Movies into Film
Directed by Melissa Martin
USA, 2002
The Bread, My Sweet
Minter and Baio (Photo: Panorama)
The morning after I watched The Bread, My Sweet, I logged on to the Enrico Biscotti website, the real life Pittsburgh bakery that served as the inspiration and on-location set for the movie. Resisting the urge to download virtual pane, I imagined instead strolling through the old Italian neighborhoods, stopping to sample at each pasticceria and panetteria, soaking up the good local color.
A cult favorite in its hometown for more than a year, The Bread, My Sweet has in recent months been on a slow trajectory from city to city, traveling more like a play than a theatrical release. Writer-director Melissa Martin comes from a theatre background, and that shows. The rhythms of this movie are not those of cinema, yet Martin displays a deft satiric touch in chewy close-ups of philistines gorging themselves on junk food. What’s really eating Martin, though, is a craving for authenticity in our increasingly denuded, whitewashed world, and to that sense of loss her film speaks quiet and clear.
Technically amateurish, the movie succeeds (to an extent) on the strength of its cast. Rosemary Prinz as Bella, an elderly Italian-American who often states “it’s better I see your eyes” when gauging a confidante’s honesty, imbues an old sweetheart archetype with a humanity that doesn’t ring false. You want to hug her; you want to sip coffee on the rooftop with this woman and be caught up by the warm humor she exudes. Yet the one who sent tears streaming from my eyes was Shuler Hensley as Pino, a developmentally disabled baker whose pies lovingly made for Bella must become smaller with each passing day. The scene wherein he discovers why is shattering. As Bella’s aloof daughter Lucca, Kristin Minter shades with appropriate ambiguity, and Scott Baio as the romantic lead performs in a style oddly reminiscent of Port Townsend’s own Pete Gillis. Pete has never reminded me of Baio; the ex-TV star nonetheless seems to have made a study of Pete, somehow, somewhere. – NPT
July 2003
Movies into Film
© N.P. Thompson, 2004
npt [at] moviesintofilm [dot] com