Big Night (1996)

A failing Italian restaurant run by two brothers gambles on one special night to try to save the business.

Directors:

Campbell Scott, Stanley Tucci

Writers:

Joseph Tropiano, Stanley Tucci

Stars:

Marc Anthony, Tony Shalhoub, Stanley Tucci

11 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marc Anthony	...	Cristiano
Tony Shalhoub	...	Primo
Stanley Tucci	...	Secondo
Larry Block	...	Man in Restaurant
Caroline Aaron	...	Woman in Restaurant
Andre Belgrader	...	Stash
Minnie Driver	...	Phyllis
Peter McRobbie	...	Loan Officer
Isabella Rossellini	...	Gabriella
Liev Schreiber	...	Leo
Pasquale Cajano	...	Alberto N. Pisani
Christine Tucci	...	Woman Singer
Gene Canfield	...	Charlie
Ian Holm	...	Pascal
Allison Janney	...	Ann

Storyline

Primo and Secondo are two brothers who have emigrated from Italy to open an Italian restaurant in America. Primo is the irascible and gifted chef, brilliant in his culinary genius, but determined not to squander his talent on making the routine dishes that customers expect. Secondo is the smooth front-man, trying to keep the restaurant financially afloat, despite few patrons other than a poor artist who pays with his paintings. The owner of the nearby Pascal's restaurant, enormously successful (despite its mediocre fare), offers a solution - he will call his friend, a big-time jazz musician, to play a special benefit at their restaurant. Primo begins to prepare his masterpiece, a feast of a lifetime, for the brothers' big night...

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Plot Keywords:

restaurant | brother | italian | feast | jazz | 

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Taglines:

In love and life, one big night can change everything.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

20 September 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Grande Inauguração

Filming Locations:

32 Broad Street, Keyport, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

ITL 143,875,000 (Italy) (7 March 1997)

Gross:

ITL 763,505,000 (Italy) (11 April 1997)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rysher Entertainment, Timpano Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shot over a period of 35 days.

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Goofs

When Bob is talking to Segundo in the Cadillac, his lollipop is alternately in/out of his mouth between shots.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Primo: [offers a taste asking opinion in Italian]
Secondo: What?
Primo: More Salt?
Secondo: No.
[continues chopping]
Primo: Not too fine, eh? Sometimes you cut it too fine, then all you taste is the garlic!

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Connections

Featured in Zomergasten: Episode #20.5 (2007)

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Soundtracks

"Stornelli Amorisi"
Written by Sarra, Astro and Mari
Performed by Claudio Villa

User Reviews

Culturally Rich Slice of Life

Big Night is a peaceful joy to watch because its themes and the overall feeling of the film is so normal. The characters, so beautifully rich, are realistic and so are their problems. The characters are mainly wonderfully, infectiously bombastic Italians, and entire scenes are sometimes constructed of the process of making Italian food from scratch. The subtlety and unaffronting reality of these qualities are so endearing to me. In fact, the scene that leaves an imprint on me more than any of the others, despite how fun it is to see the actors have a blast playing fiery, thick-mustachioed men with heavy Italian accents, is a scene that hardly has a connection with any of the others. An Italian ballad is playing over the soundtrack through the previous scene and continues into this scene, wherein Marc Anthony, playing a low-level restaurant bus boy, a small, quiet, incidental character, begins dancing with himself as he mops the floor of the restaurant. When other characters enter, the music, coming from nowhere but the film's soundtrack itself, cuts off and he continues mopping the floor as if the dancing never happened. It's so touching for that scene to have been slipped in, giving a person who is only against the background of everyone's lives a dreamy, sensitive personality that he keeps to himself.

The focal point of the film is the chemistry between the characters of Stanley Tucci, playing a hard-working, pleading, frustrated restaurant owner, whose head carries only logic and a goal for success, and Tony Shalhoub, his brother, whose aggressive passion is for the food he cooks and the mystery and subtext within it, yet his interaction with people is painfully shy. Their clashes of pride, their battles with each other's completely different perspectives, and yet their sharing of the same dream are what drives the story.

A lot of the film's humor comes from the hilarity of Ian Holm. Ian Holm, a stiff-limbed Englishman, plays here a loud, very animated, hot-tempered Italian entrepreneur with a seamless and wonderfully entertaining delivery of an Italian accent and Italian movements. It's my favorite performance of his because I had never before imagined that he would play a role like this.

Big Night is not a masterpiece nor do I think it was even meant to be one, but what it is is subtle and interesting for purely human reasons. It's soundtrack is also a fantastic celebration of Italian music.