Food movies we love: Moonstruck

by Anne Metz, Posted Jun 2nd 2006 @ 2:06PM

I remember the first time I realized that I loved Cher. It wasn't when she was swaying sweetly with Sonny, and it wasn't when she belted like a siren, "When you believveeee...." No, my admiration for Cher comes from her Oscar-winning role in a little film from 1987 called, Moonstruck.

Moonstruck not exactly a film about food – it's mostly about love, family and starting over again. But because Nicolas Cage plays a one-handed baker named Ronnie Cammareri and there are subsequently many scenes of his bakery, I think Moonstruck still counts as a food movie.

This amazing film has almost too many highlights to recount in this blog. Of course, there's the opera scene, and then there is the slap-scene, when Cher's Loretta Castorini famously screams, "Snap out of it."

And then there is the scene that is really the reason I regard Moonstruck as one of the greatest Food Movies of all time, wherein Ronnie laments, "Bread is life! Bread is my wife! But where's my life? Where's my wife? I've lost my arm!"

Bread is life, people. Bread is life.

Filed Under: Food Oddities, Bakeries
Tags: america, bread, cher, moonstruck, Nicolas Cage, NicolasCage, oddities

Chew on This

Royal Wedding Cake Details Revealed! - YumSugar

Make Your Own Pop Tarts - CHOW
Denny's Introduces a Maple Bacon Sundae - Eater
Whole Foods Opening Bars in Stores - USA Today
Rules Of Bar Etiquette -- For The Bartender - HuffPost Food

Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-02-2006 @2:16PM Jack said... If you really want to see a great food movie, check out Big Night.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-02-2006 @3:22PM Anne Metz said... One step ahead of you, Jake! Check it: http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/24/food-movies-we-love-big-night/
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-02-2006 @3:39PM Sharon said... I'm right there with you... I LOVE this movie! My favorite line? "Old man, you give those dogs another piece of my food and I'm gonna kick you 'til you're dead!"
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-02-2006 @4:06PM floretbroccoli said... There's a wonderful scene in the kitchen between Cher and Olympia Dukasis. I remember almost nothing about the scene, but I do remember the eggs in a frame of fried bread that OD is cooking!
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-02-2006 @4:32PM Kate said... ... or Loretta admonishing Johnny not to order something that would make him ill on the flight. "You'll have the pasta, it will make a nice base for your stomach."

Or feeding Ronny a steak. "I like it well done." "You'll eat it rare to feed your blood."

Love that film!
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-02-2006 @4:48PM Anne Metz said... And how could we forget, "La Bella Luna!"

Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-02-2006 @4:56PM Jenny said... Floretbroccoli, I was thinking of that scene too. The camera lingers on the egg in the bread, and then they top it with what appear to be roasted red peppers. I remember it just seemed wildly exotic to me when I first saw it.

Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-02-2006 @5:47PM Phillip Signey said... I love this movie, but my overwhelming food memory is of the family putting sugar cubes in glasses of Champaign

Favorite scene: On leaving the performance of la Boheme , Cher cries out: I knew she was sick but I didn’t think she was going to die…

Reply