Mostly Martha (film)

Mostly Martha (film)
Mostly Martha
Directed by Sandra Nettelbeck
Produced by Karl Baumgartner
Christoph Friedel
Written by Sandra Nettelbeck
Starring Sergio Castellitto
Martina Gedeck
Maxime Foerste
Cinematography Michael Bertl
Editing by Mona Bräuer
Distributed by Paramount Classics (USA)
Release date(s) 10 September 2001
Running time 109 mins.
Country Italy Italy
Germany Germany
Austria Austria
Switzerland Switzerland
Language German, Italian

Bella Martha (English: Mostly Martha) is a 2001 German romantic comedy drama film directed by Sandra Nettelbeck. The American movie No Reservations is heavily based on this. It is about a skilled chef in Hamburg, Germany. When her sister dies, she is left taking care of her niece, who gives her problems. She then has to face choices about the best solution to solve the problems set forth by her niece.

The film follows the events as they occur, but has occasional interludes where Martha is speaking with her therapist about cooking.

Contents

Plot

Martha Klein (Martina Gedeck) is a workaholic chef, single-mindedly obsessed with the perfection of her culinary creations. After her boss, restaurant-owner Frida, catches her arguing with a pair of customers over the quality of her cooking, Martha is ordered to see a therapist (August Zirner) to try to work out her control issues and poor interpersonal relationships. (Martha usually faces the stress she encounters at work by locking herself in the meatlocker until she calms down.) Meanwhile, Martha's sister, perhaps her only connection to a world outside of her job, dies in a car accident, leaving Martha in charge of her niece, the sullen and broody Lina (Maxime Foerste).

While trying to deal with her sister's death and the difficulty of raising her niece (who initially wants nothing more than to find her estranged Italian father), Martha's world is further turned upside down when Frida hires funloving and unorthodox Mario (Sergio Castellitto) as a sous-chef to replace the heavily pregnant Lea. Mario challenges Martha's defenses and bonds with Lina, who begins to accompany Martha to work. Martha begins to relax and open up to the possibility of a romantic relationship with Mario. Her progress is seemingly cut short when she forgets to pick Lina up from school while helping Lea get to the hospital to deliver her baby. While she reconciles with her niece after a heated argument, Lina's father arrives to take his daughter to Italy to live with his new wife and family. Martha is distraught and conflicted and cuts off her relationship with Mario and quits her job because she is tired of Frida's criticism.

She eventually reconciles with Mario and the two of them drive to Italy to get Lina. The closing scenes of the movie suggest that they marry, adopt Lina, and are opening up a restaurant of their own. Martha, who is still seeing her therapist, is apparently giving him cooking lessons, where he is amazed that she could tell the difference between the type of sugar he used and the type of sugar the recipe called for.

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is comprised substantially of music by artists from the ECM Records stable, including Keith Jarrett, Steve Reich, David Darling and Arvo Pärt, with most compositions dating from the 1990s. Manfred Eicher, founder of ECM Records is credited as music consultant.

Remakes

A feature film based on Mostly Martha, retitled No Reservations, was released in the United States in 2007 starring Catherine Zeta-Jones in the role corresponding to Martha. Aaron Eckhart takes on the role corresponding to Mario in Mostly Martha with an Americanised attitude.[2]

The film inspired a Bollywood interpretation, Cheeni Kum, starring Amitabh Bachchan and a Spanish remake: Chef's Special.

Notes

  1. ^ Frank Glaubrecht was hired by producers to dub over Castellitto's voice.
  2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0481141/

External links


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