American Cousins
Adventure
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AMERICAN COUSINS is the first comedy feature film from writer/director team Sergio Casci and Don Coutts. It is produced by award-winning producer Margaret Matheson from Bard Entertainments – the production company behind films such as ANTONIA’S LINE (1995), EVE’S BAYOU (1997), REVENGER’S TRAGEDY (2002) and KIN (2000).
Screenwriter Sergio Casci’s great-grandfather Armando migrated from the Italian town of Barga at the end of the nineteenth century. During this period, Italy, a relatively new country (established in 1861), was a poverty-stricken nation with little infrastructure and opportunities for economic and social improvement. Armando, like many Italians, wanted to build a new life for himself.
Some of the Barghigiani set off on foot and kept walking until they found a place to settle down. Others travelled on immigrant ships. The two most popular destinations were Scotland and America. It was the story of Casci’s own grandfather and the plight of early Italian immigrants that provided him with the inspiration to write AMERICAN COUSINS. Commented Casci, ‘’I kept thinking how different my life might have been if Armando, instead of coming to Glasgow and opening a café, had travelled to the States and joined the Mob. It’s a terrible cliché, I know; the overwhelming majority of American-Italians are hard-working, law-abiding citizens. But they’re not necessarily the ones that capture the imagination.’’
Casci drew further inspiration from his unsuccessful period working in the catering business in his youth, ‘’When I was fifteen I started working Saturdays in the family café. I wasn’t very good. My dad and his cousin could make and serve a dozen fish suppers in the time it took me to do one. We all kind of hoped I’d get faster with practice, but I didn’t. Eventually I had to accept that the catering trade would survive without me. Then again, I probably wouldn’t have made it as a gangster either. I’m a wimp when it comes to breaking the law. Parking tickets give me cold sweats.’’
Although the film is a comedy, it does have a serious message. Added Casci, ‘’There’s a great moment in A BRONX TALE when the Robert De Niro character tells his young son that it takes more strength to get up early and go to work every day of your life than it does to pull a trigger. I think that’s one of the main themes of AMERICAN COUSINS. These wise guys arrive from the States thinking they’re the smartest, baddest guys around. But when it comes to the crunch, it’s the ordinary hard-working bloke who they’re forced to turn to for help’’.
The first draft for the script for AMERICAN COUSINS was written seven years ago and subsequently went through various transformations. Casci met Coutts nine years ago when the latter – one of Scotland’s most revered documentary film makers – was approached by the BBC to direct PESCE E PATATE (FISH & CHIPS), a film about the small Tuscan town of Barga, which has sent more immigrants to Scotland than any other town or city in Italy. Casci, then a journalist with BBC Scotland, was employed as an assistant producer on the programme. The two immediately bonded and decided to try and make a movie together. Their first major collaborative success was an entry for the BBC’s Tartan Short’s scheme titled DEAD SEA REELS, starring Ian Bannen. The short went on to receive the accolade of Best European Short Film at the Vendomme Film Festival and the Best of Fest Award at the Chicago Silver Images Film Festival.
Casci and Coutts next collaborated on ST. ANTONY’S DAY OFF, a comedy based around a group of friends trying to watch a football match on television during the 1994 World Cup, and ROSE, a supernatural drama set in Glasgow. Each project received praise from the public and film critics.
Casci and Coutts had been working on AMERICAN COUSINS for some time and with the help of producer Margaret Matheson of Bard Entertainments, the project was financed by Little Wing Films. Filming began in January 2002 with a strong ensemble including Danny Nucci (TITANIC), Dan Hedaya (MULHOLLAND DRIVE), Vincent Pastore (SOPRANOS), relative newcomer Gerald Lepkowski and Shirley Henderson (24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE). Commenting on the production Casci added, ‘’Don Coutts and Margaret Matheson got together a cast which I couldn’t have hoped for in my wildest dreams. Big Pussy from the Sopranos! Danny Nucci from TITANIC, Dan Hedaya from just about every Hollywood blockbuster ever made, Shirley Henderson from 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (2002), Gerald Lepkowski who has to be the next James Bond and Russell Hunter, whose performance as Nonno is hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure.’’
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