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`Bread, My Sweet' garners enthusiastic response

By Ed Blank, TRIBUNE-REVIEW FILM CRITIC
Tuesday, November 6, 2001
There should be an audience waiting if and when "The Bread, My Sweet" opens a regular engagement here.

Writer-director Melissa Martin and producer Adrienne Wehr made their romantic comedy-drama in Pittsburgh, mainly in the Strip District, during the spring with a cast headed by Scott Baio, Rosemary Prinz, John Seitz and Shuler Hensley, as well as local performers such as Phil Winters, Bingo O'Malley and Marty Sheets.

"The Bread, My Sweet" played to a packed house at Friday's $20-a-seat premiere (with reception) at Regent Square Theater, where the picture inaugurated the 20th annual Three Rivers Film Festival.

Judging from the prolonged applause afterward and a standing ovation for Martin and Wehr, the movie is positioned to do well when it opens, possibly as soon as Christmas.

Wehr told the crowd she and her partners hope to distribute the picture themselves in the States, beginning in Pittsburgh, and are considering offers for foreign distribution.

Several cast members attended the premiere, as did musician and singer Rachel McCartney, who performed before and after the screening. One of the songs she performed was "All of the Joy," from the movie,

Prinz, who plays the dying matriarch of an extended family of Italian pastry bakers, told the audience she's had a long career and that "nobody can be nicer to work for than Melissa and Adrienne." As the applause continued, she added, "I feel like Sally Field."

"I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful experience than this," said Seitz, who plays her irascible husband. "I believe in the (independent film) movement and in the vision of the artists. It was not only a labor or love but an act of love."

"It was a joy," said Hensley, referring to "the level of trust and ease of working with this ensemble of actors." He plays the most childlike of three brothers (with Baio and Billy Mott) who run the older couple's pastry shop.

"Every day, they turned it in," Martin said of her cast. She recalled a moment during the first day of filming when she realized, "Oh, my God, it's going to work ... It was like taking a driver's test in a Ferrari, working with these actors."

Today's films:

  • "Songs for Cassavetes": This documentary is a look at the do-it-yourself world of the indie/underground music scene from the perspective of those who make it happen. 7:15 p.m. Harris Theater, Downtown.

  • * "Fat Girl": From controversial French director Catherine Breillat comes this newest look at female sexuality as told from a female point-of-view. 9:30 p.m. Harris Theater, Downtown.

  • "T. Foley Presents: Women in Animated Media From Early Cinema to Cable Television": Pittsburgh media artist T. Foley will introduce basic concepts of visual literacy regarding the characterization and manifestation of women in animated media. A peculiar but engaging cross-section of cartoons and art-house film clips will be screened. 8 p.m. Melwood Screening Room, Oakland.

  • "Adanggaman": This film from the Ivory Coast is set against the 17th-century slave trade. A young man is captured trying to rescue his mother from Dutch slave traders, and his only hope is a beautiful Amazon woman who's drawn to him despite her loyalty to greedy, megalomaniacal slave trader King Adanggaman. 7 p.m. Regent Square Theater, Regent Square.

  • * "Very Annie-Mary": Jonathan Pryce and Rachel Griffiths star as a father-daughter team who run a bakery in South Wales. 9 p.m. Regent Square Theater, Regent Square.

    Three Rivers Film Festival - Wednesday's films:

  • * "Fat Girl." 7:15 p.m. Harris Theater, Downtown.

  • "Songs for Cassavetes." 9:15 p.m. Harris Theater, Downtown.

  • "No Tips, No Love." For the past three years, Thierry Ngooh and Fred-Alex Ferly have been working on a feature film set in Pittsburgh ed you might have seen their crews on location throughout the city. The story is about three young women working at an Italian restaurant who are struggling to define their sexual and cultural identity against pressure from their family and boyfriends. 7:15 p.m. Melwood Screening Room, Oakland.

  • "A Shorts Program." This program features the short films "The Apprazer" by Chris Strollo, Curtis Reaves' "Spoon," Jeff Morelli's "Casual," Tony Gault's "Somewhere, I was Born," Teresa Heistand's "Don't be Sad, It's Just a Fad," and Richard Kuzma's "Wish You Were Here." 9:30 p.m. Melwood Screening Room.

  • * "Very Annie-Mary. 7 p.m. Regent Square Theater, Regent Square.

  • * "Vengo." This brooding tale of revenge between two gypsy clans in southern Spain is filled with flamenco music. 9:15 p.m. Regent Square Theater, Regent Square.

    * To read reviews of these films, go to www.pittsburghlive.com and click on Entertainment, then Movies.

    Tickets: $6; $3 for "T. Foley Presents" and "No Tips, No Love."

    Details: Tickets, (412) 681-5449; film information, (412) 682-4111 or www.pghfilmmakers.org.

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