{image1}"Mostly Martha," a 2002 German film directed by Sandra Nettelbeck, is billed as a comedy/romance, but I've seen a few tears shed, too, during this picture about a lonely and socially inept master chef.
Martha (Martina Gedeck) is one of Hamburg's best chefs -- the second best in the city, as her boss points out -- but her high standards and her obsessive/compulsive habits don't do much for her social life. She's sometimes so hard to be around that the owner of Lido, the restaurant where she cooks, has demanded she go to therapy.
Her therapist can only barely handle Martha's incessant food talk and recipe recitation and is sometimes less than cordial to her. After work and on her days off Martha is alone. When she considers going out, she ends up staying in by herself.
An architect moves in downstairs and she makes a tentative step toward building a social life, but it's stilted and the two never seem to be firing simultaneously.
When Martha's sister dies in a car accident, her niece Lina (Maxime Foerste) is orphaned, sort of. Lina's Italian father is unknown to Martha, who takes the 8-year-old in and attempts to care for her. This isn't easy for Martha, unaccustomed to having other people around and certainly not up on what it takes to raise a child.
Consequently, Lina is rebellous, sullen and consistently late for school, when she goes. That is, until Mario (Sergio Castellitto, who appears in three of the four Italian films screening at the 2005 Milwaukee International Film Festival) is hired to help in the Lido kitchen because Martha is often absent, dealing with her new role as a parent.
Although Martha battles Mario -- for his invasion of her turf -- Lina adores him and that connection softens Martha. This is where the romance bit comes in. Mario helps Martha find Lina's father. But can Martha and Lina live without one another?
Incurably sappy in some bits, "Mostly Martha" is also smart and funny and, at some moments so painful and emotional, that it becomes almost impossible to pigeonhole. Except, that is, to say that its 105 minutes well spent.
Foodies will savor the cooking scenes and the shots of alluring dishes of all kinds.
"Mostly Martha" is the first of two movies in the Food Glorious Food theme of Flicks on Friday at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in downtown Sheboygan. It screens in the centers theater on Friday, Oct. 14, at 7:30 p.m. Call the Arts Center at (920) 458-6144.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
