Pasta Bondage

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A man's need for a green card and a woman's desire to become an escape artist come together in 1991's The Linguini Incident, an S&M allegory comedy starring David Bowie and Rosanna Arquette. It's cute.

I'm not sure what it has to do with linguini. It might be a play on words referring to Arquette's character's obsession with Houdini. She plays Lucy, a waitress at a chic New York night club where David Bowie plays Monte, the new bartender from England. They have some fractious flirting before circumstances align so that he's the only one who can save her from the manacles and rope she's accidentally locked herself in in her apartment. But he requires something in exchange: marriage.

The road from there does not run smooth, of course. Despite involving a heist and high stakes betting and, of course, Rosanna Arquette in physical restraints, the tone of the film remains that of a light comedy throughout. Bowie and Arquette have good chemistry though occasionally it's odd seeing Bowie do light comedy. It's hard not to take him seriously.

The Linguini Incident is available on The Criterion Channel in a recently remastered director's cut.