Big Night
I was pleased to find this film on NetFlix last night and watched it, finishing up at 1:00 a.m. It was worth it. I had wanted to see it for years.
It was worth the wait. It was very much like Babette's Feast in its "foodiness" but the enjoyment of food is not the center of the film. It is about lost dreams, longing, and the power of sibling relationships. It is about paying for one's mistakes as well, and it is a feast to look at with all the '50s props and clothing. The actors, except for Ian Holm (who could have calmed down) were perfect and understated. And I was impressed with Monk's ability to speak Italian. (Sorry, I know his name is Tony Shalhoub, and he's Lebanese).
The last scene is priceless. In one long tracking shot (meaning that the camera doesn't move and the actors move in front of it, restrained in the space) the brother with the dreams (Secondo) comes in and finds the waiter, the only employee, asleep after the debacle, the feast, the fights, the drama, on the the counter. Secondo makes him an omelet, really, it just looks like scrambled eggs. They sit down and eat bread and eggs, and Primo (the master chef) comes in and Secondo serves him. There is no dialogue really; Primo reaches over and puts his arm on his brother's shoulder. Will Primo go back to Italy? Will Secondo go work for the sinister but successful Pascal, the restaurant owner across the street who has betrayed him? Will they keep trying to find the American dream, and find it?
It is one of those films one might call perfect, although it's hard to believe anyone could eat that much!
Babette's Feast is another food movie with a totally different feel. Philip Yancey writes about it magnificently in What's so Amazing about Grace? which made me want to see it. In this case, the food is French rather than Italian (the Italian being my preference to eat and to prepare if I were to learn to be a real cook), and the message, if that term may be used, is that "God gives us richly all things to enjoy." The people for whom Babette, a famous French chef who has been exiled to a remote Danish village, cooks are a group of strict evangelical Christians. They have never seen, smelled, or eaten anything like what Babette prepares them (I won't say "fixes"--that's what you do with boxed mac and cheese--or cooks). They are introduced to how rich life can be, the richness of God's world. They go out and look up at the stars and see them for the first time, really see them, having been released by the food to see the world in a new way.
In the case of Big Night, though, it is the simple eggs and bread at the end that says to me "God also gives us richly all simple things to enjoy." One does not need turtle soup or timpano (an incredible dish in Big Night), or a full suckling pig to enjoy the richness of God; at the same time, He is happy to see us enjoy the variety of His beautiful world.
Note: On the IMDB webpage, someone said that Big Night was listed in a book about movies to use for Bible studies. I think the name of the book is Jesus at the Movies. Some doofus on the board said it wouldn't be something evangelicals would want to watch because of the sex and the language, which is raw at times. Then another person wrote about "holy rollers" and another about "the gullibility" of Christians. Ah, the wonders of anonymity on the Internet--the power to be as stupid as you want to be without consequence.
It was worth the wait. It was very much like Babette's Feast in its "foodiness" but the enjoyment of food is not the center of the film. It is about lost dreams, longing, and the power of sibling relationships. It is about paying for one's mistakes as well, and it is a feast to look at with all the '50s props and clothing. The actors, except for Ian Holm (who could have calmed down) were perfect and understated. And I was impressed with Monk's ability to speak Italian. (Sorry, I know his name is Tony Shalhoub, and he's Lebanese).
The last scene is priceless. In one long tracking shot (meaning that the camera doesn't move and the actors move in front of it, restrained in the space) the brother with the dreams (Secondo) comes in and finds the waiter, the only employee, asleep after the debacle, the feast, the fights, the drama, on the the counter. Secondo makes him an omelet, really, it just looks like scrambled eggs. They sit down and eat bread and eggs, and Primo (the master chef) comes in and Secondo serves him. There is no dialogue really; Primo reaches over and puts his arm on his brother's shoulder. Will Primo go back to Italy? Will Secondo go work for the sinister but successful Pascal, the restaurant owner across the street who has betrayed him? Will they keep trying to find the American dream, and find it?
It is one of those films one might call perfect, although it's hard to believe anyone could eat that much!
Babette's Feast is another food movie with a totally different feel. Philip Yancey writes about it magnificently in What's so Amazing about Grace? which made me want to see it. In this case, the food is French rather than Italian (the Italian being my preference to eat and to prepare if I were to learn to be a real cook), and the message, if that term may be used, is that "God gives us richly all things to enjoy." The people for whom Babette, a famous French chef who has been exiled to a remote Danish village, cooks are a group of strict evangelical Christians. They have never seen, smelled, or eaten anything like what Babette prepares them (I won't say "fixes"--that's what you do with boxed mac and cheese--or cooks). They are introduced to how rich life can be, the richness of God's world. They go out and look up at the stars and see them for the first time, really see them, having been released by the food to see the world in a new way.
In the case of Big Night, though, it is the simple eggs and bread at the end that says to me "God also gives us richly all simple things to enjoy." One does not need turtle soup or timpano (an incredible dish in Big Night), or a full suckling pig to enjoy the richness of God; at the same time, He is happy to see us enjoy the variety of His beautiful world.
Note: On the IMDB webpage, someone said that Big Night was listed in a book about movies to use for Bible studies. I think the name of the book is Jesus at the Movies. Some doofus on the board said it wouldn't be something evangelicals would want to watch because of the sex and the language, which is raw at times. Then another person wrote about "holy rollers" and another about "the gullibility" of Christians. Ah, the wonders of anonymity on the Internet--the power to be as stupid as you want to be without consequence.
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