February 8, 2021

More about driving from Los Angeles to Colorado -- we were somewhere in Utah, I think. In the mountains, dark, moonless. Wind kicking up fine powdery snow. And the stars were so numerous and bright you could see them all the way down the horizon. I had my husband pull over so we could turn off the car and look, but the wind almost bent the drivers door backwards, and we decided to just head on. 

I read the screenplay for RATATOUILLE for class. I've been keeping a Script Log (a Slog) along with my Mlog and Blog. Going to do that here. 

RATATOUILLE

2007

Written by: Brad Bird

Original Story by: Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird

Read: 2/6/2021

        Remy, a French country rat part of a big and tight-knit colony of rats, has a highly developed sense of smell and taste. He doesn't want to steal garbage anymore. He wants to be a chef like his late idol, Auguste Gusteau, who's cookbook is called "Anyone Can Cook." Remy gets separated from his family and makes his way to Gusteau's restaurant where he starts to do just that. He teams up with Linguini, the newly-hired garbage boy. Remy controls Linguini from under his Toque, like a marionette, and Linguini passes as a human for Remy. The new chef at the restaurant, Skinner, has directed the company in a frozen foods direction, but with Remy cooking, buzz returns. The critics love his food. 

        Eventually the toughest critic of them all, Anton Ego, comes to the restaurant. All the cooks -- except for Colette -- leave when Linguini and Remy's arrangement gets found out. But fortunately, Remy's rat clan comes to his rescue. The rats and Colette cook in the kitchen under Remy's guidance, and Linguini serves the whole restaurant on roller blades. Ego makes it the chef's call, and Remy fixes him Ratatouille, a peasant's stew. The stew immediately brings Ego back to his childhood in rural France. He loves it. The health inspector and Skinner shut down the restaurant. Linguini and Colette tell Ego that the chef is a rat. Ego gives them a great review, and Remy, the rats, Linguini, and Colette open up a smaller restaurant, where Ego has a special table. He's better fed and happier, and the people of Paris love Remy's food. 

        You know how Pixar movies make you cry? This script made me cry. And it's been long enough since I've seen the actual movie that I didn't see it coming. Here are some of the good parts: 

        This is after Remy/Linguini are on the rocks because Linguini is taking the credit for Remy's cooking and not giving him any. Remy gets briefly kidnapped by Skinner to help with the frozen food line, but the other rats free him. 

        I don't know. Something about Remy knowing both what he wants and who he is makes me cry. Like he's not needing to have the conversation about salary and benefits or second guessing if he's good enough or if the market is right for what he has to offer. He goes back to the restaurant because that's who he is and what he needs to do. May we all have that kind of clarity at some point in life. 

        

        Ego eating the Ratatouille: 

        

        The trick of the food sending the critic back to childhood and undoing him -- which checks out, taste and smell being the two senses that connect most directly with our memories -- reminds me of the short story "Bullet In The Brain" by Tobias Wolff. It's about that literary critic who, during a bank robbery, can't help but deride the robber's cliché dialogue: 

"What's so funny, bright boy?" "Nothing." [...] "You think you can fuck with me?" "No." "Fuck with me again, you're history. Capeesh?" Anders burst out laughing. He covered his mouth with both hands and said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” then snorted helplessly through his fingers and said, “Capeesh, oh, God, capeesh,” and at that the man with the pistol raised the pistol and shot Anders right in the head.

As the bullet enters the critic's brain, he has a memory from childhood. It happens slowly compared to the speed of the bullet. It reminds him why he became a critic in the first place -- something he's forgotten in his later cynicism. He remembers a baseball game: 

"Then the last two boys arrive, Coyle and a cousin of his from Mississippi. Anders has never met Coyle’s cousin before and will never see him again. He says hi with the rest but takes no further notice of him until they’ve chosen sides and Darsch asks the cousin what position he wants to play. “Shortstop,” the boy says. “Short’s the best position they is.” Anders turns and looks at him. He wants to hear Coyle’s cousin repeat what he’s just said, but he knows better than to ask. The others will think he’s being a jerk, ragging the kid for his grammar. But that isn’t it, not at all—it’s that Anders is strangely roused, elated, by those final two words, their pure unexpectedness and their music. He takes the field in a trance, repeating them to himself.

"The bullet is already in the brain; it won’t be outrun forever, or charmed to a halt. In the end, it will do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet’s tail of memory and hope and talent and love into the marble hall of commerce. That can’t be helped. But for now Anders can still make time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark at the flying ball, time for the boy in right field to smack his sweat-blackened mitt and softly chant, They is, they is, they is."

        And from Ego's review: 

        

        I like this part both because Remy wins everything and because it seems true. Cooking talent, like artistic talent, can come from anywhere. The movie's premise -- a rat wanting to cook, when of course a rat is the last thing you want near a kitchen -- is in excellent service of this final speech. 

Rating: ★★★★★