Fall edition of Mad. Sq. Eats continues through October 1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Worth Square, across from Madison Square Park
Broadway & Fifth Ave. at 24th St.
Daily through October 1, free admission, 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
www.madisonsquarepark.org
The fall edition of Mad. Sq. Eats is up and running in the pedestrian plaza known as Worth Square at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Ave. at 24th St., where more than two dozen gourmet vendors are serving culinary delights through October 1. People flock to the area, just across the street from Madison Square Park, to amass their own international multicourse tasting menu. This season’s participants are Arancini Bros., ASIADOG, Bar Suzette Crêperie & Bistro, Bangkok Bar, Calexico, the Cannibal Beer and Butcher, Farm Road, Fire Belly Korean BBQ, the Gumbo Bros., Hong Kong Street Cart, ilili, Jicama “California Street Food,” KOA, Macaron Parlour, Mayhem & Stout, Melt Ice Cream Sandwiches, Mexicue, Momofuku Milk Bar, Nunu Chocolates, Paella Shack by Barraca, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Roberta’s, Sigmund’s, La Sonrisa Empanadas, Takumi Taco, Cheesesteaks by the Truffleist, Two Tablespoons, and Uma Temakeria.
Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren have a blast playing off their reputations in Vittorio De Sica’s Oscar-nominated romantic farce, Marriage Italian Style. The colorful 1964 film is a kind of follow-up to Pietro Germi’s 1961 comedy, Divorce Italian Style, which earned Mastroianni an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In Marriage, which is based on Eduardo De Filippo’s 1946 play, Filumena Marturano, Mastroianni stars as Domenico Soriano, a well-to-do businessman who takes an instant liking to seventeen-year-old prostitute Filumena (an Oscar-nominated Loren) in a Naples brothel during a WWII air raid. Their relationship secretly blossoms, but when Filumena grows tired of being hidden by Domenico, treated more like a maid than a lover, she decides to take matters into her own hands, with more than a few surprises. Mastroianni is exceptional as the smooth-talking, dapper, and elegant Domenico, who can’t keep away from beautiful young women, while Loren, who previously worked with De Sica in The Gold of Naples and Two Women, winning an Oscar for Best Actress in the latter, is at her fiery best as the hot-blooded hooker trying to raise her station in life. Produced by Carlo Ponti during the brief annulment period in his marriage to Loren, the film, which is told partly in flashback, also features Tecla Scarano as Domenico’s maid, Rosalia, and Aldo Puglisi as Domenico’s right-hand man, Alfredo, who takes quite a shine to Filumena. Armando Trovajoli’s lush, romantic score adds wonderful irony to the comic proceedings. And just wait till you see Loren in that mind-blowing black lingerie. Marriage Italian Style is screening September 20 & 21 as part of Film Forum’s twenty-four-day retrospective of elegant actor-director De Sica, one of the great Italian neorealists; the series continues through October 8 with such other seminal works as Bicycle Thieves, Miracle in Milan, Umberto D., General Della Rovere, Shoeshine, Two Women, and The Earrings of Madame De . . .
