It’s a sad day having lost Anthony Bourdain at the age of 61. His contributions and insights into the world of food, travel and cinema will be greatly missed.
The man who some referred to as the “Elvis of bad boy chefs” was never one to shy away from voicing his opinion. Whether it was bashing Icelandic delicacies, tweeting his 3-word review of Baby Driver, or reprimanding a diner for the ultimate sin of ordering a burger well-done, Bourdain did not mince words and his experiences informed his ability to speak on topics with authority which made him authentic as any could be.
His show No Reservations took him around the world. Because he and his crew were huge film junkies, they’d often choose locations based on films that they loved that had a particular look or style and frequently paid homage to them in episodes. Time between shoots was spent talking about movies with his crew, often citing directors like Antonioni, Truffaut, Kurosawa, Fellini, Godard, and Cassavetes – all of whom he expected anyone working with him to know well. “I can’t really even start a conversation unless you’re already familiar with those guys.” When in Italy, especially in Rome, he’d often find a way to channel his best Marcello Mastroianni.
Apocalypse Now (1979) Francis Ford Coppola
The Wild Bunch (1969) Sam Peckinpah
Goodfellas (1990) Martin Scorsese
The Third Man (1949) Carol Reed
Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa
The Conformist (1970) Bernardo Bertolucci
The 400 Blows (1959) François Truffaut
Get Carter (1971) Mike Hodges
The Ipcress File (1965) Sidney J. Furie
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) Peter Yates
Asphalt Jungle (1950) John Huston
The American Friend (1977) Wim Wenders
Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972) Werner Herzog
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) Nagisa Oshima
The Wages of Fear (1953) Henri-Georges Clouzot
Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles
Mean Streets (1973) Martin Scorsese
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Sergio Leone
Paths of Glory (1957) Stanley Kubrick
Bob le Flambeur (1956) Jean-Pierre Melville
Thief (1981) Michael Mann
Requiem for a Dream (2000) Darren Aronofsky
Drugstore Cowboy (1989) Gus Van Sant
“I wanted adventures. I wanted to go up the Nung river to the heart of darkness in Cambodia. I wanted to ride out into a desert on camelback, sand and dunes in every direction, eat whole roasted lamb with my fingers. I wanted to kick snow off my boots in a Mafiya nightclub in Russia. I wanted to play with automatic weapons in Phnom Penh, recapture the past in a small oyster village in France, step into a seedy neon-lit pulqueria in rural Mexico. I wanted to run roadblocks in the middle of the night, blowing past angry militia with a handful of hurled Marlboro packs, experience fear, excitement, wonder. I wanted kicks – the kind of melodramatic thrills and chills I’d yearned for since childhood, the kind of adventure I’d found as a little boy in the pages of my Tintin comic books. I wanted to see the world – and I wanted the world to be just like the movies” – Anthony Bourdain, A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines
Found this page after watching Bourdain’s New Jersey episode which ends with a freeze-frame of him standing before the ocean, almost certainly a reference to 400 Blows. It breaks my heart to see so many of my own favorite films on his list — even though I never met the man, I feel like I’ve lost a kindred spirit… Rest in peace Tony.