Vatel is a 2000 historical drama film directed by Roland Joffé, written by Jeanne Labrune and translated by Tom Stoppard, and starring Gérard Depardieu, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Timothy Spall, Julian Glover and Julian Sands. The film, based on the life of 17th-century French chef François Vatel, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. The film opened the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
Theatrical release poster
Roland Joffé is an English director and producer of film and television, known for the Academy Award-nominated films The Killing Fields and The Mission. He began his career in television, his early credits including episodes of Coronation Street and an adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada. He gained a reputation for hard-hitting political stories with the series Bill Brand and factual dramas for Play for Today.
Joffé in 2012
Roland Joffé by Jacob Epstein, c. 1949