Curtains Up on Weekend Viewing

by Joseph Rossi

BIG NIGHT

Does anyone remember BIG NIGHT? I was rooting through my DVD collection and came across Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott’s 1996 film. It’s about two Italian brothers who own a failing restaurant in 1950’s New Jersey and have to prepare a dinner for jazz singer Louis Prima in order to drum up business. No? Then you must find it, watch it, go out to an Italian restaurant afterwards, order as much as you can eat and party all night long. This movie will make you want to be an Italian after it’s over. Lucky for me, I already am.
The film stars Stanley Tucci as Secondo, the brains and mouth behind the quaint restaurant called Paradise. Tony Shalhoub plays his older brother Primo, the naïve but talented chef who speaks softly and carries a big talent. He makes miracles in the kitchen. We open on Primo preparing what looks to be the most delicious seafood risotto ever made and serving to an ignorant customer who wonders what the heck she just ordered.
Their cuisine is from the heart and for Primo, to hell with anyone who says otherwise. Of course that doesn’t sit well with Secondo, who wants to desperately to fit into American society, so he’d rather serve pasta and meatballs to please his customer. Secondo tries to distance himself from his immigrant persona; he speaks better English then his brother, has an American girlfriend named Phyllis (Minnie Driver) and longs for a restaurant like Pascal’s.
Owned by Pascal, played with gusto by Ian Holm, the restaurant is everything Primo and Secondo hate about Americanized Italian cuisine. Pascal, an Italian as well, sees America as a land of extreme opportunity and wants to give the people food they can pronounce and make his fortune. Secondo can’t deny the fact that Pascal is making money but the idea will never fly with his brother who sees cooking and food as a way to be closer to God rather than a way to make a quick buck. Taking a meeting with Pascal, Secondo vents his frustration. Pascal offers to help and arranges to have Louis Prima dine at the brother’s restaurant in order for them to get some good press. So now begins the journey to one of the great feasts in movie history.
Being of Italian decent, the movie made me nostalgic for the days that I would watch my grandparents create extraordinary dishes out of simple ingredients. Pasta, veal cutlets, tomato sauce, stuffed peppers and artichokes…hungry yet? The movie treats the preparation of food almost as a language. Without words we can follow the action. We follow the brothers like we’d follow a dancer doing a pirouette. Chefs, as well as authors, actors and filmmakers, use their chosen medium to entice, to seduce. The movie’s treatment of food makes us sit up and wonder what is the next plate to come out of the kitchen. When it does, we exhale; our bellies subconsciously full. It takes a deft hand (or hands) to create an experience like that.
Directors Tucci and Scott wisely use character actors for all the roles, never relying on a name to overpower the movie. This is a great ensemble. Shalhoub is superb. He infuses Primo with fiery passion and a touch of daftness. He is only a simple cook but his heart is bigger than everyone else in the movie because he is the only character who is pure and not tainted by western sensibility. Holm brings ruthlessness to the diminutive and often jovial Pascal. Isabella Rossellini has a small role as Pascal’s wife and Secondo’s mistress. Campbell Scott shows up as a used car salesman. And then there’s Stanley Tucci’s Secondo. He represents the group that came to America with nothing but determination to assimilate. Tucci brings compassion and yet, a sense of immorality to the part. He loves his brother but uses lies to get him to agree to his dinner party. He keeps his older brother in the dark about many things; his affair, Pascal, money and in the end, both ideals, the American and the Italian, battle it out.
The film is filled with tiny treasures that are to be discovered. The use of music; combining old world Italian tunes with those of the film’s present adds to the juxtaposition of the two worlds. Singular scenes are mini masterpieces of acting and direction. The final shot is one of surprising simplicity and yet is extremely powerful.
This isn’t a movie to watch on an empty stomach. Be warned, you’ll might want to make lasagna right after it’s over.