Euronews Culture sat down with celebrated US documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman to talk about his stunning film 'Menus-Plaisirs - Les Troisgros', his love of French food, and wanting to film in the White House.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 It came up completely by chance.
00:24 I was visiting a friend in Burgundy
00:27 for the month of August in 2021.
00:30 And I wanted to thank him and his wife
00:32 for putting up with me for a month.
00:35 So I looked in the Guidemichelin for a nearby good restaurant.
00:39 And I found Trois Gros, three stars.
00:43 I made a reservation.
00:44 We went there for lunch.
00:46 During dessert, CĂ©sar Trois Gros,
00:48 who's the fourth generation and who's currently
00:50 running the restaurant, came by the table to say hello.
00:56 Without planning to, I sort of instinctively blurted out,
01:01 I make documentary movies.
01:03 Would you ever consider having a movie
01:05 made about your restaurant?
01:08 And he said, let me talk to my father.
01:11 And he came back a half an hour later and said, why not?
01:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:17 I think the Trois Gros, CĂ©sar, and Michel
01:25 are artists in what you see is their art being produced,
01:32 even though it's ephemeral and it's consumed quickly.
01:38 But they are artists in the same--
01:41 in every sense of the word that painters or writers are
01:44 artists.
01:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:48 I don't watch television.
01:54 And I had never seen a film about a restaurant.
01:57 Whatever I learned about restaurants
01:59 is what you see in the film.
02:00 It's true of most of my films.
02:03 I mean, I'd never spent any time in a welfare center
02:06 or the emergency ward of a hospital,
02:09 or I hadn't ridden around with the police.
02:11 And that's part of the fun of doing it,
02:15 because it's always an adventure.
02:17 And I always like to think I've learned something.
02:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:24 [PANTING]
02:28 [PANTING]
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02:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:39 [MUSIC]