Bella Martha
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Bella Martha |
| Country of production | Germany , Italy , Austria , Switzerland |
| original language | German , Italian |
| Publishing year | 2001 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 0 JMK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sandra Nettelbeck |
| script | Sandra Nettelbeck |
| production |
Karl Baumgartner , Christoph Friedel |
| music | Steven A. Reich |
| camera | Michael Bertl |
| cut | Mona Bräuer |
| occupation | |
| |
Bella Martha is a feature film from 2001 by the German director Sandra Nettelbeck , who also wrote the screenplay. Martina Gedeck played the main role .
action
Martha Klein, who is single, works as a chef in a French restaurant and is convinced that she is the best cook in town. She is a perfectionist and has no other purpose in life than cooking.
When her sister dies in a car accident, Martha takes her eight-year-old niece Lina into her home, because the only thing known about her father is that he is Italian and his name is Giuseppe. Martha sleeps in the living room and gives Lina her bedroom as her own space. Lina does not feel comfortable in the new situation and misses her mother. She rarely eats. Martha promises Lina to investigate her father.
The restaurant owner hires the fun-loving and somewhat eccentric Italian Mario to strengthen and temporarily replace Martha. Martha is initially not very pleased with the fact that she has competition in her kitchen and that she is confronted with new pasta and gnocchi dishes. Mario, conversely, admires Martha's cooking skills. After bad experiences with a babysitter, Martha takes Lina to the restaurant, where it turns out that Mario is good with children and gets Lina to eat more and regularly. The Italian cuisine tastes this much better than the overly refined dishes by Martha. Mario tells Martha that he doesn't want to oust her as head chef and threatens to quit if she doesn't agree with him. Reluctantly, she explains that she wants to work with him and begins to see him through different eyes.
After Lina tries to run away and go to Italy to see her father, Martha promises to grant her a wish, whatever it is. Lina wants Mario to cook for her and Martha at home. During the time Mario is visiting, cooking and playing with Lina, Martha and Mario fall in love and eventually become a couple.
With the help of Mario, Martha contacts Lina's father and asks him to take Lina to Italy. One day he stands at the door and picks up his daughter. Martha misses Lina after a short time. She has found a new purpose in life in her relationship with her and Mario. She quits the restaurant and goes to Italy with Mario to visit Lina. In the credits you see how she eats Lina again, opens a restaurant in Italy and marries Mario.
Reviews
“In addition to the very individual touch of the film in terms of acting and dialogue, which does not always avoid clichés in the plot, the cinematic perfectionism is particularly impressive because of the kitchen scenes. Cooking is at the center of the action, and we find ourselves repeatedly behind the scenes of a high-profile scene eatery. The lusty voyeurism that can let off steam here in the kitchen is charmingly undermined by the delicacy with which Sandra Nettelbeck lets Martina Gedecks and Sergio Castellitto's Eros loose on each other. "
“Sandra Nettelbeck's film, however, resists film gluttony and instead pays attention to the lean narrative line: a little love, a little friendship, a pinch of tragedy. Nevertheless, Schmalhans is not the master chef, but the charming Martina Gedeck. "
“The ingredients for the first movie by the experienced TV director Sandra Nettelbeck are not very sophisticated and their pictures are not necessarily screen-filling. Nevertheless, the mixture of sentimentality, culinary interludes and a portion of joie de vivre is tasty and easy to digest. And on top of that whets the appetite for good pasta. "
Awards
- Martina Gedeck won a German Film Prize in 2002 and a prize from the Association of German Film Critics in 2003 for her performance . She was also nominated for a European Film Award in 2002.
- Sergio Castellitto won the European Film Award in 2002 for his portrayal.
- In 2002 the film was nominated for the German Film Award for Best Feature Film.
- In 2003 the film received a nomination for the Spanish Goya Film Award in the category of Best European Film .
Trivia
- Sergio Castellitto shot his scenes in Italian because his knowledge of German was insufficient and was dubbed in the original German version by Frank Glaubrecht .
- In the sequence showing old video footage of Lina and her deceased mother, the director plays the mother.
- In the English-speaking world, the film was sold under the title Mostly Martha (Predominantly Martha), in Italy under the title Ricette d'amore (love recipes).
- In July 2007 the film was remade in America under the title Recipe to Fall in Love with Catherine Zeta-Jones in the lead role. The producers reacted to the surprise commercial success of Mostly Martha in the USA, where the film grossed over four million US dollars.
Web links
- Bella Martha in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Bella Martha at filmportal.de (with photo gallery)
- Bella Martha in the Lexicon of International Films
- Information and further film reviews ( memento from April 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) in the Dirk Jasper FilmLexikon
- Bella Martha at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ^ Age rating for Bella Martha . Youth Media Commission .