It was only a matter of time. First you saw movies, then you could smell what was happening on the screen (not a popular move as it turned out, since doomsday movies with unbathed prehistoric creatures falling into quicksand after blowing up a glue-making factory were true disasters). Then you felt what was happening when an earthquake on screen made your seat rattle and parts of what you thought was the ceiling crumble.
Years ago, a movie theatre in a place I used to live in took realism seriously. A movie of a disaster at sea shocked the audience when they could see and feel the water gushing through. It wasn't a technological breakthrough, however, merely that some water had leaked into the theatre. But it was a treat for however short a period. Those who were at the show have been living off that story for years. I am surprised no book has been written about it or a poem dedicated to special effects.
But I digress. With sight, hearing, smell, touch all taken care of - even if not always successfully - only one sense remained to be catered to. The sense of taste. Next time Brad Pitt or Steve Carrell take someone out to dinner on screen, would you be able to savour what they ordered off the menu?
A cinema in Notting Hill in London is catering to that very concern. It allows you to taste the food and whatever else needs tasting on the screen. You are given a bunch of stuff on a tray as you walk in, and during the movie placards are held up to advise you on what to put into your mouth.
Thus, when Pitt orders a risotto, up will go a banner saying something like, "Pop that green thingy in," or if it is lamb chops, the banner will say, "You are hereby advised to put that orange pill in your mouth."
I am not sure if this is a peep into a future world where breakfast, lunch and dinner will all consist of a series of multi-coloured pills, with an instruction manual telling us how to taste what we want: red for omelette, oval-shaped blue for Russian salad, triangular purple for chappati and so on. Perhaps the food industry researchers are working on this very thing. Perhaps not, it is difficult to say.
Movie reviewing will have to work out a whole new set of clichés. You can't say, "This movie is in bad taste," without confusing the reader.
Also, you will have to make more than one version of a movie. One for vegetarians and the other for meat-eaters. Brad Pitt, for instance, will have to order potato salad as well as chicken salad to keep his vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian fans happy.
