PIZZA SHOP: An Italian-American Dream will fit right into the St. Louis International Film Festival. Our town is deeply familiar with the tradition of Italian families creating restaurants that the next generations grow into. We’ve got plenty of them here in the Gateway City and environs.
The Osso family, arrived in this country from Calabria, the very toe of the “boot” of Italy, in 1963. Two of the sons, Charlie and Fred, who spoke no English, began working at a bakery and then a pizzeria in New York City. Within a few years, they bought an existing restaurant in New Jersey. They’re still there, feeding people and going through a move to newer quarters. Two of their sisters are also working at restaurants in the area, one of their sons runs a branch of the mother ship – and another son has made this film, which also pays tribute to Charlie’s late wife Nina, a beautiful woman with a particular gift for food and hospitality.
It’s not really about the mechanics of creating food, although at times, the shots of pizza coming out of the ancient gas ovens – watch Charlie light one – can almost make the viewer smell that distinctive aroma. It’s about how the family has created this restaurant-centric tradition that supports so many of the members. They return to Calabria for a visit, there’s some film of their parents, still alive, and we follow the move to the new location, the younger family pushing the older ones to pay attention to how the restaurant looks as well as how the food tastes.
Worthwhile, relatively short (57 minutes) and paired up with two short films, Crown Candy, a 10-minute short on Crown Candy Kitchen, and another, The Last Blintz, on a coffee shop closing in Times Square.
One showing only, on Sunday, November 12, at 2.45 p.m. at Plaza Frontenac Cinema. Film Festival tickets go quickly; advance purchase is strongly suggested.
