Big Night
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Stanley Tucci
Andre Belgrader
Caroline Aaron
Robert Castle
Larry Block
Tina Bruno
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
A bittersweet story of two brothers in search of the American dream. Primo and Secondo Pilaggi are Italian immigrants who settle on the New Jersey shore and open a restaurant, the Paradise, hoping to strike it rich. Primo, the elder brother, is a master chef from the Old World who is concerned only with quality and authenticity in the kitchen. Secondo, the younger brother and business manager, is all too eager to compromise if it means more customers and more cash. Teetering on the brink of failure, the brothers learn that the famed Italian-American musician Louis Prima is performing in the area and they contrive to host a dinner in his honor. Hoping that a "big night" built around a celebrity like Prima will get them publicity, the brothers pool all their talent, energy and every cent they have to plan a sumptuous banquet of unsurpassed ambition. What follows is a culinary adventure that will teach them alot about themselves, each other, and their different definitions of life, love and success.
Cast
Andre Belgrader
Caroline Aaron
Robert Castle
Larry Block
Tina Bruno
Gene Canfield
Tony Shalhoub
Pasquale Cajano
Liev Schreiber
Alvaleta Guess
Peter Mcrobbie
Marc Anthony
Peter Appel
Gerard H Pineo
Jack O'connell
Christine Tucci
Dina Waters
Ian Holm
Allison Janney
Tamar Kotoske
Isabella Rossellini
Campbell Scott
Karen Shallo
Susan Floyd
Minnie Driver
Stanley Tucci
Seth Jones
Crew
Marie Abma
G. A. Aguilar
Elizabeth W. Alexander
Marc D Alpert
William Armstrong
David J Babcock
Larry Banks
Eva Barnes
Michael Barry
Marcia Bebonis
Diane Bishop
Steve Borne
Carla Bowen
Conrad F Brink
Theodore A. Brown
Joseph Buonocore Jr.
Helene Cardona
Susan Carrano
Ben Cheah
Peter Clark
John Clifford
Margot Core
Marko Costanzo
Patrick Cousins
Robert Covelman
Peggy Craven
Douglas Crosby
Byron Crystal
Lynn D'angona
Justin Daly
Michael Del Rio
Gary Demichele
Dan Denitto
Jim Denny
Bob Dillon
Deborah J Disabatino
Andrea Dokman
Joe Donohue
Andrea Dorman
Steven Drellich
Midge Duffy
Suzy Elmiger
Scott Farley
Elizabeth Feldbauer
Irene Feldbauer
Armando Fente
Jonathan Filley
Stephen Finkin
Jill Footlick
Samuel Friedman
Jim Galvin
Ed Gangloff
Joseph Garzero
Kenneth Gaskins
James B Gilmartin
David Gordon
Mick Gormaley
Patricia Grand
Anthony Gueli
Donna Hamilton
Pedro Hernandez
Lisa Horne
Larry Horodner
Mark Horstmann
Marty Houston
Sam Hutchins
Ross Huttick
Akeo Ihara
Andi Isaacs
Andrew Jackness
Kenton Jakub
Miguel Jiminez
Jon Mark Johnson
Kim Jones
Harley Kaplan
Lisa Katcher
Nicole Katz
Dan Kaufman
Ken Kelsch
Philip Kennedy
David Kirkpatrick
Todd Kleitsch
Barbara Krauthamer
Robert Kummert
Linda Lazar
George Leong
Ellen Lewis
Peter Liguori
Julie Lindner
Dennis Livesey
Valerie Livingstone
Paul Loret
Gerard Maggio
Neal Martz
Pamela Mathis
Mary Kate Mccormick
Andrew Mcdade
Jeffrey D Mcdonald
Liz Mcgregor
Francis J Mckenna
Charle Mcnamara
Sylvia Menno
Ron Mingalone
Beth Moran
Beth Moran
Frances N Murdock
Charlie Murphy
Rich Murphy
Ed Newins
Chris Novick
Liam E O'rourke
Eliza Paley
Glenfield Payne
Oliver Platt
Juliet Polcsa
Noah Prince
Bruce Pross
Susan Raney
Rick Raphael
Lynn Reich
Shea Rowan
Elisabeth Rudolph
Keith Samples
Johnny Santiago
Tony Santos
William Sarokin
Steve Scanlon
Gianni Scappin
Diana Schmidt
George Sheanshang Esq.
