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he becomes violently ill, Delamont confesses that he spiked the food with a vomiting agent so that Nicolas will never crave these foods again, so his tastes are aligned even more closely to Frederic’s. Nicolas is clearly disturbed by his employer’s behavior, yet he pushes on, addicted to the wealth, accepting Delamont’s behavior almost as a challenge to rise to. He will prove that he can please this man. And the games continue. After telling Delamont that the only type of food he hates is innards, Nicolas is served tripe for dinner and describes it as “exquisite.” At first we think he is only playing the game, but when Nicolas later requests tripe for a dinner with Beatrice and friends, it becomes clear that he is truly under Delamont’s spell.
Beatrice is naturally suspicious when her beau is gone for so long without any contact during his training, and Nicolas only makes matters worse by lying to her about what his job is. On the one hand, we understand that he is lying because he is too embarrassed to tell his working class girlfriend that he is making so much money as a food taster. On the other hand, his dishonesty is almost analogous to the way one lies to cover an affair. And as his relationship with Frederic Delamont progresses, morphing into a sick codependency, Nicolas distances himself further and further from Beatrice.
Food is not the only thing Delamont wants Nicolas to sample for him. Nicolas skydives and Frederic lives the experience from the ground. Again and again Delamont speaks of how he wants their sensations to be one. Delamont seems at times to care deeply for Nicolas, but then turns on him with cruel tricks the next moment. In response to a disagreement, Frederic says he wants Nicolas to taste solitude as he feels “it will fortify [them] both.” Nicolas is sent to the Tunisian Dessert where he is pushed to the edge of his life.
The stress of the job wears on Nicolas and he confesses to Delamont’s doctor that he is experiencing spatial disorientation. He thinks the ground could open up at any moment and swallow him whole—a sign of impending madness. Interestingly, the camerawork and other techniques often give us a similar feeling of disorientation. High-angle shots are used a couple of times, leaving us hanging precariously above the characters. Several times a specific technique is used where we watch a character or characters speak through windows, and while we shouldn’t be able to hear what they say, we can. In one instance, Beatrice meets with Delamont at a café. The camera remains outside, and we hear/see the cars rushing by, yet we also hear perfectly the conversation going on inside. In another scene, Nicolas talks to Beatrice on the telephone outside his home. We watch through a closed glass door from within the ...
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