Italian filmmakers return to Davenport
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For the first time in 18 years, the Italian filmmakers Pupi and Antonio Avati are back in the Quad Cities, to shoot part of their ninth film project set in the QC, for a portion of their new thriller, “The Backyard.”
The multiple award-winning Avati brothers (Pupi, 85, is director and Antonio, 78, is producer) spent much of Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 13, outside filming exterior scenes, with no dialogue, at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport.
“It’s very moving, because we stay in Italy for 18 years before coming back,” Pupi Avati said. They are filming in the area through Saturday the 17th, when they return to Rome to finalize shooting.
“The Backyard” is described as a “gothic” film, based on a novel written by Pupi Avati. It’s the story of a young psychopath who aspires to be writer and happens to fall in love at first sight with a young nurse of the US Army, according to the Tuesday casting notice.
We’re in Bologna, Italy, near the Allied Liberation during World War II. All it took for this young man to fall in love were fleeting glances with Barbara, the beautiful nurse, and he thought she would be the woman of his dreams, the synopsis says.
One year later, he finds himself at home in a modest house in the American Midwest, with a nefarious backyard separating his house from that of his beloved Barbara. However, she doesn’t live there anymore. The only one remaining there is her elderly mother, distraught at her daughter’s loss— with the end of the conflict in Italy, Barbara wrote she was to marry an Italian man, but there was no more news of her after that letter.
Arianna, his beau’s sister, crosses the ocean searching for her, but comes back pretending Barbara’s dead, and proceeds telling so to everyone. At that point, the young man begins searching for clues of the woman, until, after a dramatic spinning of events, he’ll find its unsuspected conclusion in Italy.
The filming at Sacred Heart represents early in the story, when the protagonist arrives in the U.S., in the winter of 1946. He wants to write an American novel.
He bought a house in Davenport, and sets an American story there, Pupi Avati said, noting he chose Sacred Heart, since in the story, the priest knows all the classic Greek writers and the writer wants information from the priest.
Father Thom Hennen, the real pastor at Sacred Heart, was thrilled to see all the activity outside the Catholic church on this sunny Tuesday.
“All I did was unlock the doors and tell them they could do this,” he said. “It’s exciting,” he said, noting he’s been with the church nearly three years. “It’s a beautiful church, obviously, a beautiful day and a beautiful setting.”
There were no interior shots filmed at Sacred Heart. Other “The Backyard” locations include the Bix family home in Davenport, Village of East Davenport and the riverfront. In Italian, the film is called “American Garden.”
“We are thrilled to be working with the Avatis again,” local casting director (and Circa ’21 owner) Denny Hitchcock said recently. “It’s great fun to be able to hire local actors for film roles. This film is dark, in the tradition of Pupi’s earlier projects. Shooting has been taking place for several weeks in Italy.”
QC actors cast for the local filming scenes are Bill Kealey (cop), Jeremy Littlejohn (Bill Green), Lora Adams (double for actress Rita Tushingham), Bobby Becher (cousin), Micah Weese (cousin) Savannah Strandin (funeral home assistant), and Kyle De Fauw (photographer).
The Avatis have made the following films here:
1990: “Where the Night Begins” and “Bix”
1991: “An American Love” (TV movie co-starring Brooke Shields)
1992: “Brothers and Sisters”
1993: “The Room Next Door” and “The Childhood Friend” (which co-starred Jason Robards III)
1996: “The Mayor of East Chicago”
2006: “The Hideout” (co-starring Burt Young and Treat Williams
Doug Miller of Davenport, the longtime location manager for the Avatis in the QC, said Tuesday there have been about a dozen local people on the crew and a dozen Italians.
“This is my ninth film with the Avati brothers. The first film was ‘Bix,’ in 1990,” Miller said. “I’ve worked with them a long time. They have a deep affection for Davenport and the Quad Cities. They have many friends that have come visit them on the set, also at the hotel and so forth.”
In 2006, they filmed “The Hideout” in the QC. “It’s funny how the years melt away,” Miller said. “It’s like it was 18 years ago all over again.”
Then, the Bix Beiderbecke family home (on Grand Avenue in Davenport) was in bad condition, and now it’s been improved, Pupi Avati said (he and his brother own the historic home). They’ve filmed eight movies in Davenport, and use the Bix house as their American headquarters.
Avati hopes to open the house to the public for tours, but they need to raise more money for further renovations.
“My brother and me pay. Give us your money please, and you can restore the house,” Avati said.
They plan to be in post-production for the new film three months, and release it this spring, by June 1. Avati may have it shown in Davenport. He said if it’s good, he and Antonio will come back to premiere it, but not if it’s bad, he joked.
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