'Ratatouille' comes out: A lecture for friends of Remy at UCLA

"Ratatouille" as the story of a homosexual coming out? I think I get it, sort of. I know the subtext of "The Wizard of Oz," and like Dorothy, Remy -- the cuisinier-protagonist of "Ratatouille" -- is a misunderstood adolescent who embarks on a journey of self-discovery.... 

Laure Murat of the UCLA Department of French and Francophone Studies takes the exploration of this topic much further in her lecture Thursday, in which she delves into Remy's embodiment of "the lonely gay, both refined and the object of disgust, excluded and successful" and the animated movie as "the story of the Oedipus conflict, mixed with issues of race and species.... If 'anyone can cook,' any queer guy has a role to play in this world -- at least in Paris."

"Queering Ratatouille: A Rat Reclaiming French Cuisine" at Royce Hall, Room 236, UCLA campus, Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Pixar/Disney

Comments

[Zeta]

For more information on this movie cliche, see here:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BillyElliotPlot

[Justin]

I think the class sounds like a fascinating thought experiment. In what ways can lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people find models for development in a media that typically shies away from ever addressing non-heterosexuality? Disney/Pixar will never (in the near future) have an openly gay character, so how can those of us who are LGBT still see some of ourselves in the movies that they make? I don't believe for a second that the animators/writers set out to make a gay parable with this movie, but the beauty of art is our ability as human beings to take something meaningful out of it that wasn't necessarily originally intended to be there. It's valid to see Ratatouille as a gay metaphor - but it's also valid to see it as a metaphor for any person who isn't accepted, who needs to learn to be themselves, and who has to make the best of a complicated and difficult life. You take from it what you need.

I think it's very sad how many people in this thread have demeaned this professor or said they should cut the class or the department just because she doesn't think the same way they do. I thought that's what academia was all about - exploring new perspectives. I guess some people would rather just learn 2+2 and call it a day, but for the rest of us, I'm very glad classes like that exist to expand our world view and develop our critical thinking skills.

[Some Fella]

The most common theme in American movies, especially those we aim at children, is "be yourself." This movie was just one more brick in that wall. Could I also find a racial subtext? Almost any outsider viewpoint can co-opt this message. Did it occur to Murat to ask the filmmakers what they were shooting for? Or would that just ruin a lecture opportunity?

[Red Seven]

I'm a gay man, and I loved this movie.

I can't say for sure that the filmmakers had the gay experience in mind when they conceived and wrote the film, and when I saw it, I didn't have a "hey, that's me!" flash of recognition. So I don't know if I accept Marat's notion that "Ratatouille" is a GAY movie.

But reflecting on the film and marrying it to my own experience, I think it's perfectly valid to say that the movie has an affirming message to the gay people and straight allies of the gay community who see it, in much the same way that "Billy Elliott" did.

[TD]

Being a black sheep doesn't automatically make you gay... In that sense, Laure fails.

She fails a second time with the 'both refined and object of disgust'. That's stereotyping homosexuals.
I have met some very refined gay men but more often than not, I meet very trashy and very frivolous gay men.
Being gay doesn't automatically make you refined.

Finally, please explain all of the refined heterosexuals. Are they gay underneathe it all?

[Pete Graham]

Although there are some interesting points being made here.. you might as well say its about "a farmers battle to grow his corn"
Its a simple tale of overcoming adversity to suceed, like most things

[chrispa]

this is what I am talking about

http://gaylife.about.com/od/moviestheatre/a/sharktale.htm

[chrispa]

this movie is not about being gay. She's wildly bending the story to fit her exaggerated view. Clever, but off. If you want a pixar movie that I actually believe is about being gay watch Shark Tales. It's about a shark that is a "vegetarian" and none of the other sharks approve of him and his dad practically disowns him. He goes on an adventure and basically discovers confidence in being a "vegetarian" and his dad excepts him for who he is. There is even a scene where he paints himself, insinuating some cross dressing tendencies.

[John Davius]

LOL, I didnt see the movie but I believe it.

