Rating: 
Summary: A food movie about people.
Review: <i>Bella Martha</i> is a remarkable food movie in an uncommon way. While you're not going to come away from it quite as hungry as many others, because it doesn't focus visually on the food, it's remarkable in its characterization of restaurant people. Martha is neurotic in many ways that overlap with chefs I've worked under: the OCD, the not eating, the awkward people skills. So if what you're looking for in a 'food movie' is mouth-watering shots of the food, this isn't it, but the characters are remarkable, and it's a great story as well. Unfortunately, as a German-speaking friend I watched it with told me, the subtitles are kinda crap. But it's not the minutiae of the plot that makes this movie good, though the overall writing is excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Best impulse rental of the year
Review: I picked this movie up at the rental place, but I didn't know anything about it. Now I wish it had been advertised more widely, because it is the second best German language film I've seen. The story is realtively small and localized, more like British films and literature, revolving around Martha's home, work, and her psychaitrist's office, and with a base of only three characters, with Martha as the primary. MOSTLY MARTHA could have felt claustrophobic, but it established itself with character depth as its defining feature, and succeeded very well. This is a must buy.
Rating:
Summary: Come Away With Me!
Review: Great movie, great photography, great music, great acting. This is the kind of movie that makes you glad you are alive. The song they play over and over: Via Con Me (Come Away with Me), from Paolo Conti, is very much the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A++ movie!
Review: If you love to eat, this is the movie for you! The story is consistantly good, the acting is great and the food makes you hungry from the start. There are also some very funny parts. The movie is in german with english subtitles, but the dialog is easy to follow and the subtitles are easy to read. I would highly recommend this movie for all who live to eat!
Rating:
Summary: Mostly Martha MOLTO Bellisima!!!
Review: Molto Bellisimma means very beautiful and this movie is very, very beautiful! This is the best movie I have seen in 2003. It has everything I love in a movie: Love, Drama, superb acting, fabulous and Believable story line, wonderful locations and it is so delicious just like the food in the movie. Only one slight critisicm, no restaurant would have 2 Chefs off work on the same day in the scene where Lina and Mario cooks Italian food in Martha's home kitchen. Set in the Lido restuarant of Hamburg in northern Germany, Martha Klein is a neurotic but wonderful Chef of a boutique restaurant, famous for its great food like foie gras. She has to see a psychiatrist or Therapeut (in German)otherwise her lady boss will fire her. The funny scenes like when she tells the imbecilic customer who complains that her foie gras (goose liver) is raw, that it is ,,perfekt" and cooked at 140 degrees Celsius for 3 minutes is simply hilarious. She then tells him "go and eat Leberwurst (liver sausage) if you don't know how to eat foie gras!!". I COULD NOT AGREE MORE! As Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet, I am a Travel, Food and Wine Writer/Consultant and I can tell you that much of the movie is true to live. I am also a Chef and complaints from people who do not know how to appreciate fine gourmet food are legion. Especially so from the nouveau riche. Lots of money but full of bad taste. Moments of great sadness in the movie made me cry like when Martha hears that her single parent sister has gone to heaven in a car accident. She ends up taking care of her 8 year old niece who could do with some psychiatric help too. I don't blame her as her Italian Dad has run off to Italy where he has another wife and kids while her Mum has just died in a car accident, plus she is only 8 years old. The trauma of her Mums's death sends her into a deep depression and she becomes anorexic and refuses to eat. Enter charismatic and somewhat eccentric Mario in the restaurant as her assistant and sparks fly. He cooks with style and finesse to Dean Martin singing "Volare" in Italian which he plays on his own "Ghetteo Blaster". Martha is shocked and the contrast between the uptight German character of Chef Martha and the coool, extrovert and hang loose Mario is really incredibly and sardonically funny! Mario is a very nice guy although somewhat manipulative and he really helps Lina the little girl to overcome her Anorexia Nervosa and start eating and laughing again. Mario and Martha and Lina eventually form a nice family unit as Mario falls in love with Martha and vice versa. Like an emotional roller coaster, the father of Lina arrives to bring her back to Italy in his lorry. He is a long distance lorry driver with another family in Italy. Mario and Martha are depressed. I cried too. Then Martha decides on her course of action and acts in the best traditions of the SAS who always believe that "Who Dares Wins!" She gives an irate customer with bad taste who complains that her steak is not rare enough a chilled, raw bloody steaky on the table! A Chef's dream come true, Ha! Ha! Then Mario and Martha drive to Italy to bring back Lina, get married and open their own gourmet restuarant. The scene where Lina runs laughing with love and glee right into the outstretched arms of Martha while the warm Italian sun shines is heart wrenching. I cried at the end but they were tears of joy! A fantastic movie and if you understand German and know something about food, you will fall in love with this movie as much as I love Azerbaijan Malossol Caviar and Wieninger Gruner Veltliner Austrian wine. Guten Appetit! Die Gedanken sind frei! ENJOY! By Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet
Rating:
Summary: one source for music from the movie
Review: This is in answer to some who have looked for the soundtrack to this movie. Though there is not one as of now, one of the songs is by Paolo Conte. You can find it on his "Best of" cd. Can be found on Amazon. Song title is "Via con Me"
Rating:
Summary: some flaws should not be overlooked.
