Food

• Watch Pressure, particularly paying attention to the way food is used in the film, for example, in the breakfast scene and/or the scene in Portobello Road Market. Think about what kind of tensions the use of food reflects, and why the director uses it in this way.
• Watch Burning an Illusion, particularly the scene in the restaurant when Del and Pat go on their first date. How is food used here to show the developing relationship between the couple?
• Within both films food is used to indicate values. What is signified by Tony's preference for chips? What is Pat saying when she orders wine on her first date with Del?
• Do you think the directors use food in the same way or are they making different points about cultural conventions and experiences?

Now read Joel's analysis of the way food is used symbolically in each of the films. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the points he makes? Are there any other films that you are familiar with that use food in a similar way?

Early on in both films, food acts as an indicator of cultural disjuncture. In Pressure it is at breakfast, between Tony and his elder brother Colin. In Burning an Illusion it is at Pat and Del's first date, in the 'best black restaurant in town'. Many mainstream and arthouse films have used food as a cultural signifier. Juzo Itami's classic Tampopo (1985, Japan) explores some of the issues surrounding gender and cultural identity in Japan through the politics and etiquette of food. Itami also structures his movie, an eclectic composition of stories, in a way that is as different from traditional mainstream film structures, as a Japanese Bento Box is from a hamburger.

In Steven Spielberg's Hollywood blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, USA) there is a more conventional use of food as a plot device. At a banquet scene in which Jones and his cohorts are invited to dine with the young maharaja, his advisers and a British military representative to India, the meal, a highly unlikely assemblage, consists of a lavish and extremely debauched spread that includes giant beetles for starters, snake surprise, eyeball soup and chilled monkey brains for dessert. As expected, Jones remains unfazed by the fare, the British representative shows stoic disdain, while Jones' companions (a woman and a child) squirm and shriek in front of every dish laid before them, aghast as their hosts' rapaciously poke and prod food with their fingers, dig things out with their nails and burp and slurp their way through a frenzied display of barbarism. The overwhelming decadence of their performance is in complete contrast to that of their Western guests and serves as a metaphor and forewarning for their underlying savagery, which will unfold later on in the movie. By contrast, in the very next scene we see Jones partially seduce his love interest with a 'civilised' bowl of fruit, which displays none of the exotic produce one would expect to find from a platter on the Indian subcontinent.

Neither, Pressure nor Burning an Illusion employs food to represent such a clear, over-the-top cultural binary; nevertheless food and culinary etiquette operate, in both films, as signifiers of cultural disenfranchisement.

Pressure

In the breakfast scene, at the start of Pressure, Colin confronts Tony over his choice of bacon and eggs as a meal because it exemplifies his Englishness which Colin sees as a dilution of his 'blackness'. Colin instead chooses to eat the zaboca (avocado), which we have just seen him take from his father's shop, lamenting how they grow on trees all over Trinidad. Colin further asserts that he eats 'black food', unlike the typically English fish and chips that Tony so loves. Colin uses this situation to question Tony's identity (pointing to a Gary Glitter poster on the wall) and self-awareness. When Tony refers to the fruit as an 'avocado', Colin launches a verbal attack, asking Tony what he really knows, again evoking images of Trinidad, where zaboca 'grow wild'.

The scene can also be read as a metaphor for the beginning of Tony's journey of self-discovery in the film. As the argument between the two brothers peaks, Tony asks 'What's wrong with bacon and eggs, fish and chips and Gary Glitter?' The question is a precursor to those deeper questions Tony will later be forced to ask of himself as he experiences a growing sense of alienation and self-awareness.

The breakfast scene also uses the preparation of food and the rituals of consumption in a symbolic way that compounds the distance between the two brothers. Before we even see Tony we are presented with a close up of the bacon and eggs being prepared for him by his mother, as she screams for him to get ready for his forthcoming interview. This early display of cultural acquiescence in the film confirms an association between Bopsie, the boys' mother and an unquestioning desire to have her youngest son 'fit in' to the British way of life, no matter what the cost. While her stance is not specifically highlighted or questioned until later in the film, here she is seen preparing a meal that no other member of the family seems to enjoy, apart from Tony. By contrast, Colin's ritual preparation of his 'natural' meal is presented as a confirmation of his Caribbean roots, reinforced by the use of his hands when eating, a stark contrast to Tony's 'correct' (in his eyes) and staid use of a knife and fork.

