The Image of Taste: Cinesthetic Instruction in Ratatouille

The Image of Taste:
Cinesthetic Instruction
in Ratatouille
COLIN RANSOM

                      When Colin Ransom registered for a
               Cinema Studies minor, he did not properly
               read the description. Expecting a practical
                  filmmaking program, he instead learned
                 what a kinetoscope was and the meaning
                of words like ontology, hermeneutics, and
                  phenomenology. Now, he writes serious
                     papers about cartoon rats and likes it.
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     The aesthetic language of cinema has been designed in such a way that its
     audiovisual techniques negate the need for additional haptic, gustatory,
     or olfactory sensory information. Films such as Brad Bird’s Ratatouille
     (2007) use various formal techniques to create what Vivian Sobchack
     refers to as cinesthesia. This cinematic derivative of synesthesia explains
     the translation of visual and aural stimuli into information, which is then
     perceived as the other missing senses. Drawing on my own experiences
     of sensory immersion in cinema, combined with Sobchack’s idea of
     cinesthesia, I will argue that Ratatouille effectively communicates taste
     through its aural and visual components. The elaborate nature of this
     perceptual mechanism voids the need for further sensory immersion
     in the cinema. As a medium, cinema can translate sound and image into
     taste using the tools it already possesses.
         When I attended a screening of Anthony and Joe Russo’s Avengers:
     Endgame (2019), due to high demand, the only available seats were in
     4DX. These seats were a new experience for me. They incorporated many
     “effects,” such as chair motions and vibrations, sprays of mist, fragrant
     scents, and even the ever-perplexing back and leg tickler. While the goal
     of 4DX is to provide a more immersive moviegoing experience, I noticed
     myself less immersed in the film and more attentive and anticipative to
     the various stimuli around me. I left the theatre convinced that 4DX was
     just a gimmick, not worth the extra money. My contrasting experience
     of complete immersion while watching Ratatouille on a tiny Greyhound
     bus TV led me to ruminate on how cinema is able to achieve its illusory
     effect.
         With these experiences in mind, I will operationalize some key terms
     to establish the concept of cinesthesia and how it relates to sensory
     immersion. To begin, synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which
     certain sensory modalities trigger alternative perceptual pathways
     normally unrelated. It is a subset of multisensory integration and has
     a low prevalence in the general population (Banissy et al. 1). Senses
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THE IMAGE OF TASTE

become entangled, causing experiences such as seeing sound or hearing
colour. Sobchack writes that while, in a medical sense, synesthesia is
rare, the “less extreme experience of ‘cross-modal-transfer’ among our
senses is enough to have warranted the term’s use and the condition’s
description in ordinary language” (9). The colloquial nature of this
term is significant as it allows for adaptation into a cinematic context.
While cinema is not synesthetic in a pathological sense, it does affect
sensory modalities other than the visual and aural elements that it is
composed of, a phenomenon that Sobchack calls cinesthesia. Sobchack
describes this term as a combination of synesthesia and coenaesthesia;
coenaesthesia describes the world of novel, overwhelming sensory
information into which infants are born. For Sobchack, the period of
coenaesthesia offers a “potential” that is shaped and integrated by society
into a means in which the child can interact with the world (10). The
sensory novelty experienced at birth represents a more intense version
of the novelty experienced in cinema. The spectator in cinema learns
to integrate sensory information, similar to how the infant learns to
integrate sensory information as it moves through the world. Over time,
popular cinema has developed a standardized language (e.g., reaction
shots, shaky-handheld shots, and macro shots) in order to efficiently
convey sensory information, neutralizing the sensory novelty of cinema.
Ratatouille moves beyond this standardized language, re-teaching the
audience how to establish an even deeper sensory immersion within the
film.
    While cinema can easily stimulate the visual and auditory senses,
in turn eliciting a corporeal reaction, other senses require more
direction and precision. As a cinesthetic film, Ratatouille presents a
masterclass in how to convey taste to its audience, translating taste
through a combination of traditional techniques alongside formal
experimentation. As a film about gourmet food, it is imperative that
Ratatouille can transfer the flavours of both delicious and disagreeable
foods to the audience. To accomplish this feat, Ratatouille targets all of
the possible sensorium available to the cinematic medium in conveying
its gustatory information. For instance, when Colette teaches the
protagonist Alfredo Linguini how to tell if bread is good without tasting
it, she explains that sound is the most important way to distinguish a
quality loaf. As Colette cracks the bread, the film treats the audience to
an ASMR-like sensation, mirrored in a reaction shot of Remy’s quasi-
orgasmic physiological response. As Colette teaches Linguini to taste
through sound, the audience also learns. Our identification with Linguini
facilitates this learning, helping immerse us in the emotional impact of