Karen Sibrava
Charles Spillane
David Stein
Albert Sterling
Andrea Teicher
Philip Testa
Zeborah Tidwell
Dale C Todd
Steve Treadway
Joseph Tropiano
Susan Trout
Stanley Tucci
Eric Van Alstyne
Gary Van Der Meer
Justin Vanson
Michael Ventresco
Rosie Viggiano
Steve Visscher
Andrew Vogliano
John P Wolanczyk
Christopher Wyllie
Tom Yeager
Harriet S. Zucker
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Big Night
--Stanley Tucci
One of the great "food movies," Big Night (1996) was a surprise indie hit in 1996 and created something of a craze for its centerpiece culinary dish, Italian timpano. The whimsical, poignant comedy-drama is about two brothers (Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub), Italian immigrants, who have opened a small restaurant called Paradise in 1950s New Jersey. They pride themselves on their authentic Italian cuisine and dining experience, but they can't bring in any customers because of nearby Pascal's, which is wildly popular with the locals despite its unsophisticated American take on Italian dining: spaghetti and meatballs, checkered tablecloths, candles in Chianti bottles, and singing waiters. One of the brothers comically scorns Pascal's as "a rape of cuisine. The man should be in prison for the food he serves!"
With Paradise about to go out of business, the brothers mount a last-ditch attempt to save their restaurant and keep from having to return to Italy. They've heard that jazz singer Louis Prima is coming to town, so they pour all their resources into preparing an extravagant party, in the hope that he will attend and draw attention. When he doesn't, the brothers instead invite over twenty friends to indulge in a spectacular, final dinner....
This is the surface storyline of Big Night, but the movie is really about deeper, more profound issues like assimilation and the immigrant experience in America, the clash of morality and culture between old-world Italy and 1950s America, art vs. commerce, integrity vs. selling out. Food is used as a way of exploring the differences between the cultures -- not just in the food itself, but in the ways it is consumed, with the Italians treating dining as a lingering social ritual in which friends and family, stories, and laughter are all vital ingredients.
Stanley Tucci, who co-wrote, co-directed, and co-produced, also has pointed out the story's parallels to the filmmaking world, with Big Night a truly independent film struggling to succeed in a market saturated by often-bland studio titles. "The idea of assimilating and losing a certain amount of character or culture is something that is very much on my mind," Tucci said in 1996. "Being full-blooded Italian-American, it's sad to see the old ways die out. Don't get me wrong. I love contemporary stuff, but so many of the old ways are gone for good. Everything becomes very homogenized. The common expression you hear from people in the movie business is that they don't want the audience to have to work hard. Personally, I think the audience enjoys getting a little exercise."
Tucci wrote the script with his cousin, Joseph Tropiano, over the course of several years between acting jobs. "We set the film in the fifties," he said, "because that was a time when mass production was really shifting into high gear, things were becoming homogenized and, on the food side, fast food and TV dinners were coming in. We have these two characters who are trying to run a business where things are made by hand on a very intimate and human scale, while America is heading in the opposite direction."
Tucci brought on old friend and fellow actor Campbell Scott to co-direct, but in reality this was mainly for scenes in which Tucci appeared in front of the camera. By all accounts, the principal artistic vision for this film came from Tucci, who explained that he undertook the movie out of frustration with the weak roles he'd been getting: "I wanted to finally get a decent part for myself. I mean, if I'd been cast in enough good roles, I don't think I'd have gotten around to making this."
On a budget of $4 million, the independently-financed film shot for a total of 35 days on the Jersey shore, in parts of the Bronx and Westchester, and on an elaborate set which replicated a complete restaurant with a full working kitchen. There was a second working kitchen just off the set where the food stylist and her staff cooked all the food that was then "finished" by the actors on camera. Both Tucci and Shalhoub trained for many months with master chefs in New York and Los Angeles to hone their cooking knowledge and skills.
The finished film initially drew no interest from distributors. Then it got into the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, where it garnered strong reviews and audience response, and won the screenwriting prize. Now the distributors were fighting over it; the Samuel Goldwyn Company prevailed, and released the film commercially that September. "It's funny," said Tucci at the time. "I made this little movie about the struggle between art and commerce and now I'm such a hot item."
