DREAM STREAM Enjoy two perfectly paired films, mood food & a classic film frame-of-mind
THE FILMS: Marty (1955) starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair; Written by Paddy Chayefsky and Moonstruck (1987) starring Cher, Nicolas Cage and Olympia Dukakis; Written by John Patrick Shanley.
THE CONNECTION: Although one is a poignant drama and the other a romantic comedy, both are set within Italian-American culture and tell the tales of grown children living with their parents and grappling with the feeling that love has passed them by.
Marty stars Ernest Borgnine, who won an Academy Award for his performance as good-hearted Marty Piletti, a 34 year-old butcher who lives with his widowed mother in the Bronx.
After years of rejection, Marty has all but given up on himself. He believes he’s too old and too ugly for any woman to love. His mother encourages him to the point of harassment, “You gonna die without a son!” to go to the Stardust Ballroom and try one more time to meet someone. And, under the man-made glow of the mirrored dance ball, Marty does meet someone. Clara, played by Betsy Blair, is a shy school teacher who’s as lonely as he.
Borgnine portrayed Marty with a physicality that revealed more about the man than words ever could. I defy anyone to watch his performance and not get a lump in their throat. Watch as he awkwardly practices a few steps before asking a woman to dance; or as he slowly closes his eyes when he can no longer stand the pain of rejection; and to me, the most poignant moment of all, the hug that follows the small, tentative kiss between he and Clara. Marty’s hug is like that of a drowning man who’s just been tossed a life preserver.
Moonstruck stars Cher, who also won an Academy Award for her luminous performance as Loretta Castorini. Loretta is a 37 year-old bookkeeper from Brooklyn who lives at home with her parents. Widowed as a younger woman after just 2 years of marriage, Loretta is through waiting for true love to come again. She not only feels too old, she also feels cursed. She decides to accept a proposal from a man she doesn’t love in the hopes that her luck will change. And it does, in a very unexpected way, when she meets her future one-handed, opera-loving, brother-in-law, Ronny, played by Nicolas Cage.
But, as Marty and Loretta take their fragile, sometimes frantic steps towards love, the support that they’ve so dutifully given to friends and family over the years is sorely lacking in return, making their journeys all the more difficult.
The screenplays for both of these movies are stars in their own ‘write.’
It’s another Saturday night and Marty (Ernest Borgnine) and his ‘frenemy’ Angie (Joe Mantell), are about to utter a few lines that remain beloved, iconic, and parodied to this day.
The legendary Paddy Chayefsky won his first Academy Award for this screenplay that captures the monotony and mores of 1950s working class Italian-Americans so well that it’s hard to believe he wasn’t Italian himself – though he was born and raised in the Bronx. As such, Chayefsky originally set out to satirize his neighborhood inhabitants with these lines between Marty and his ‘frenemy,’ Angie. Sound familiar? I bet they do.
Angie: “Whadaya feel like doin’ tonight?”
Marty: “I don’t know, Angie. Whadaya feel like doin’?”
Angie: “…I don’t know. Whadaya feel like doin’?”
I imagine it even surprised Chayefsky how these lines became so beloved, iconic, and much parodied to this day. My favorite modern reference is on The SpongeBob SquarePants Show. SpongeBob and his best friend Patrick Starfish parody these lines in the episode, “Life of Crime” (2001). I wonder if that came from the show’s writers hanging around with the late, great, Ernest Borgnine who had begun voicing the character of Mermaid Man back in 1999? I like to think so.
John Patrick Shanley also, deservedly, won an Academy Award for writing Moonstruck. A screenplay, filled with unforgettable characters, it has been likened to a fairy tale. But, perhaps because I’m Italian-American myself, I see it in more ‘relative’ terms. Moonstruck to Marty is like a second cousin on your mother’s side who lives out in Brooklyn. She’s younger, funnier, and sure, they’re all a bit crazier, but the family resemblance is undeniable. Judge for yourself: in Marty women are callously called “dogs,” in Moonstruck, men are “wolves.” Men bellow in both films “I don’t want to talk about it!” Both feature mothers who live in big, old, homes, struggling themselves with where they are in their lives. The specter of death hovers over both stories, as does the belief in the ‘evil eye’ and curses. Marty and Loretta go to church, speak of God and gather ‘round the kitchen table for all important discussions.
So what does it all mean? Ronny sums it up: “Love don’t make things nice. It ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We are here to…love the wrong people and die.”
Talk about la dolce vita!
MOOD FOOD: Bread is life, so get Italian with yours. Get a fresh loaf of Italian bread and a small bowl of simmering, homemade, gravy (that’s red sauce for the non-Italians among you). Dip your bread into the gravy, open a bottle of red and enjoy, like love’s first kiss, a bit of heaven on earth.
CLASSIC ATTITUDE: If you love someone who loves you back, realize how lucky you are. Tell them “Ti amo.” Often. And, if you’re still looking for that special someone and the search has gotten you feeling a bit down, remember the immortal words of Loretta Castorini: “Snap out of it!”
… And because more is always a lot more fun than less, here’s another heart-warming clip, titled, “What the hell happened to you!” One small scene among many from Moonstruck (1987) that won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for Olympia Dukakis.
