When I was in Italy with Nick, working on his Great Italian Desserts book, we stopped in the seaside Sicilian town of Cefalù, a place I’d enjoyed on a visit several years earlier. We checked into a good, cheap waterfront hotel, went for a swim in the Mediterranean (along with some high-school kids on their way home from class; they just took off their clothes and jumped naked into the sea), had dinner and relaxed. I got antsy and when I saw lots of lights down the beach near the port, I took a stroll. A film crew was set up (hence the floodlights), shooting men in boats in the harbor looking up at a big sheet of fabric stretched across part of the port. “Facciando un film” was what the locals told me when I asked what was going on. Sure, I thought, they’re making un film, some low-budget picture that will never be shown outside of Italy. Imagine my surprise then, many years later, when I was watching Cinema Paradiso and there was the scene! Fishermen in their boats watching The Vikings (which must have been added later in post-production.) And though I’m hidden there in the shadows of the port arcades, I maintain to this day that I am in the film. I’m told the “director’s cut” released in 2002 has 51 additional minutes. Maybe...? Hope springs eternal.
