• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

GASTRONOMY, CULTURE, AND THE ARTS: A SCHOLARLY EXCHANGE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS | UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA Big Night: An Analysis of a Deeper Conflict between Italian Cultures Tony (Yuhao) Yang, University of Toronto Mississauga During the 1950s, America received an influx of Italian immigrants. For many of these Italians, immigrating to America meant a new world full of possibilities, opportunities, and fresh starts. Sadly, it also meant abandoning older cultural traditions rooted in the Italian Renaissance in order to better adapt to and succeed within their new Italian-American environment. In spite of this, many Italian immigrants still clinged to their roots and retained a deep sense of nostalgia for their homeland, yearning to return to Italy. This desire to hold onto one’s roots stood in conflict with their equal desire to move forward within their new fast-paced environment, resulting in a break between traditional Italian and Italian-American cultures. In the 1996 film Big Night, this conflict is subtly explored. Taking place in New Jersey in the 1950s, Big Night centers on two brothers from Italy: Primo and Secondo, who together own a restaurant called Paradise that is on the verge of failure. In an attempt to save it, Secondo plans to host a big dinner for Louis Prima, a famous guest whose patronage he hopes will give Paradise enough publicity to draw in more customers. Through the inclusion of specific foods, songs, and works of art; portrayal of its main characters; and clever presentation of certain scenes, Big Night explores and challenges the many differences between traditional Italian and Italian-American cultures so as to demonstrate how truly deep this conflict ran among Italian immigrants arriving in the US during the 1950s. Since Big Night is a film that centers on a big dinner, it should come as no surprise that food, music, and art all make an appearance. While their appearances may at first seem random, they are in fact carefully selected and used to establish differences between traditional Italian and Italian-American cultures. To begin, several foods are served throughout the film that illustrate a clear difference in American tolerances towards traditional Italian and Italian-American cuisine. GASTRONOMY, CULTURE, AND THE ARTS: A SCHOLARLY EXCHANGE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS | UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA One such notable food is risotto. Originating in northern Italy, risotto is a dish comprised of rice that is usually cooked in a broth or cream and mixed with either seafood, vegetables, or meat. In its first appearance in the film, the risotto is made with Arborio rice, shrimp, and scallops, and it is served to a female customer at Paradise. Due to how it is prepared, however, the risotto fails to meet her expectations, resulting in a humorous exchange between the customer and Secondo that highlights the different expectations that Americans held towards Americanized Italian cuisine in the 1950s. Risotto is shown to be one such Americanized Italian dish and its appearance in the film illustrates how Italian-American recipes were often preferred over their traditional Italian counterparts. Timpano (also known as timballo) is another notable dish that appears in the film; though it originates in Italy, recipes tend to vary from region to region. The timpano that features in Big Night consists of eggs, meatballs, and pasta encased in a dough crust, which is served to the guests at Louis Prima’s dinner. Unlike the risotto, the timpano is presented to the guests as a completely new dish, implying that it had no Americanized equivalent to be compared with. The overwhelmingly positive response of the guests to the dish suggests that, in spite of the American preference towards Italian-American cuisine, traditional Italian cuisine could still be appreciated by American diners. Such examples of food in the film emphasize the vast difference in cuisine between the two opposing cultures, with Italian-American dishes often enjoying far more success than traditional Italian dishes in America during the 1950s. As with food, art similarly makes select appearances in Big Night to establish differences between traditional Italian and Italian-American cultures. Featuring prominently inside Paradise and its rival restaurant Pascal, the two restaurants are notably distinguished from one another by the quality of art on display. Paintings on the walls of Paradise are explained to have come from either Primo’s family or from an artist who paid for his meals with paintings. As both Primo and GASTRONOMY, CULTURE, AND THE ARTS: A SCHOLARLY EXCHANGE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS | UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA this artist come from poorer backgrounds, Paradise’s paintings are low in both quality and value. By contrast Pascal, who is Primo’s antithesis in both business and culture, adorns his namesake restaurant with large paintings, grand statues, and decorative vases, implying that he holds art to a higher standard of