Despite growing up in a fairly privileged environment, I was always taught that we should hate the rich, support the underprivileged, and ask the government to work on reducing the gap between economic classes until these divisions are erased. That general sentiment hasn’t changed, but I do see people, especially on social media, glorifying the wealthy while despising those who can barely make ends meet. Marriage ceremonies of celebrities and the children of business magnates are being lapped up by the people, with some even trying to emulate that kind of opulence by hook or by crook. Welfare schemes are being scoffed at, and those asking for means of sustainable income are getting beaten on the streets. Politicians who are siding with the aforementioned business magnates to openly scam the people are being hailed as modern-day Chanakyas, and those critiquing such actions are being silenced. And I guess we are starting to see a reflection of these confusing times in movies and TV shows. On that note, let’s talk about Delicious.
Nele Mueller-Stofen’s Delicious follows a family of four—Esther, John, Alba, and Philipp—as they travel to Provence, France, to spend the summer at their vacation home. While returning home from dinner, a slightly drunk John rams into a girl, Teodora, with the car and injures her. John wants to take her to the hospital, but Esther realizes that if they do so, John is going to be arrested for drinking and driving. Instead, Esther takes Teodora to their villa, gives her first aid, and even leaves some money for her as compensation for her troubles. When Teodora pockets the cash and goes away, Esther and John assume that they’ve dealt with this whole situation really smartly. But Teodora shows up at their doorstep, asking for a job as a housekeeper, since she has been fired from her job as a server due to the injuries she has sustained from the “accident.” Esther and John feel guilty for being the reason for Teodora’s predicament and hire her. As Teodora begins to sow seeds of doubt and resentment in the family while subtly conspiring with her friends on the outside, it becomes clear that her intentions are not good in the strictest sense.
The fundamental problem with Delicious is the perspective that Nele uses to tell this story. We are seeing everything through the eyes of Esther, John, Alba, and Philipp, i.e., the people who are the antagonists of this unjust society. They have so much money that they can travel from Germany to France during the summer. They have so much money that even though the husband’s research papers are being rejected, their bank accounts aren’t running dry. They have so much money that they can buy bicycles made of carbon fiber. Yet Nele chooses to depict them in the most nuanced fashion possible and goes so far as to show that they are ultimately flawed but nice people. Her portrayals of their classist activities are so subtle that if you aren’t looking closely, you will miss it. In complete contrast to that, Teodora and her working-class friends are treated like bloody horror movie monsters. The writing around their motivations is shallow. They are dehumanized to such a dizzying extent. So, by the time they “eat the rich,” you are left confused about who you should be rooting for.
If Nele wants to say that while the privileged class is wrong for hoarding wealth, the underprivileged class is wrong for protesting violently, then I am afraid she has fundamentally misunderstood the class struggle. An argument can be made that, in Delicious, the reason why the German family’s insensitive behavior seems tepid and the French rebels’ ferocious nature feels problematic is because, in real life, the scales of sympathy have tipped in a way that it has normalized the actions of the rich while subjecting the poor to harsh scrutiny. Therefore, when we see a group of youngsters invading a family’s vacation home to level the playing field, we are inclined to ignore the fact that those youngsters can barely make ends meet while that family can part with half their wealth and still live luxuriously. Hence, the punishment delivered by the poor appears to be disproportionate to the crime that has been committed by the rich. Now, do you see why it’s futile to partake in bothsidesism when public perception of the privileged and the underprivileged is already bloody skewed? It’s really infuriating if you think about it even for a second.
To be honest, I was so angry at Nele’s blatant misinterpretation of the “eat the rich” theme that I couldn’t bring myself to care about or appreciate the technical stuff. Sure, the cinematography by Frank Griebe, the editing by Andreas Wodraschke, the music by Volker Bertelmann and Ben Winkler, and the production design by Christian M. Goldbeck are competent. But do they come together to deepen the film’s message, or does it only add to the aesthetic value of the visuals? I think it’s the latter, but you are free to think otherwise. The performances from the whole cast are alright. Fahri Yardim underscores John’s spineless nature really well. Valerie Pachner is amazing at showing how ignorant one can be when they’re too arrogant about their smartness. Carla Diaz is made to act really mysterious to hide her character’s true self, but since the reveal at the end of the ordeal has become so overused and tired at this point, the whole exercise feels pointless. The same can be said about Julie De Saint Jean, Miveck Packa, Nina Zem, and Tom Rey. Naila Schuberth and Caspar Hoffmann are fine. The rest of the supporting cast is okay.
With the arrival of movies like Knives Out, Parasite, Aadhaar, Joker, Ready or Not, Article 15, Us, Gully Boy, and more, it seemed like, as a society, we were starting a new era of anti-classist storytelling. It felt like people were going to watch all this stuff and firmly raise their voice against income inequality and the economic divide. Then the pandemic happened, and instead of seeing how a global phenomenon like that had exacerbated the fault lines that were already present, we started fighting for something called the “new normal,” in which the rich stay rich and the poor get poorer. It’s as if people realized that true equity will rob them of their luxuries and, subtly or not-so-subtly, they celebrated stories centered around the rich, e.g., Succession, The White Lotus, The Perfect Couple, Young Royals, Bridgerton, etc. Things are so bad that shows like Squid Game, Bandidos, and Silo, which had strong rebellious vibes in Season 1, have regressed their themes of anti-capitalism in their second seasons. And maybe Delicious is yet another symptom of the disease, which is getting people to say “maybe sympathize with the rich” instead of “eat the rich.” What are your thoughts on the French-German Netflix family drama, though? Let me know in the comments section below.
