Stanley Tucci is a real foodie - we'd just seen him on Graham promoting his new book 'Taste'. And this film is about food, and two brothers, 'Primo' (a great performance by Tony Shaloub) and 'Secondo' (Tucci), who cannot make a go of their 1950s New Jersey Italian restaurant, even though the one across the street, run by Ian Holm, is a roaring success. The fault is Primo's perfectionism. The 'Big Night' in question is a fabulous meal in celebration of singer Louis Prima (who appears frequently in the soundtrack). It's a bitter-sweet concoction. Joseph Tropiano is the other writer.
A great cast includes Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Allison Janney, Liev Schreiber and Campbell Scott himself as a Cadillac salesman.
Made with some lovely touches as well as some brilliant long takes, such as the final one where Tucci makes an omelette - the camera doesn't move - though as I remember it, he doesn't season it.
The meal includes a soup, three risottos, a Timpano ( kind of big pasta pie - the only thing about this film I remembered), fish and poultry, a suckling pig, plenty of colourful vegetables and an undescribed dolci.
Good music from Gary DeMichele.
That's Rosemary Clooney singing the 'Mambo Italiano'.
No comments:
Post a Comment