osprey_archer | Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles

I watched Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles the day after I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it was absolutely entrancing to see on film the very same place that I had just been (“That’s the American Wing!” I shrieked, when we reached a particular sculpture gallery), only transformed by the presence of a Versailles-themed exhibition stocked for the night with the most glorious little cakes.

There absolutely is a “Let them eat cake!” pun in here somewhere, but the documentary has little interest in digging it out. The parallel between the decadent luxury of Versailles and the decadent luxury of upper-crust New York (as epitomized in the Met) sometimes comes so close to the surface that one almost feels it straining to break through the film.

But in the end this is not that kind of documentary. It’s a love lyric to graceful panoramas of Central Park (I also shrieked about those), elegant museum spaces, and delightful little cakes, and it is on that level enjoyable.

But I did feel that it could have dug deeper - that, in fact, it had to actively fight not to dig deeper. It’s curious to experience a work of art that is actually working to be less than it could be.