RT
www.privacy-center.pro.tc

[Burke]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[CMo]

I totally agree with the whole "this is a story about black sheep" and finding yourself kind of thing which - sure - has some overlapping themes with being gay, but I don't think this is a "gay" story necessarily.

And Carol - love the comment, very true!

[bruuuin]

Dang it! I was a student in her class last spring and wrote my final paper on Ratatouille...not its homosexual nature...but still she stole my rat!

[SaMo]

When I first saw the movie, I too thought there was a gay subtext in the fact that the rat, by its very nature, does not "belong" in the kitchen. The movie suggested that even this supposed taboo could be overcome. The analogy with gay people succeeding in their own struggles (coming out, overcoming bias, winning the right to marry, whatever) is not hard to see.

But it does the gay rights movement a disservice. hat to me was the problem with the movie: it set up an impossible to overcome hurdle. I don't want rats cooking for me, so I really couldn't root for Remy to succeed. But I'm all in favor of gay people doing anything they want: marrying, adopting, fostering children, whatever.

[Jorge]

When you are a hammer, everything you see is a nail ....

[George Magdaleno]

Laure Marat is reaching. They should just cut out this department and moe the English department back into Royce Hall.

[shawn]

Yes, Richard. I DO think that writers are aware of everything they put into their work. They just can't predict what people are going to take out of it.

And Kristin is right. I'm sure the folks who put together that documentary about plankton are going to be incredulous when they realize it's become a call-to-arms about coming out of the closet.

[Storm]

Okay, really I am gay and I did not see any kind of coming out from the RAT. You could apply the rats self awareness to simply growing up. Or oh my gosh this is a big push....it could just be an ANIMATION with a week story line...that is full of color to attract the kids. Really, just let it go...stop looking for the gay angle.

[Tommy]

As an out and perfectly satisfied bisexual male, I have to say... huh? Ratatouille did not bring to mind the struggles with prejudice and self-affirmation so many of us have gone through. Rather, I was moved by the dual themes of aspiration to greater things while retaining simplicity and egalitarianism - hardly emasculating or homoerotic ideas.

If we look for "teh gay" in everything we see or do, we will find it. While sympathetic, this dehumanizes homosexuals further by ascribing certain mythological traits to our shared experiences.

[richard schumacher]

What, you think that writers are aware of everything that they put into their work? How quaint :_>

[shawn]

There are lots of people in this world that don't fit in. For a variety of reasons. Remy is a hero for all of them. Don't co- opt him for a niche agenda. Being a black sheep doesn't mean you're homosexual. It means you're a black sheep.

[kristin]

Laure Murat has a particular point of view and tries to twist the world to fit that point of view. She could probably find a gay subtext in a documentary about plankton or amoeba.

[Kevin]

This is exactly the sort of "scholarship" that gives the humanities a bad name and (maybe deservedly in some cases) shrinking budgets.

[Brian]

Yes I wholeheartedly agree with mattatouille's comment. Laure Marat is reaching. Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava were not thinking about "outing" Remy in Paris. The film is simply a stellar achievement in cinema.

[Carol]

mattatouille--I agree with you, with one question. Since when is cooking a non-male activity? How many chefs are women? How many Food Channel personalities are women, compared to men? (Sorry, 3 questions.)

Cooking is a female activity when there's no money in it, male when someone wants to pay you for it.

[mattatouille]

I actually think that's pretty riduculous. When does everything that has to do with a traditionally non-male activity (like cooking?) suddenly become a subtext for homosexual feelings and tendencies? If Remy's foray into the world of food is such a subtext, then does he ultimately succeed by convincing his rat population to eat "good" food at the bistro at the end of the movie (thereby turning all of them into homosexuals?) How about a commentary on the eating habits of Americans, millions of whom consume $2 trays of frozen, processed food (real garbage) instead of fresh, delicious produce and naturally produced meat that's cooked to-order and with respect to the ingredient/cuisine/style?

It's one thing for a story to be an allegory, but then something else to say the allegory is an allegory for something else.