Photo l Michael Persico

Isabella Rosselli and Stephen Starr pose for photo call

Elite Chase Sapphire credit card members were treated to an uncommonly star-struck evening at Tangerine restaurant last night, when the Sundance Channel hosted a screening of Big Night, the critically acclaimed, food-focused indie flick starring Isabella Rossellini.

Rossellini and restaurant potentate Stephen Starr attended last’ nights party in advance of Sundance’s Tastemakers series, a collection of vignettes featuring influential persons in their fields (watch Starr’s here) and Sunday night showings (10 p.m.) of award-winning films from festivals around the world.

Meal Ticket had a chance to speak with actress, model, director and writer Rossellini just before the screening; we used our two minutes to find out what role food plays in the beauty icon’s life.  Read the interview after the jump.

Meal Ticket: Green Porno, the short-film series you directed, wrote, produced and starred in for Sundance Channel, explores the sex life of marine animals and insects.  Some of the films begin with scenes in the kitchen, moving on to the native habitats of the marine creatures — when we return to the kitchen, your character has lost her appetite.  Were you a vegetarian prior to or after this project?

Isabella Rossellini: The series is 18 short films; they are not all the same. Originally it was just the sex life of marine animals, but once a marine biologist got involved he thought we should have a more explicit environmental message.  And of course, part of Sundance’s mission is to experiment with new formats — films for the Web, for phones.

I am almost a vegetarian.  I do eat organic chicken and am careful what fish I select. There is a problem of overfishing; you have to ask questions.  The place where you buy your fish should have the answers to questions like, where is this salmon from? Vendors should know this.

MT: What influence can these short films have on viewer’s eating habits?

IR: You know, I think of myself as an entertainer.  I am not an activist. That said, I did want to try to frame an environmental message in a comical way.  The environmental message can be very… doomsday.  Sundance makes these environmental films as part of their mission; it is a valid attempt to educate.

MT: Italians are often stereotyped as food-lovers.  Is meal time and eating together very important to your family?

IR: No. My family life is not centered around food; but of course food is very important.  I think being Italian influenced my taste — you know, not eating processed foods, never anything from cans, TV dinners.

MT: I wonder if anyone eats TV dinners anymore.

IR: You know, I used to buy them as a kind of touristic attraction, when my friends from Italy would visit.  We never had anything like that in Italy, and they would react with absolute horror.

MT: Do you enjoy cooking for yourself and eating at home?

IR: I do eat at home alot.  Mostly so I know where it’s from!  Of course, I have a housekeeper, but I can cook better!

TASTEMAKERS: Isabella Rossellini & Stephen Starr

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 10:45 am and is filed under Food and Art, Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.