Later on in the film, after Tony has returned from the unsuccessful interview, Bopsie interrogates him about his continued lack of success on the job front, reiterating the sacrifice she and his father have made for him and the benefits, as she sees it, that now lay before him. 'You born here, you have an English education, nothing should stop you.' Both are unaware of the forces working against him and here the director again uses Tony's food preference as a means of displaying his immersion into British mainstream culture. Tony rejects his mother's offer of the rice and peas she has cooked for him in favour of a trip to the chippie and, despite her initial resistance, she finally concedes, asking if he has enough money for chips as he walks out the door. Furthermore, in the next scene Tony appears, alone and dejected, walking along the canal and taking seemingly little solace, if any, in his bag of chips.

Chips are used ironically throughout the movie to emphasise Tony's disenfranchisement, both from the mainstream of society and his Caribbean roots. After meeting an old school friend, Sheila, at a nightclub Tony walks her home and, along the way she suggests they stop for chicken and chips. Due to his financial situation Tony says that he will just have chips. Sheila waves this aside insisting that the meal will be on her as she is working. While Sheila in buying the food, Tony does not even enter the café, a KFC, instead he cuts a forlorn figure, as he stares at her through the shop window, as if doubting his self-worth and earning ability.

The next day Tony is labelled 'a fish and chips man' when upon meeting a group of his 'West Indian' friends under the shadow of the Westway flyover near Portobello Road, he is asked if he would like to join them as they are about to go and buy some patties (a Jamaican meat pasty). He accepts the invitation though stating that he doesn't want any 'pâté', much to his friends' amusement. Even though, he is not ridiculed or made to feel alienated for this, it is clear that Tony was born here (in Britain) culturally as well as physically, while many of his friends still hold a greater cultural attachment to the Caribbean.

As they walk through the market, various members of the group disappear, only to return with stolen fruit, much to Tony's surprise. Here again food is used as a social signifier. This is not a malicious criminal act, though there does seem to be an element of adolescent horseplay involved, but is a result of necessity - stealing to eat. However, it is compounded and has more serious consequences later in the film. Surprisingly, we do not see the shop where the West Indian food (patties) is purchased, as Tony stops to talk to his brother, whom he meets selling an activist newspaper, while the rest of the group move on. When they return, patties in hand, Tony, who again has been berated by Colin for 'not thinking black' is presented, not with a patty but a bag of chips. The signification of the chips here is again important, as Tony is accepted as an integral part of the social group yet, to some extent, culturally distanced from it.

The acquisition of food, by this group of young men and the social and political implications associated with it, take on even greater significance when Tony, returning from yet another unsuccessful interview, meets his friends, on the Harrow Road, as they are on their way to the supermarket. On arrival, the ever naïve Tony is posted outside to keep watch without realising what is taking place. As the rest of the group execute their plan to procure food, Tony leaves his assigned post, only to send a pile of tins crashing to the ground, alerting the shop staff to the activities of his cohorts. As the boys panic and take flight, dragging Tony behind them, one of them, Jacko, trips and is apprehended by the police.

After a desperate dash, the rest of the friends escape and find refuge in a ramshackle house upon which Tony breaks down and starts to cry about his unwitting contribution to an illegal act and, as he perceives it, his newly acquired 'criminal status'. When confronted about his actions at the store, his defence, that he didn't know what was happening, is greeted with an incredulous, 'How could you be so stupid?'. The notion that any of his friends need to steal in order to eat comes as a complete shock to Tony, despite the realities of their lives being played out under his very nose. The plate of food waiting for him whenever he gets home represents the relatively cosseted world that his peers can only dream of.

This disjuncture is compounded in the next scene when Tony finally returns home, as his first port of call is the kitchen and the pot of food left for him on the cooker by his mother. As he sits down with his plate of rice and peas he once more enters into a debate with his brother, as Colin points, ironically, to the fact that Tony is finally eating 'black food' and using pepper sauce to boot. Yet, though heated, this is not the head-on clash of opinions that we have witnessed previously between the two, and for the first time in the movie, we start to see Tony engage and even take onboard some of the issues being raised. At last Colin's rhetoric about black empowerment finds a tangible reference point with Tony when he hears that Colin has already been trying to find legal representation for Jacko - funded by raising money from the sales of the newspaper and locally organised dances.