Review: the newcomer could sing in the kitchen? the newcomer would not do any cleaning during the closing time and could walk out of the kitchen before anybody else? how dare he could leave when the chef and others were still doing the daily cleaning work before closing time. guy actually was somewhat a jerk, looked very untidy and very unlikable, unbelievablely ridiculous and unconvincing. the script about this guy who had won the heart of martha was the major flaw of this otherwise brilliant movie. this person is just like what have made all bruce lee's supposed to be great movies downgraded about 45%, since there was always a jerklike, comedian like clown to ridicule bruce lee's seriousness. mostly martha, well, what a shame, also got such clown in this almost wonderful movie.
Rating:
Summary: A Taste Of Motherhood
Review: One of the most sensual film scenes of recent memory occurs towards the end of "Mostly Martha." Martha, a tightly wound, anal-retentive chef ( the good ones always are), is being wooed by her assistant chef, Mario. She's blindfolded and Mario is asking her to name the ingredients in a dish that he is spoon-feeding her, while a solo piano version of "Never Let Me Go" is playing in the background (Never Let me Go, I'd be so lost if you went away...). This scene crackles with a kind of intelligent sexual fire: one that smolders between two people wary of yet inexorably drawn to each other.
Women Executive Chef's are rare, even in America but in Germany, where Martha lives, they are rarer. Martha's life is compartmentalized: she works, she sleeps, she works. This is great for her employer, but not good for Martha. Then one day Lina comes into her life because Lina's mother and Martha's sister is dead. And so Martha's life changes.
Set against the background of a career in the food business, but not about food per se, "Mostly Martha" is a sad, wry, quiet, contemplative film about how our life can change over night, without warning: the test is not only how well we handle it but how wisely we carry on.
Rating: 
Summary: Implausible foreign film full of cliches
Review: I am foodie AND a romantic and I totally couldn't relate to this movie. It's so unrealistic. Relatively few upright, hyper-neat perfectionists get into cooking because it is inherently messy, unpredictable and sensual. Any food actually cooked by a "Martha" would be tasteless and uninspired. Not mention that relatively few chefs are model-thin and manage to work in a kitchen as clean as a sterile surgical facility and in white clothes without a drop of grease or gravy.I absolutely HATE the corny idea that Germans are, all of 'em, de facto cold and unemotional and Italians are ALL warm, earthy and fun loving sensualists. As someone mentioned, it gets cold in parts of Italy. And I am sure SOME Germans are warm and sensual. Not to mention, why are the women always the cold fish and need some guy to warm them up? It seems to me in real life that the equation is nearly always the other way around. Here is the heart of what I learned from "Mostly Martha":
1. Germany has no family court or children's services.
2. No one has a will or any kind of custodial arrangement for an 8 yr old child. Martha does't even know the first name of her nieces father.
3. If someone you know dies, you can just show up and take their child home from the hospital. The hospital will have no issues with releasing a minor child -- injured and orphaned -- into your custody.
4. If you are the father of said child, you can show up after 8 years without the slightest proof of identity and without having paid a red cent of child support all this time, and yet the child will be released to YOUR custody on the spot and you can then leave the country...without a passport.
