"No Reservations" vs "Bella Martha"

Lately I've been thinking about the variety of remakes in the U.S. of foreign films. Over the years there have been numerous "translations" of successful films from foreign markets to the United States using English speaking actors so that American audiences didn't have to read the subtitles on the bottom of the screen or endure, horror of horrors, a poorly dubbed movie with the voices fading five minutes before the characters lips stop moving.

I saw "No Reservations ", starring Catherine Zeta-Jones ,Aaron Eckhart, and Abigail Breslin on DVD the other day. While many of the scenes seemed to be word for word translations from the script of the wonderful German film "Bella Martha", ("Mostly Martha"), there were some striking differences.

Both films have at their center the female head chef of a fancy restaurant whose sister dies in a car accident. Suddenly the chef who before only had to worry about cooking her dishes to perfection is now responsible for making sure her niece gets to school on time. Adding to this pressure is the arrival of another chef at the restaurant whose flirtation and singing of arias from Italian operas in the kitchen drive her to distraction.

While "No Reservations" had its charms, I was disappointed by the film's focus on the romantic relationship of Kate, (Zeta-Jones) and Nick, (Eckhart), and the minimization of the relationship between Kate and her niece Zoe, (Breslin). In "No Reservations" Zoe's only purpose seems to be to bring together Kate and Nick. There also seems to be a strange side track in the movie when the owner of the restaurant offers Nick the job of head chef, Kate's job. As if there weren't enough problems in Kate's life already. The actors do say romantic things to each other. But, even they looked like they didn't believe them. It also seems ironic that for a movie about a chef the director, Scott Hicks, seems to give us so few views of the food Kate creates.

"Bella Martha ", set in Germany, begins with the same basic premise but instead chooses to focus first on the conflict between Martha, the chef's, love of her niece, Lina, ( Maxime Foerste) and her feeling that the girl would be better off with her father in Italy. Martha, ( Martina Gedeck), has her defenses up around the new chef, Mario, (Sergio Castellitto) he just seems too friendly. Eventually though she opens up to him when she needs his help to find Lina's father. Once he understands the situation he acts as if it is no big deal, but it marks a turning point in their relationship. She finally sees him as more than just competition. The actors who play Martha and Mario have great chemistry together. I really believed that they were falling in love. The director and screenwriter, Sandra Nettelbeck, obviously loves food because she gave us plenty of mouthwatering shots of both making and serving the food. The food is the fourth character and in "Bella Martha" we see the powerful role food plays in both romance and families.