Word: secondos
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...centuries rolled on, bits of the True Cross or Our Lady's shoe faded from prominence within their gilded reliquaries. What catapulted the shroud into its role as a modern touchstone was the testimony of a thoroughly modern invention: the camera. On May 28, 1898, a city councillor named Secondo Pia took the first photographs of the relic. One scholar recounts that as the negative image began to appear in his darkroom, Pia "nearly dropped the plate." Markings that had been faint on the cloth suddenly jumped out with such extraordinary clarity and added detail that "he felt certain...
...Shore) is propitious for a gourmet Italian restaurant. But the struggles of the immigrant Pilaggi brothers to impose their delicate risottos on a red-sauce culture are perhaps the year's most unlikely success. Primo, the chef (Tony Shalhoub), has the soul of an artist--watchful, uncompromising, mildly depressive. Secondo, the maitre d' (Stanley Tucci, who, with Campbell Scott, wrote and directed), is trying vainly to be an American entrepreneur. Stumbling toward bankruptcy, they also sail toward wisdom in this beautifully acted and utterly delicious comedy of--shall we say?--table manners...
...Pilaggi Brothers, Primo and Secondo (Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci), are simple souls. Italian immigrants, they believe that if they bring the best of their native land's cuisine to America, fortune will inevitably follow. They have, however, picked the wrong time--the 1950s--and the wrong place--the Jersey shore--for culinary proselytizing. Perhaps even the wrong street, for across from their modest establishment stands Pascal's, whose proprietor (Ian Holm) is busy noisily and prosperously ladling red sauce across his customers' tin palates and quietly scheming his rivals' ruin...
They are, in a way, easy marks. Primo, the chef, is a shy and brooding purist, utterly unable to compromise one of his exquisite risottos, no matter what the market demands. Secondo, the maitre d', shoots his cuffs with elegant panache but is not quite the shrewd and worldly businessman he thinks he is. When Pascal proposes that they throw a scrumptious, sumptuous banquet, promising to supply a celebrity (Louis Prima, the old-time band leader) whose patronage, Pascal assures them, will bring saving glamour and publicity to their enterprise, they invest the last of their capital in the plan...
When all is said and done, but not yet fully digested, Secondo enters his kitchen, makes an omelet, shares it with Primo and an assistant. All this is done in real time, without change of camera angle or exchange of words. It is spectacularly confident filmmaking, honoring our ability to draw our own conclusions about what we've seen and the medium's rarely employed ability to convey major emotions through minimal means. And it is completely emblematic of--oh, let's just say it--a completely delicious movie...