quality than Primo. Given that money is needed to purchase high quality art, one can correlate the quality of the paintings in either restaurant with the financial success of that restaurant. And if the success of both restaurants is found to be in correlation with the dishes they serve, then it can be concluded that Primo’s traditional Italian dishes are the reason why Paradise is unsuccessful while Pascal’s Italian-American dishes are the reason why his restaurant is very successful. Hence a contrast emerges between the financial successes of traditional Italian and Italian-American cultures during the 1950s, one that shows traditional Italian cuisine to be largely unprofitable and Italian-American cuisine to be very profitable. In addition to food and art, music is also used in the film to distinguish traditional Italian and Italian-American cultures. This is especially apparent during scenes intended to showcase a particular culture, which often features a song by a popular artist of the respective culture playing in the background. One example of this is the scene entitled “I Secondi” that takes places during Louis Prima’s dinner (Big Night). During this scene, Primo and Secondo prepare and serve to the guests a number of traditional Italian dishes, accompanied by the song “Tic Ti, Tic Ta” by Italian singer Claudio Villa. This choice selection of music not only helps distinguish traditional Italian culture from Italian-American culture within the film, but it further provides insight into specific differences between the two cultures and their values. Apart from one song, most of the songs by traditional Italian singers in the film have a slower rhythm than those by Italian-American artists. Such a difference in rhythm reflects the pace of life associated with each culture: the slow-paced Italian music reflects a penchant for a traditional and perhaps less hectic way of life, whereas the GASTRONOMY, CULTURE, AND THE ARTS: A SCHOLARLY EXCHANGE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS | UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA faster tempo of the Italian-American music reflects the fast-paced lifestyles of Italian-Americans in the 1950s. In summation, food, art, and music each make select appearances within the film that highlight differences between traditional Italian and Italian-American cultures. Through the use of traditional Italian dishes like risotto and timpano, the high and low quality paintings hung in Paradise and Pascal’s, and the select choice songs overlain atop important cultural scenes, the film develops a contrast between these two kinds of Italian cultures that illustrates just how deep such a conflict ran for Italian-Americans in the 1950s. In the same way that Big Night uses food, music, and art to illustrate this cultural conflict, the film’s portrayal of its two protagonists Primo and Secondo serves to emphasize the difference in worldviews practiced by traditional Italian and Italian-American cultures. At various moments in the film, Primo and Secondo make decisions that reflect the mindset and values of a particular culture. Primo, on the one hand, subscribes to the traditional Italian culture. Throughout the film, Primo’s traditional Italian dishes are contrasted with his rival Pascal’s Italian-American dishes in that the former’s are made with both appearance and taste in mind, whereas Pascal is content to serve simple and uninspired dishes to his customers. This suggests that Primo is a chef and artist first and a businessman second, cooking with attention to appearance, taste, and exoticism rather than just simplicity and popularity. It is this same mindset that causes Primo to refer to Pascal’s dishes as a “rape of cuisine” (Big Night). Furthermore, Primo’s traditional approach to cooking hearkens back to Renaissance Italy—particularly to its culture of courtly banqueting, where the presence of exotic, aesthetically pleasing, and carefully prepared dishes was an expression of the host’s power and sophistication. Conversely, the presence of simple dishes was a sign of poverty and barbarism in the host. Using this connection, it can be suggested that Primo’s approach to cooking is based on values inherited from the Italian Renaissance and, by extension, from a more GASTRONOMY, CULTURE, AND THE ARTS: A SCHOLARLY EXCHANGE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS | UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA traditional Italian culture than that of his Italian-American rival. In addition to his cooking, Primo also demonstrates material values that are in line with traditional Italian culture. During one particular scene, a customer is unable to pay for his meal in money and apologizes to Primo, who responds, “What would I do with money?” (Big Night). Primo’s lack of regard for money can potentially be read as pointing back to Italy’s fascist era, during which many Italians were extremely poor and had to make do with little to no money. In this same scene, Primo is then shown accepting a painting as payment for the meal, once again hearkening back to Renaissance Italy where art functioned as an indicator of one’s social class and ideals.

Load more

  9

Copy Link