5. And if you are the aunt of this child, you can drive to Italy and just bring the child back to Germany...again, no court order, no will, no custodial arrangement, no family court, no lawyers, no passport. I could go on and on. Martha doesn't even bother to set up a cot in the living room or get a sofa bed to accomodate her little niece, who doesn't receive one single session with a therapist to deal with the loss of her mom in a horrifying auto accident, while Martha can go WEEKLY, wasting the therapists time with cooking stories and actual meals. I might add that a tempermental chef who argues with customers and throws raw meat at them, wouldn't last long in a nice restaurant no matter how skillfully she could cook. Why 2 stars? The cooking scenes are enjoyable -- the food does look delish -- the child actress is charming and realistic (instead of cloying or cute), and the Italian music is very appealing. It's certainly a clean movie, the love scene played very lightly, and you could watch this with your 8 yr old child or your 99 yr old grandma. But beyond that, it's unrealistic and cliched. I am particular tired of films that portray adopting an older child who has suffered a traumatic loss as a kind of picnic, or at least an easy way to acquire a family without the inconvenient hardship of diapers and prenatal vitamins.
Rating:
Summary: A Passion for Food leads to Love
Review: "Food is a great passion of mine, and I think it is one of the best visual and most sensual metaphors life has to offer." ~Sandra Nettelbeck, German Director Martha (Marina Gedeck) is a sexy chef living her life in a very organized fashion. She is single, doesn't have any children and seems to have found the perfect job. As a chef, she takes great pride in her creations and is even willing to confront customers who question her cooking skills, especially if they involve a discussion of how Duck Foie Gras should be cooked. As a perfectionist, she refuses to accept that anything could be wrong with her world, her gourmet cooking or her opinions on food preparation. What Martha is really lacking is an ability to open up her heart and allow love to flow to those around her. She has a passion for cooking, but not for life. While she seems to take pleasure in her cooking, she doesn't seem to have a sense of humor about her world. Restaurant manager, Frida (Sibylle Canonica), insists that she go to therapy and yet, she rarely deals with her inner world, she is more concerned about recipes. She leaves her therapist (August Zirner) rather confused as he can't figure out why she is in therapy. Even when her sister is in an accident, she deals with the pain by thinking about a Lobster's death. When an accident leaves her eight-year-old niece, Lina (Maxine Foerste), in need of care, Martha's heart starts to open to the world. Together Lina and Martha take a journey to healing that is not without conflict. Martha not only accepts Lina into her home, she also vows to find Lina's father. I like the way the director doesn't spoon feed the audience, there are often items you don't fully understand until much later in the movie. Taking on these new responsibilities and dealing with her own sense of loss leaves Martha unable to work for a short period of time. During this time, the restaurant manager hires an eccentric Italian chef. Mario (Sergio Castellitto) is just perfect in this role and introduces a conflict Martha is not equipped to deal with on any level. I loved his sense of humor, the way he played Italian songs in the kitchen and how he inspired frivolity and a joy for life in everyone around him. While Marina Gedeck adds a sexy beauty to this movie, Sergio Castellitto adds warmth and romance. Martha really becomes like a little piece of chocolate melting in his mouth. If you can imagine how frosty she is at first and then how Mario makes her feel when he finally kisses her. Some of Martha's facial expressions had me laughing because she is so serious amidst the utter comedy of various situations. I think I could relate to her near "panic attack" when she saw what happened to her own kitchen when Mario comes over to make dinner. That is my favorite scene besides the amazing kissing scene and the picnic scene. There is so much to love in this movie! "Mostly Martha" is one of those unforgettable "foodie" movies you could watch three times in a row because it makes your world feel sane, calm and comforting. It was shot on locations in and around Hamburg, Germany and in some beautiful locations in Italy. The soundtrack takes this story to new levels and there is an element of intimacy that runs through the entire movie. This movie is thoughtful, romantic and there are wonderful scenes of delicious gourmet cooking. If you enjoy this movie, you might enjoy other "foodie" movies like: Scent of Green Papaya - Exotic cooking
Eat Drink Man Woman - Chef Theme
Simply Irresistible - Chef Theme
My Big Fat Greek Wedding - restaurant theme
Chocolat -Chocolate, need we say more?
Babette's Feast - A cold, dreary world warmed by an amazing dinner
Tortilla Soup - Family & Fun, this is a version of Eat Drink Man Woman, chef theme ~
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