‘The Amati Girls’ explores family’s generational gap
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 21, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Providence Entertainment (Left to right) Lily
Knight, Sean Young, Mercedes Rehl, and Dinah
Manoff star in "The Amati Girls," a film about the
relationships of four sisters and their mother.
By Dave Holmberg
Daily Bruin Contributor
Acclaimed actor Anne DeSalvo wrote her latest screenplay in
three weeks.
If the writer/director can write a full-length screenplay in
three weeks, what can she do in four? How about film and direct
that same script.
DeSalvo made her vision into a reality and on Friday, her
feature film debut as a director, “The Amati Girls,”
was released nationwide.
Having already starred in several films, including “Taking
Care of Business” and “Arthur,” DeSalvo turned to
screenwriting. In a recent phone interview, she talked about the
precursor to her new feature film, a comic short entitled
“Women Without Implants,” which she produced, wrote,
directed, and starred in.
She said the film, which played in several festivals
domestically as well as abroad, was what got her thinking about
writing a full length screenplay. “I thought, “˜Gee,
maybe I have something here,’ so I heard about the Sundance
Film Festival Contest, and I wrote the screenplay, and out of 5,000
(scripts), got down to the final 15,” she said.
DeSalvo then spent time rewriting the script, until eventually
she began sending it out to studios for production.
If a writer is going to write a screenplay in three weeks, it is
going to take some inspiration. For DeSalvo, the basis of her film
came from the idea of family.
“(It was) the inspiration of family, the warmth and also
the idea of sisters,” she said.
The film follows the lives of four adult sisters and their
widowed mother, and the relationships they have with each other and
with their individual families.
“I just sort of drew from everything, and then I threw it
all in a pot,” she explained.
The story is set in Philadelphia, where DeSalvo was born and
raised, and revolves around a large Italian American family.
Although the film is not based on her family directly, she says
that she did draw on her colorful aunts, cousins, neighbors and
friends to round out the arc of this family drama.
DeSalvo explains, however, that the film is not entirely a
family drama.
“I wasn’t even doing a family movie,” DeSalvo
said. “I was just telling a story, and the story just
happened to be about family.”
Family is certainly a key element to the film, but at its soul
“The Amati Girls” is a character driven drama focusing
on the dynamic relationships between people.
As if the creation of a fictional family dynamic was not enough
to tackle, DeSalvo also wanted to portray the generational
differences that exist between parents and children.
“Every generation has its pros and cons,” she said.
“They get some things and they don’t get others. There
is the wisdom of the older generation, and yet the openness and
willingness to venture forth of the younger generation.”
Both generations are depicted in the film. The mother, Dolly
(Cloris Leachman), demonstrates an initially stout resistance to
the changing of the times, while one of the daughters, Christine
(Sean Young), grapples with the contemporary idea of divorce.
The film attempts to reconcile the generation gap and offers a
positive look at how differences can be resolved.
Anne DeSalvo said making the movie differed from directing her
short film.
“(It was) more complicated, and the characters had to be
more complex,” she said.
With a lot of preparation and help from a skilled production
crew, however, the film was successfully completed.
The move from acting to directing, was also a profound change
for DeSalvo.
“As an actor you just do your part, but I became
interested in telling a whole story, (creating) the whole
vision,” she said.
As both the writer and director, DeSalvo was able to become more
involved with the story.
“I went on a safari about six years ago,” she said.
“I took a Super 8 (movie camera) with me, and I became
enamored with the idea of telling a story through a
lens.”
Although written in only three weeks and filmed in just four,
DeSalvo’s feature film directorial debut, took a lifetime to
conceive, and may have just as long an affect on its audience.
FILM: “The Amati Girls” is now
playing in theaters nationwide.