As with the breakfast scene earlier, the etiquette of food consumption in the film is again brought into play as we now see Tony eating with a spoon, not a knife and fork. In the Caribbean spoons are often used with meals, largely due to the high consumption of sauces, casseroles, marinades and soups. However, in this scene, although no mention is made of it, the spoon represents more than a mere utilitarian choice but a cultural, as well as sibling, realignment. The spoon and pepper sauce are later reinforced as icons when they reappear at a political meeting which Tony not only attends, but where he also offers a considered political point of view, finally receiving the acknowledgement of his elders. Still, the rift between Tony and Colin is not fully healed and as Tony begins to assert himself, the process unfolds gradually. He questions Colin's position on interracial relationships and responds to his brother's question about another interview, asking whether there is any difference 'starving for poverty or Black Power?'

Burning an Illusion

Throughout Pressure food is used to represent Tony's position and understanding in relation to his environment, his peers and towards himself. In Burning an Illusion, food is less prominent, yet it is used strategically to emphasise crucial points of development between Pat and Del, their relationship with each other and society at large.

When Del finally convinces Pat to go out with him, they go to a restaurant - part of a traditional 'courtship ritual'.

It should be remembered that the late 1970s and early 1980s was a very different time. The term 'multiculturalism' was not yet in vogue and despite the plethora of Chinese and Indian takeaways that were beginning to appear it would be at least 20 years before chicken tikka masala replaced fish and chips as the British national dish. Internationally, Britain was viewed as a culinary backwater, with London lagging far behind other international cities, such as Paris, New York and Rome. So Del's choice of a 'black restaurant' let alone the 'best in town' is significant in defining an emergent cultural theme in Britain as a whole, not just its Caribbean/black British community.

The initial conversation between Del and Pat is awkward, to say the least. Del smokes all the way through the meal (another signifier of the times, when there was no restriction on smoking in public spaces) and has little to say, with Pat doing her best to strike up a conversation. The initial distance and to some degree alienation between Del and Pat is compounded when she asks if he always uses a spoon when eating his food, and is met with complete silence from Del. It is evident, from the outset of the film, that Pat has quiet clear aspirational goals based upon traditional middle class values and that she views Del's use of a spoon, instead of a knife and fork, to eat his meal as somewhat uncouth.

After finishing their meal the waiter asks if they would like anything else; Pat says she would like some wine, pointing randomly at the list when it is presented. Del makes no comment and remains stoutly uninterested, even when the waiter reappears with the bottle, displays the label and commends the couple on the quality of their choice, before pouring a sample into Del's glass for him to taste. Del's reaction is minimal, merely 'cutting' his eye at the small amount of wine in the glass before Pat takes a sip, declaring, 'It's nice'.

While this scene doesn't provide the confrontations that were witnessed in Pressure between Tony and Colin, it nevertheless is indicative of issues surrounding cultural 'placement' and/or alienation that derive from the use of food as a narrative device in both films. The scene is used to unmask the façade created by each party to impress the other but it can also be read in terms of the broader cultural rift that will unfold in the film, around issues of assimilation and alienation.

Del 's look of disdain at the wine in his glass, not understanding that he was meant to taste it before being poured a full glass, is reminiscent of countless comedy sketches on British TV shows of that era, but here it is not played for laughs. In fact, the complete opposite is true: Del seems a little out of his depth within the rarefied atmosphere of the restaurant, in contrast to Pat's apparent sophistication. Yet the scene contains a number of broader cultural issues that, with hindsight, hold a certain historical currency. The consumption of wine in Britain three decades ago, prior to the boom in wine bars, was still largely alien to many people. Beer was the unchallenged national beverage and the pub was the bastion of (particularly) white, male, working-class culture, so the choices were very limited for people, like many Caribbean immigrants and their descendants, who did not embrace the dominant drinking culture.

When the ice melts finally between Del and Pat, they strike up a meaningful conversation, discussing each other's jobs and aspirations. Del admits that he doesn't really like wine, only for Pat to confess that she doesn't either. In the final, upbeat shot of the scene they are both laughing.