Postcard Tuscany back in Theatres
TORONTO – American film Producer Will Packer, whose films have grossed over $1 billion, is calling his upcoming 30 million dollar release You, Me & Tuscany “a bargain”. With the average major American studio film costing $65 million to make, he’s cut the cost in half and heavily reduced the net cost to the Studio (Universal) by utilizing Italy’s 40% National tax credit. And while the film looks to have all the hallmarks of an “Americanata” (spectacle and stereotype), Packer’s rom-com is projected to earn over 100 million at the global box office. Maybe more.
You, Me & Tuscany is directed by Italian-American Kat Coiro, who’s no stranger to shooting in Italy. Coiro’s breakout film – And While We Were Here (2012) – was shot entirely in Ischia over eleven days. There’s a stark contrast with that film and her latest however. For starters, she shot her first film in Ischia (starring Kate Bosworth) for a measly $150k, while she was eight months pregnant to boot. That film was melancholic, intimate and gritty.
You, Me & Tuscany on the other hand is a high energy studio comedy, intended for mass consumption. The film follows a free-spirited aspiring chef (Halle Bailey) who’s squatting in an empty Tuscan villa, owned by a wealthy Italian man (Lorenzo De Moor). It markets itself like the sort of product that makes some Italians cringe, because it reduces Italian culture down to inane caricatures. The pejorative for this genre is the “Escape to Italy” cliché movie.
Yet Coiro, who’s currently pursuing her Italian citizenship, was cognizant of its potential traps. To help her avoid the common pitfalls, Coiro hired Italians to lead key set departments including Production Design, Costume Design, Set Decoration and Lighting and Camera.
“Being Italian-American, I have a visceral reaction to the ‘americanata’ style of filmmaking. I didn’t want to make a movie where Italy is just a postcard. I wanted the dirt, the heat, the specific way a screen door creaks in a Tuscan villa, and the actual rhythm of how Italians speak to one another when they aren’t performing for tourists”, stated the Director.
There’s just one problem. Inserting “Italian door creaks” and proper linguistic cadence doesn’t mask – or substitute for – an obvious Americanata plot.
The film, which comes out on April 10, is patently selling postcard Tuscany and “an American girl in Italy” via its trailer. Italians will certainly appreciate the door creaks and Coiro’s attention to detail, but they’ll be noting the plot above all else.
Nothing elicits an eye roll from an Italian moviegoer more than a plot about an American girl “finding herself” and falling in love in Tuscany. And of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a breezy self-discovery travel movie.
There’s a massive market for it. Coiro should embrace the Americanata tag and all the money it attracts, as I’m sure her Producers have. It’ll all go down smoother once the back end starts rolling in.
Images courtesy of Universal Studios and Will Packer Productions
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