Critics loved Big Night. Variety's Todd McCarthy deemed it "extremely well directed, a smartly made, delightfully acted period piece whose sensibility neatly straddles art films and the mainstream... There is a lightly poetic, bighearted, humanist approach throughout that reminds of early Fellini." Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film "has the simple, graceful arc of a short story... What's most affecting here...is the film's absolute faith in artistry and independence in a world that may not necessarily respect either one."
Critics also warned viewers not to see it on an empty stomach -- or at least to have plans for an Italian dinner afterwards! Big Night became a hit, grossing $12 million for a healthy profit. A clever marketing campaign led restaurants in some cities to devise tie-ins, enticing filmgoers to indulge in an Italian dinner like the one on screen -- or something close to it.
The climactic meal in the movie is a multi-course affair featuring mouth-watering soup, roast chicken, baked fish, asparagus, garlic cloves, artichokes, roast pig and more. But the centerpiece -- and the one item that drew the most attention -- is the timpano, a drum-shaped Calabrian marvel in which a pastry-dough torte is filled with delicate layers of pasta, meats, hard-boiled eggs and cheese, and then baked. Tucci later wrote: "Structurally and creatively, [the timpano] gave us the strong focus for the meal and had repercussions we never anticipated. During the first screenings we were amazed by the audience's reaction to this dish. They were exactly those of the characters in the film -- audible gasps of awe and wonder."
The timpano on-screen was made from a then-secret recipe courtesy of Tucci's mother, who served as an unofficial food consultant. (In real life, the Tuccis have timpano every Christmas.) In 1999, Mrs. Tucci published the recipe in the book Cucina & Famiglia, in which she and another chef shared recipes and essays on Italian cooking.
As impressive as the dinner sequence, with its timpano, may be, Tucci serves up a beautiful, wordless coda to the film, in which a breakfast staple is cooked ever so casually -- yet stunningly. As critic Todd McCarthy wrote of this elegant sequence, "Generally the direction is supremely confident, never more so than in the final, masterful long take in the kitchen in which the drama's primal conflict is quietly resolved."
By Jeremy Arnold
SOURCES:
Margaret Coyle, "Il Timpano," in Reel Food, edited by Anne L. Bower
Steve Zimmerman and Ken Weiss, Food in the Movies
Big Night
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Tony Shalhoub was co-winner, along with Martin Donovan, of the 1996 award for Best Supporting Actor from the National Society of Film Critics. Donovan was cited for his performance in "The Portrait of a Lady" (New Zealand/United Kingdom/USA).
Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival.
Expanded Release in United States October 4, 1996
Limited Release in United States September 20, 1996
Released in United States 1996
Released in United States 1997
Released in United States Fall September 20, 1996
Released in United States February 2007
Released in United States January 1996
Released in United States on Video April 22, 1997
Released in United States September 1996
Shown at American Film Market (AFM) in Los Angeles February 29 - March 8, 1996.
Shown at Berlin International Film Festival (Eat, Drink, See Movies) February 8-18, 2007.
Shown at Boston Film Festival September 6-16, 1996.
Shown at New Directors/New Films in New York City March 22 - April 7, 1996.
Shown at Rotterdam International Film Festival January 29 - February 9, 1997.
Shown at Sundance Film Festival (in competition) in Park City, Utah January 18-28, 1996.
Feature directorial debuts for actors Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci.
Co-directors Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci received the 1996 award for Best First Film from the New York Film Critics Circle.
Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott received the 1996 award for Best Newcomer from the Boston Society of Film Critics. In addition, Tucci and Joseph Tropiano received the award for Best Screenplay.
Released in United States 1996 (Shown at American Film Market (AFM) in Los Angeles February 29 - March 8, 1996.)
Released in United States 1996 (Shown at New Directors/New Films in New York City March 22 - April 7, 1996.)
Released in United States 1997 (Shown at Rotterdam International Film Festival January 29 - February 9, 1997.)
Released in United States January 1996 (Shown at Sundance Film Festival (in competition) in Park City, Utah January 18-28, 1996.)
Released in United States February 2007 (Shown at Berlin International Film Festival (Eat, Drink, See Movies) February 8-18, 2007.)
Began shooting May 30, 1995.
Completed shooting July 19, 1995.
Released in United States on Video April 22, 1997
Released in United States September 1996 (Shown at Boston Film Festival September 6-16, 1996.)
Limited Release in United States September 20, 1996
Released in United States Fall September 20, 1996
Expanded Release in United States October 4, 1996