“Julia” (M) *** and a half

FOR 95 minutes, this documentary memorialises the woman who changed American eating habits.

After receiving the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service for World War II service in the Office of Strategic Security in south-east Asia and China citing her “drive and inherent cheerfulness”, in 1961 she published “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.

Julia Child embarked on that career after a meal at La Couronne in Rouen; oysters, sole meunière and fine wine, a culinary revelation that she described to “The New York Times” as “opening up of the soul and spirit for me”. 

This film, directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West, mines a mixed trove of moments from Julia’s public and private lives until her death in 2021 aged 91. 

Packed with culinary images, it regrettably doesn’t come with smells or tastes. But it delivers an attractive mix of kitchen wisdom with insight into a marriage that by all accounts was enviable for its harmony, congeniality and productivity.

Despite becoming a TV icon, Julia wasn’t a classic beauty – nearly 1.8 metres tall, solidly framed – but her cheerful enthusiasm, distinctive voice and unpatronising, unaffected manner combined to deliver an attractive woman. 

Does watching “Julia” demonstrate culinary skills? I now know what I was not doing right with beef bourguignon. She demonstrates the correct way to hold a slicing knife that I hope to find useful once I master it. And lots more kitchen wisdom. 

If her cinematic legacy manifests a defect, it is the unstated implication that an essential ingredient in practising what she taught is deep pockets. And healthy-eating fanatics may find her prolific use of some ingredients bordering on reprehensible!

Meanwhile, her posthumous cinematic biography marks a pleasurable return to watching movies on the big screen for which they were made.

At Dendy and Palace Electric