As part of the second Settimana della Cucina Italiana nel Mondo (World Week of Italian Cuisine), an event that celebrates Italy’s diversified regional cuisine and food traditions, there will be a special screening of Mario Mattòli’s cult film Miseria e nobiltà (1954). The film is based on Eduardo Scarpetta’s play and is starring Totò, one of the most popular Italian comedians of all time. It is the story of two humble families, posing as aristocrats in order to help a Marquis marry the daughter (Sophia Loren) of a rich but simple cook.
Food is one of the recurring themes in Italian cinema and the most famous scene in Miseria e nobiltà is the one where a headwaiter brings titanic amounts of food to the poor families; Totò and the other actors jump on the table and start dancing, eating and putting pasta in their pockets: a true celebration of life and food, an hymn to the Italian culinary tradition and to the situation of many Italian people during the 1950s.
The event is organised in collaboration with the Italian Department of the University of Edinburgh, and the film will be introduced by a talk by Dr Davide Messina: “Speak as you eat: a macaronic art”.
The screening will be followed by an Italian buffet prepared by TV celebrity chef Fabio Campoli.
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