MovieChat Forums > Bella Martha (2002) Discussion > Bella Martha and No Reservations compare...

Bella Martha and No Reservations compared


By accident I took out both DVDs from my local library, watching the English Version first and then quickly realizing that Bella Martha was the same film. It was the only time I've seen two versions of the same film in different languages.

I actually enjoyed No Reservations more. The little girl was a more fully formed character, and Zeta Jones also had a bit more spark, more affection for the child, and of course there was the perfect Hollywood ending.

The one difference is that the English version did not have the child's real father as a subtext, which was just as well. You don't just give an eight year old to an unknown man to take to places unknown, even if he is her natural father whom she never met.

So, you have to give points for realism to No Reservations.

What was notable to me was how closely the two films adhered to the same script. It was interesting that the ratings on IMDB were higher for the German rendition than it was for the English.

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The American version got pretty bad reviews here.

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I think people like the German version because people recognize that non-American films let the story grow into itself. No Reservations seemed so rushed to me, and aaron erkheart as an italian was laughable. As well as his ridicoulous singing. That scene of him singing opera would have been fine, it was great character development, well it would have been if it wasn't so forced. (a long with the laughter of the other cooks in the kitchen, I've worked in a kitchen its stressful, you laugh and then move on. you just don't stand there and giggle.)

There are little things in Bella Martha that were unrealistic like the whole father thing, that part really pissed me off. In fact the actor playing the child pissed me off. I just lost my mother, I have a sister around Lina's age..children who lost their mother do not act like that. They don't just stare. Abigail Breslin did a great job portraying that, while she was quiet because she was grieving she just didn't stand and stare at the neighbour when they first met.

I think that's about the only part i liked about No Reservations. CZJ and Aaron Erkheart had NO chemistry and the director knew this by masking all their scenes with music...but unfortunately the music wasn't loud enough. We still heard their fake laughs and saw their fake joy as they stared at one another. It was awful. Every scene with them together was forced.

Another thing i didn't like about NR was after CZJ told customers in the restaurant off she always had some extra dialouge at the end like "man that felt good!" do we really need that told to us? We couldn't tell that she felt a release by telling off customers who didn't appreciate her cooking.

The whole script following, yes they were really close, which was nice to see, the only part that bugged me was the director wasn't paying attention to the dialouge. The part I'm referring to is when Kate takes a day off of work after her and Zoe get into a fight. While eating the staff lunch Nick is informed that she isn't coming in. So why on earth would he knock on her door and say "do you have any idea what time it is?" Yes she does Nick, she spent the whole day with her niece playing monopoly. Now this "do you have any idea what time it is?" scene was in Bella Martha, and made much more sense. As Martha went looking for her niece who was lost somewhere in the streets of Hamburg. She was tired and slept through her shift. So this address made sense in the german version as mario was informing her that she missed her shift.

Bella Martha had a realistic flow to it, the characters grew into one another, it wasn't a forced placement of dialouge and emotion.

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I think Jennifer's analysis is so right on the money!

"I've known you all of five minutes and I already don't like you"

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No reservation felt so fake....mostly martha was not perfect, but it was good.


www.somewhereinblog.net/blog/tuklifiedblog

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MOSTLY MARTHA is wonderful it gets better and better with age and repeat viewings like a fine wine. It is a gem of a film.
Sadly NO BD the American R1 DVD is still the best option running at native speed of course unlike European DVD's under either MOSTLY MARTHA or BELLA MARTHA titles.

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[deleted]

Interestingly there is ONLY TWO examples of European films remade into American movies where in the American version is much better and they both star Al Pacino
SCENT OF A WOMAN
INSOMNIA

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In my opinion the American version of Insomnia is crap. The Norwegian film,the original with Stellan SkarsgÄrd is a great one.
Regarding the american versione of Scent of a Woman, well apart from the extraordinary Pacino performance - which by the way Gassman rock too - the rest is far away from being "much better" than the original.

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I happened to like both films, very much. I too started watching Bella Martha not knowing that it was original and No Reservations was the remake, but after I got over the "Hey, I've seen this movie" shock, I watched with an eye for comparing the two, since I liked the remake so much. The main change was the lack of the father in the American film and the missing Italian father in the German flick. I was somewhat taken aback by the search for Giuseppe and how quickly Martha let Lina go with him, it just seemed like that entire situation was under explained and left me with a "what's all this then?" frame of mind. One can easily see why this was left out of the remake, it was much easier to craft a love story without it.

