This time of year, cravings for cozy indoors activities, like movie-watching, tend to dominate. If your appetite is especially large, we recommend putting aside a chunk of time and heading downtown to VIFF for a screening of Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros – it’s a veritable filmic feast!

The new documentary by the 93-year old prolific nonagenarian filmmaker, Fred Wiseman, follows the day-to-day and behind-the-scenes of its titular (three-Michelin-star, four-generation family-run) French restaurant, Les Troisgros, over the course of several weeks during the spring of 2022. It’s a set-up that positions Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros to be required watching for anyone seriously interested in gastronomy past and present. Food-lovers and pleasure-seekers, too, this one is for you!

Be forewarned though that, like any proper feast, this film requires time – four hours of it (the film’s running time). Which means that some extra thought and preparation – of both your hunger situation and schedule – is probably a good idea: going with the large popcorn option, lining your stomach with a good meal beforehand, and/or setting yourself up with a reservation for a nice meal somewhere nearby afterwards are some suggestions (even watching the 1-minute-39-second-long trailer below on an empty stomach is slightly masochistic!) But we think it should be well worth it.

There are four 1pm matinee screenings of Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros slated for the next couple of weeks (January 5th, 11th, 13th and 14th), plus a Tuesday, January 9th evening screening that coincides with dinner time (starting at 6:30pm) – so choose wisely and start strategizing now! Tickets and more info can be found here.

VIFF Centre

Neighbourhood: Yaletown

1181 Seymour St.

Box Office Helpline: 604-683-3456 (Mon-Fri, 12-5pm)

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