The American Backyard
A young man moves to Iowa in the fall of 1946, hoping to become a writer, placing his typewriter on the heavy wooden desk of the home he will occupy, the occupants friends of his family who have similarly moved themselves to Italy for the six months he will stay there, though before he can begin to compose his thoughts or seek inspiration in the new environment he is distracted by the noises from next door, an argument between a mother and daughter as she leaves for her wedding day.
Flora Squillante elderly and infirm, she is enraged that her daughter Arianna is marrying the wealthy businessman who was to be wed to her other daughter, even wearing her dress, Barbara missing in Italy and presumed dead; the writer recognising her as a women he once met when he gave her directions in the final days of the war, he becomes obsessed with finding out the truth of what happened to her, returning to Italy to investigate, hoping to find answers or against all hope to find her alive.
Directed by Pupi Avati and adapted from his own novel of 2023 in collaboration with his son Tommaso Avati, The American Backyard (L’Orto Americano) stars Filippo Scott as the unnamed writer and The Owners’ Rita Tushingham as Flora, her diminutive broken frame a repository of rage and need, with Morena Gentile as Arianna, also furious that anyone should look into her family, claiming Barbara was not what their mother thought she was, and Mildred Gustafsson as the mysterious beauty.
A Gothic romance of longing for an elusive ideal which may only exist in the mind of the searcher, a hunt for something which may not even be real, the trail leads to the aftermath of the war, of unclaimed and unidentified bodies of servicemen and women and the tale of an accused man on trial for the murder of multiple women, the haggard and stooped Glauco Zagotto (Armando De Ceccon) an unlikely prospect of one for whom beauties swoon, championed as innocent by his brother Professor Emiliio Zagatto in the face of hostility from the locals.
Shot with a dreamlike indifference to logic, Arianna at one moment screeching contempt at the writer and arranging to have his visa revoked then inviting him into her home to tell him everything, the interview with the police during their subsequent visit from the police failing to mention he was invited into Flora’s home where he found physical evidence in the titular overgrown patch, albeit guided to it by a ghostly voice, the digital monochrome devoid of grain feels more like a clumsy affectation than any genuine effort to evoke the the era in which the film is set.
The true serial killer hiding in plain sight, Italian hospitality apparently dictating that their trophy room should be left unlocked so guests can enjoy it, The American Backyard is a film of mood and impression rather than coherence, inspired by the crimes conducted over a two-decade period by the “Monster of Florence” but as void as the results of that long-running but never conclusively prosecuted investigation, neither narratively nor emotionally satisfying.
Glasgow Film Festival continues until Sunday 9th March
