef guided like a marionette by Remy hidden under his chef s hat is born. 1. p lay on words: a joke about the different meanings of a word or about words which sound alike but have different meanings 2. to star: to present in a leading role 3. sous-chef: kitchen assistant 4. sewer: underground canal for carrying water and human waste away from buildings 5. gourmet: food connoisseur 6. garbage boy: young man in charge of taking out refuse 7. fur: hair covering of some animals 8. paws: animal feet 9. pun: play on words 262 Module 6 COMPOUNDS The animation team worked alongside chef Thomas Keller in order to learn the art of cooking. Pet rats were kept at the studio for more than a year so that the animators could study the movement of their fur7, noses, ears, paws8 and tails. The names Auguste Gusteau are anagrams of each other and the surname is a pun9 on gustation , the technical term for the sense of taste. Alfredo is a pasta sauce often served over fettuccine, named after its inventor, Italian chef Alfredo di Lelio. Linguini (also spelled Linguine) is a form of long narrow pasta, similar to spaghetti. The bad guy in the movie Head Chef Skinner was named after behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner, who was known for the Skinner Box, where rats were placed and trained to push a button for food. The shop window exposing dead rats actually exists. It is the window of Destruction des Animaux, located 8, Rue des Halles in Paris 1st arrondissement. BEFORE WATCHING 1. Do you have a sophisticate palate or are you easy to please and eat anything? 2. Have you ever tried the cuisine of a renowned chef? If so, what was your experience like?Do you ever watch TV programs with celebrity chefs? How would you define the character traits of some of them: eccentric, creative, amusing, serious, severe, pleasant? What else? Do they put on airs (pretend to be more important than they really are)?