Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers

1980 American film

Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Les Blank
Produced by	Les Blank
Production company	Flower Films
Distributed by	Flower Films
Release date	1980 (1980)
Running time	51 minutes
Country	United States

Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers is a 1980 documentary film about garlic directed by Les Blank. Its official premiere was at the 1980 Berlin Film Festival.

Production

It was filmed at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, as well as in other locations in Northern California. The director recommends that, when the film is shown, a toaster oven containing several heads of garlic be turned on in the rear of the theater, unbeknownst to the audience, with the intended result that approximately halfway through the showing the entire theater will be filled with the smell of garlic.

The title is a shortened form of the saying "Garlic is as good as ten mothers... for keeping the girls away."

Reception and legacy

In 2004, the film was selected for preservation in the United States' National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The Academy Film Archive preserved Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers in 1999.

In Blank's 1982 film Burden of Dreams, a documentary chronicling the filming of Fitzcarraldo, director Werner Herzog and other crew members can be seen wearing "Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers" T-shirts.

References

^ "Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980) - Cast, Credits & Awards". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2015. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
"Les Blank Films - Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)". Les Blank Films. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
"Food Filmmaker Les Blank Puts The Scent In Cinema (washingtonpost.com)". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2017-05-06. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
"The Essentials: 7 Films You Should Know From Acclaimed Documentarian Les Blank". IndieWire. 26 November 2014.
"Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 2017-01-07. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
"Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
"Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive. Archived from the original on 2023-04-03. Retrieved 2016-08-10.

External links

Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers at IMDb
Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers at the TCM Movie Database
Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers page from Les Blank site
Washington Post article
Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 763-764

v t e Films directed by Les Blank
A Poem Is a Naked Person Chulas Fronteras Always for Pleasure Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers Burden of Dreams In Heaven There Is No Beer? All in This Tea