By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Gregory Kershaw | Michael Dweck
Country: greece, italy, united_states
Year: 2021
Running time: 84
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11394318/reference
Chris says: “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted or sniffed a truffle, much less hunted one but I continuously felt that this wry, warm, deadpan documentary about mostly older male Italian truffle hunters (and their trusty canine companions) was made especially for me, from the adorable-verging-on-feral man/dog bonding to the dude who resembled Father Time banging away at his typewriter going on about the oppressive outfits women in his youth were forced to wear to the multiple scenes of a young lady grooming a fancy red pillow on a pedestal just so in order to display The Perfect Truffle for a procession of onlookers to stop by and fervently smell. 5 cats”
Julie says: “5 cats for me on this one.
“The cinematography is outstanding but the subject matter helps quite a bit there. The way they went about creating this film is also quite interesting. Kudos for editing.
“I did not realize that this was a documentary but how could it not be?
“The filmmakers often set up a camera with the subjects in shot and left it on for hours, allowing the story to unfold.
“‘Every one of them felt very much like a Renaissance painting,’ said Dweck. ‘This place enchanted us and we wanted to spend as much time as we could and then once we realized there was such a mystery and charm to this world, we decided to just film it.’
“If you are an animal lover, cat or dog, you will love this. Being part of the BMC (Boston Mycological Society) I have a true interest from the fungus side of things (the science of the truffle, hunting selling eating secret places). I have had truffles but never fresh like in this movie. Now I must have these Alba white truffles some day. Motivated to visit Piedmont Italy now or retire there! The movie so much reminded me of my time living in a small village in Germany for 3.5 years.
“Sadly due to climate change there are less of these truffles to be found now. I did not pick up on the cause when watching this, thought they were just talking about a bad season as with mushrooms.
“I watched the rest last night when eating an elaborate and piping hot Italian eggplant dinner with rice pine nuts chili flakes two cheeses and elaborately made turkey meatloaf with mushrooms and veggies(from Volante Farms) so was busy with that and need to go back perhaps – although I did do a lot of rewinds and pauses to get what they were saying in the midst of my dining. I enjoyed my meal concurrently with the man in the movie and his fried egg, fondue and shaved truffle. The mirroring was nice. But I don’t recommend being that distracted when you watch this if you can help it. This is my thing though watching movies with lunch when I can and especially dinner. It can be hard when subtitles and a lot of dialogue are involved.”
Michael says: “Well, now I just feel like a scrooge, seeing all the love for this documentary both from Chlotrudis members and beyond, because I just didn’t like it at all. I found it boring, repetitive, and somewhat annoying. Apparently I don’t like old Italian men, or go pro’s on the head’s of dogs. This doc ‘explores’ (I use the term loosely) the fading tradition of using dogs to root out truffles in a specific area in Italy, then get sold for exorbitant prices to foodies. Personally, I find truffles, and more specifically, truffle oil to be overwhelming unless used sparingly, but the folks in this film are ga-ga over it. It is a rather unique film, documentary a la Roy Andersson (ABOUT ENDLESSNESS; SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR), where a camera is set up and captures something unusual, and ostensibly amusing, but except for a scene or two, (the one in the dance hall was pretty fantastic) I just found it all tiresome. In fact, I had a lot of trouble keeping my eyes open. Maybe it was just my mood. 2 cats”
Amanda responds: “I felt the same as you about TRUFFLE HUNTERS, Michael. I thought it was just me! There were things I appreciated about it, namely that I learned something about this truffle hunting tradition, but it didn’t hold my interest like I thought it would.”