| Deeply
disturbing images of food are not the only feature of
contemporary cinema’s cuisine. Meals, for instance, play an
unusually dramatic part in many of Martin Scorsese’s films. In
GOODFELLAS, a brutal mafia killing is followed by an
alarmingly normal Italian-style meal, served by the
director’s own mother, Catherine Scorsese. And one of the most
sensuous and simultaneously menacing of all food images in
modern cinema occurs during a prison scene, as the mafiosi
prepare their ritual pasta sauce. The boss (Paul Sorvino), we
learn in voice-over, while seeing a massive close-up of chubby
fingers at work, ‘ had this wonderful system for doing the
garlic. He used a razor and he used to slice it so thin that
it used to liquefy in the pan.’ Later, the central figure’s
drug-fuelled paranoia is signalled by his obsession with the
meatballs and tomato sauce he’s cooking as the FBI move in.
‘Keep and eye on the sauce and watch the helicopters’, is
almost his last order before the Feds arrive. Throughout GOODFELLAS, the exacting domesticity of Italian cuisine serves
to highlight the terrifying normality of these mobsters.
The story was based on thirty
years in the true life story of Henry Hill and his crew who
were famous for robbing the airport, especially the Lufthansa
heist. Joe Pesci won Best Supporting Actor in his
memorable portrayal of real life gangster, Tommy DeSimone.
Pesci makes "Do I amuse you?" into the four most
frightening words ever uttered on screen.
For these Italian-American subjects, Scorsese drew on his own
memories and family tradition (The Scorsese Family Cookbook
was published in 1996, shortly before his mother’s death.)
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