The Bread, My Sweet (2001)

Director:

Melissa Martin

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

In Italian a good man is a piece of bread.

Plot:

A man proposes to a woman he's met once, all in the same day.

Plot Keywords:

Italian | Male Female Relationship | Food | Cancer | Italian American

Awards:

5 wins

Cast

Scott Baio	...	Dominic
Kristin Minter	...	Lucca
Rosemary Prinz	...	Bella
John Amplas	...	Jimmy
Zachary Mott	...	Eddie (as Billy Mott)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nancy Bach	...	Second Doctor
John Bechtol	...	Jeffrey
Manik Bhojwani	...	Boardroom Drone
Rose Bray	...	Rose
Paula Carroll	...	Bibi
Daniel Catanzaro	...	Priest
Mary Harvey	...	Sister Grace
Shuler Hensley	...	Pino
Biagio Izzo	...	Paula Carroll
Kevin Lageman	...	Len
Fred Lehman	...	Lorenzo
Jennie Martin	...	Maude
Rachel McCartney	...	Street Musician
Katherine McKenna	...	Coffee Shop Regular
Dominic Mecchia	...	Cafe Patron
Nardi Novak	...	Nancy the Cop
Jody O'Donnell	...	Preston
Bingo O'Malley	...	CEO
John Seitz	...	Massimo
Marty Sheets	...	Liz
Daniel Stafford	...	Boardroom Guy
Daniel Stafford	...	Boardroom Guy
Nick Tallo	...	Bomba
Barbara Thomas	...	Donna the Cop
Adrienne Wehr	...	Tamela
Philip Winters	...	Dr. Wahl

Also Known As:

A Wedding for Bella (USA) (DVD title)
My Bread, My Sweet (Australia) (cable TV title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexuality, some sexual references and language.

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Italian | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Strip District, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

Who Knew Productions

Trivia:

The Enrico Biscotti Bakery is owned and operated by Director Melissa Martins husband. Massimo and Bella are also based on the actual residents who lived above the bakery.

Quotes:

Dominic: You people eat such crap. I mean, what... When does this expire? What's in it? Mono... I mean this is... I don't even know what this is.

Soundtrack:

La Tarantella de Concetta

A warm, wonderful, romantic movie.

"The Bread, My Sweet" is a warm, wonderful, romantic movie. How refreshing to watch an indie film that doesn't depend on sex and violence to draw an audience. Set in Pittsburgh's vibrant wholesale district "The Strip," the film stars Scott Baio (who proves to be a gifted and passionate actor) as Dominic, a young, materially successful, Italian-American corporate executive who moonlights as a biscotti baker with his two brothers.

Dominic is leading two lives -- by day, he's a Master of the Universe, selling companies and firing employees. By night, he's a baker -- beloved by his customers and devoted to Bella and Massimo, the elderly Italian owners of the bakery. Colorful, crabby and sentimental, Bella and Massimo live above the bakery, and bring the richness of Dominic's forgotten ethnicity back to him. As Dominic becomes increasingly disenchanted with his corporate job, the biscotti he bakes becomes a metaphor for a life that's both simpler and more nurturing.

When Bella is diagnosed with cancer, Dominic quits his corporate job so he can bake full-time and fulfill her long-standing wish -- to see him marry her beautiful but flighty daughter, Lucca. Lucca (played by radiant and talented "ER" alum, Kristin Minter), like Dominic, has distanced herself from her Italian roots. They decide to stage a deception to fulfill Bella's naïve wish that they get married. The only problem is that Dominic and Lucca don't love each other. They don't even like each other. Tragically, Bella dies before the wedding. Dominic and Lucca call off the wedding, but then must search their hearts. Perhaps Bella has made a match after all.

With "The Bread, My Sweet," writer/director Melissa Martin and producer Adrienne Wehr have made a sweet, magical film that is sentimental, personal, and deeply affecting. Shot in Martin's husband's biscotti bakery (he's a former corporate exec turned baker), the film is a tribute to the `real' Bella, a charismatic Italian woman who lived on the floor above for some forty years. Bella was so beloved that upon her death, Pittsburgh's Strip District partially closed down to make way for the entourage of relatives, friends and local politicians who paid tribute to her memory and to a lifetime of generosity. It this unforgettable character who inspired Martin to pen the story.

With loving attention to food (they talk, they bake, they feast), if you didn't eat before seeing `The Bread, My Sweet,' you'll be starving by the end of the film. Despite a slow start (the result of a post-production funding squeeze that prevented another editing pass), "The Bread, My Sweet" is engaging, emotional and well crafted. Martin and Wehr are a great directing and producing team - they are not only friends, but as actors themselves (Wehr has a small role in the film), their sense of creative collaboration pervades the movie. Like Dominic's biscotti, it's made with love.