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COLIN RANSOM

     the animated food, even though we cannot actually taste it.
         Ratatouille goes beyond this basic form of sensory representation,
     using formally experimental techniques to create the cinesthetic
     experience of taste. Notably, in the middle of the film, the audience
     aligns with Emile as his brother Remy instructs him how to taste food.
     Remy describes various flavours, visually expressing the sensations
     through his bodily movements. The background fades to black and the
     camera dollies in on Emile as he chews, heightening the experience
     of taste. These aesthetics leave us with no distractions, focusing our
     attention on the visual and aural information necessary to interpret the
     flavours. The film also includes dancing orbs as a visual representation
     of taste. These orbs move in distinct ways to imitate different flavours
     and textures. Flowing movements guide our perception to creamy and
     silky textures, whereas sharp bouncy movements convey tart, sour
     flavours. Through colour and movement, the shapes shift to represent
     each flavour described by Remy, adding more depth to our sensory
     perception. Here, the film understands that the audience cannot directly
     experience the foods through the screen and, therefore, must take action
     to maximize the visual information which will convey the taste instead.
     The combination of sensory information allows our mind to process
     and reintegrate them as flavours, turning the visual and aural into taste,
     texture, and smell.
         These central components of cinesthesia contribute to our immersion
     in cinema. Yet this cinesthetic experience relies on what we already know.
     If we have never encountered good bread, we cannot as easily associate
     the crack of bread with gustatory pleasure. But what about when a film
     needs to convey an experience that the audience is unfamiliar with?
     Ratatouille overcomes this dilemma by skipping right to the emotional
     impact of the experience instead of dwelling on its sensory perception.
     The substitution of sensory stimuli with emotion is most apparent in the
     climactic scene where the venerable food critic, Anton Ego, eats Remy’s
     ratatouille. Many viewers, myself included, have never tasted ratatouille
     before, yet through a flashback to Ego’s childhood we are able to identify
     exactly how it tastes. The flashback sequence shows Ego’s mom feeding
     him a version of that same dish after a bad day, revealing ratatouille’s
     connotations of nostalgia and familial comfort for Ego. While we might
     not know what ratatouille tastes like, we do not need to; the film skips
     the flavours and cuts right to the emotional impact of the food. Food has
     the capacity to remind people of their youth and conjure up feelings of
     deep nostalgia. The film recognizes this connection and uses nostalgia to
     its own benefit. Through this flashback, we can now infer exactly what
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THE IMAGE OF TASTE

ratatouille tastes like: childhood.
    Ratatouille delivers an exceptional cinesthetic experience through
formal experimentation, using colour, movement, and evocations of
nostalgia to transform image and sound into taste. Cinema has developed
a distinct aesthetic to convey sensations beyond the auditory and visual.
For this reason, further attempts at sensory immersion are unnecessary,
serving to detract from the experience rather than adding to it. When
explaining flavour, Chef Gusteau echoes the approach Ratatouille takes
in evoking cross-modal sensation through synesthesia/cinesthesia:
“Good food is like music you can taste, colour you can smell. There is
excellence all around you. You only need to be aware to stop and savour
it.” Ratatouille takes up the cinesthetic challenge, creating sensory
immersion while respecting the fundamental mechanics of cinema as a
medium.

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COLIN RANSOM

     Works Cited
     Banissy, Michael J. et al. “Synesthesia: an introduction.” Frontiers in
       Psychology, vol. 5, 2014, pp. 1-3. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01414.
     Sobchack, Vivian. “What My Fingers Knew: The Cinesthetic Subject, or
       Vision in the Flesh.” Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving
       Image Culture, University of California Press, 2004, pp. 53-84.

     Filmography
     Bird, Brad. Ratatouille. Walt Disney Pictures, 2007.
     Russo, Anthony and Joe. Avengers: Endgame. Walt Disney Motion
        Pictures, 2019.

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