The character that Martina Gedeck played was way more neurotic than the Catherine Zeta-Jones character, Martha was an emotional mess while Kate was more of control freak.

Both Lina and Zoe were acted with great finesse, there were sometimes when I thought that Abigail Breslin as Zoe was superior and there were other times when I thought that Maxime Foerste as Lina was better. Maxime did look like she had an eating problem.

I thought the scenes with the therapist were more believable in No Reservations, but the last scene in Bella Martha where they discussed why his pie wasn't as good as her's was not in the American film, and IMHO a better way to end the movie than the predictable Hollywood "and they lived happily ever after" ending. It was another instance in the original version of the movie that made the point that the title character was irrational, even to the end.

The restaurant owner in No Reservations was played altogether different, Patricia Clarkston played more of a 'I need this great cook for my place to be good, so I'll just have to put up with her crapola' character, Sibyelle Canonica played it more as a business woman boss. Clarkston's character seemed to have more depth, but that might have been the cultural differences between Germany and Manhattan, though.

Sergio Castellitto was a little bit more believable than pretty boy Aaron Eckhart as an Italian chef, but here too some of the things that each actor did was superior. In No Reservations one could easily see that Zoe's character was smitten by Eckhart, but that followed the script and it worked. In Bella Martha Castellitto played the character a bit more understated, his remarks were wry instead of aimed at being a prop for an overall love story.

If the European original of this movie was not very good, then Hollywood would not have made an American remake of it. And No Reservations was a delightful little love story, that made you think and had a happy ending. Bella Martha had a happy ending too, but it left the audience guessing a little bit at the end.
As good as No Reservations was, with it's great acting and music, Bella Martha was the original and was even better. It's main drawback was that I couldn't understand a word of German.

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After watching both movies at least 10 times I shall toss my two euros into the ring.

Mostly Martha is one of the greatest European movies of the past decade written and directed by Sandra Nettlebeck who was a newcomer to movie scene at that time.

My big problem with No Reservations is the casting of Aaron Eckhart as the Italian chef. Does not work for me. He's not a great actor as I recall he was ridiculous as Erin Brokovitch's biker boyfriend too. Just because you put on a biker doo rag and a leather vest does not make you believable as a biker. Well the same in NoRes, they had AE sing opera and cook spaghetti, but he did not pull off being an Italian. Nope.

Both movies are enjoyable nonetheless. I far prefer the European version as all the actors are far superior. I felt Catherine Zeta-Jones had little chemistry w/Eckhart or w/Abigail Breslin. Also there are really gag-inducing cornball moments in NoRes where I don't recall feeling any of the fairy tale ending of MoMartha was forced.

People on IMDB seem to be getting younger or don't watch many sophisticated movies because according to the message boards, there was much confusion about the ending. It is fairly obvious the girl went back to Germany with Martha & Nick where they got married. They may have had a honeymoon in Italy, as they appeared to be in Italy at a wedding banquet. It's obvious that they intended to remain close to the child's father who no longer is burdened with raising another child, but now all the children who are half-siblings can grow up and know one another, etc and it's one happy extended family. It's impossible to tell if the new restaurant they are checking out is in Italy or Germany. So that is what is called "calculated ambiguity". Doesn't matter where they end up as they are all together -- and that's what is really important.

Also, I don't think the father suddenly showed up in his truck and they turned the girl over to him in 5 minutes. It seemed that he had contacted Martha and told her when he could come pick up his daughter. He must have told her he was married and children of his own, so he could provide a good home for her. Would Martha -- or anyone for that matter -- hand over a child to a perfect stranger without at least talking to him and getting to know a bit about him. It's a movie after all -- the director did not have time to tell every single detail of each situation, although admittedly the backstory on the father was very sketchy. There was no clear explanation if the mother left him before she knew she was pregnant, if they broke up because she was pregnant and he did not want a child at that stage of his life, etc. Audience is supposed to guess what happened there. But when he arrives, he claims he did not know the child existed. Maybe Lina's mother told the guy she was going to Germany for an abortion. There are lots of possibilities.

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