Week 11 - Big Night/Dinner Rush

The two movies Big Night and Dinner Rush are similar and different in many ways. One of the ways that they are similar is the way that they both portray food and the food service industry. Both movies are stories about Italian restaurants that are in trouble in similar but at the same time different ways. When Enrico is shot at the beginning of Dinner Rush, this is where the problems really start for the characters in the film. His granddaughter had just seen him a few moments earlier and now she will never see her grandfather again which is tragic. Another similarity between these two movies is the fact that both are about untraditional Italian foods. People normally think of pizza and spaghetti when they think of good Italian food. In Big Night though, this is not the case. Primo is cooking very Northern Italian types of food so pizza and spaghetti are not included in this. In the movie, Dinner Rush, the entire movies is taking place over the course of one very busy “dinner rush” at a trendy Italian restaurant in New York City. Dinner Rush is more realistic to what the restaurant business is really like. This is because a lot of the movie is filled with arrogance, ego and self-importance. While this may be the case, there is also an underlying story of love, respect, and friendship. There are also other things that are different about both films. In Big Night, the food will literally make the viewer’s mouth water. In Dinner Rush, this is definitely not the case with the scenes in the kitchen. Between the two movies, I definitely liked Big Night a lot more. This might be because I am obsessed with Italian food, but either way I liked it a good deal more. The thing I loved the most is the fact that while I was watching the movie I literally went to go order a pizza because that’s how much my mouth was watering and I just had to get some Italian food right in that moment.

Week 10 - Big Night

The movie, Big Night, is about first-generation Italian immigrants. The two brothers, Primo and Secondo, work at their restaurant. There is definitely significance to the last scene in the film where the three main characters are eating breakfast. The scene is so simple yet so complex all at the same time. This scene shows that the brothers can look past all that has happened throughout the entire film and they want to come together to enjoy one last meal together before the film is finished. The three main characters have had a lot of hardships throughout the whole film, so this is an opportunity for all of them to come together and share food. Like we have said many times in our class discussions, enjoying food means nothing if you do not have anyone to share it with. While the final scene in the film is very short, it is really showing that even when two people have so many differences throughout their lives, they can ultimately come together for some really good food that is being shared among them. Another thing that is significant about the final scene in Big Night is that the two brothers, Primo and Secondo, do not talk at all during the scene. I found this to be super interesting because it is like saying that they can speak to each other without actually speaking. They can instead use food to communicate with one another. Overall, I thought that the last scene of this film was very interesting because like I said previously, it is not common that there is no speaking for the last scene of any food film that we have watched so far during this class. I really liked the scene because of that fact actually. It was very intriguing to me personally.

Week 9 - Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored and Soul Food

These two films definitely show how food transmits culture and how it constitutes ethnic identity. Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored shows the virtues of African American culture through the food that the characters are eating throughout the film. Another interesting thing to point out is that the African American culture in Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored was something that I never really understood at first, but it became more clear that food was a very important part of the lives of the characters. The racial segregation was another thing that unfortunately did not surprise me at all. During the time of this movie, segregation was a very big issue and it unfortunately was a pretty important theme throughout the film. The article by Robin Balthrope mentioned how cooking can be done out of love. I think that this is another main theme that was shown in these two movies, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored andSoul Food. In both films, when the characters were cooking they were usually doing it for their families and having gatherings of people over to their homes to enjoy the meals that they had prepared. In Soul Food, Big Mama really represents all the mothers who make their child’s favorite foods to show them how much they love them. In Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, food is used to show the way that communication is facilitated between family, friends, and the community itself. It is also not a secret that in sharing food and having good conversation, people can often become more connected. We’ve seen this in so many of the other movies we have watched throughout this semester. In Mostly Martha and Tortilla Soup, there was always good food and conversation and because of that the characters became more connected with one another.