Feasting on Light: 2001 Fall Film Festival to Open with "Big Night"

This semester, the Texas A&M International University Fall Film Festival: "Feasting on Light" will celebrate food and our relationship to it in 12 films. The flickering banquet begins with the award-winning film "Big Night," Wednesday, September 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Bullock Hall 101. The showing is free and open to the public.

"Big Night" (1996), co-directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci, is the story of two Italian immigrant brothers, a talented chef and a striving businessman, trying to save their restaurant in 1950s America. By offering the chef's lifetime masterpiece meal to customers, and inviting famous jazz musician Louis Prima to perform, the brothers do everything in their power to stay afloat. Leonard Maltin, film critic, describes the on-screen feast as "mouthwatering."

The film won the 1996 Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay and Scott and Tucci won Best New Filmmaker. Tony Shalhoub won the 1997 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Primo, the brilliant but volatile chef.

The film is rated R for language.

After the show, there will be 15 to 30 minutes of commentary and questions and answers, led by Dr. Sean M. Chadwell and Dr. William J. Nichols II, both assistant professors in the College of Arts and Humanities, and series creators.

The next film in the series will be shown on September 19 and is entitled "Tampopo." This touching Japanese comedy uses a series of vignettes to portray the joy of life and food.

For more information, contact either Drs. Chadwell or Nichols by phone, 326.2471, 326.2610, visit offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 418C, room 421B or visit the festival's website:

http://www.tamiu.edu/~wnichols/food.htm.

Office hours for the University are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Affairs and Information Services at pais@tamiu.edu