FINE DINING ON FILM: BIG NIGHT

Best known as an actor, Stanley Tucci is also an accomplished director. Tucci's first film, Big Night (1996), features Tucci as Secondo, an Italian restaurateur, who with his chef-brother Primo (Tony Shaloub), runs the failing Paradise restaurant in New Jersey during the late 1950s. The film takes its title from a promise by the proprietor of a competing restaurant (Ian Holm) to arrange for singing star Louie Prima to appear as a diner at Paradise and thus boost its reputation. Co-starring Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Allison Janney, Liev Schreiber, and Campbell Scott (who co-directed the film), Big Night won five awards and has sustained a reputation as one of the best films about the making and serving of fine food. Chef Mario Batali, who has watched the film 40 times, calls it "a cultural milestone." Italian chocolate will be served at the screening.