Made in Italy, a new Liam Neeson film set in Tuscany

Made in Italy is a heart-warming film starring father and son, Liam Neeson and Michael Richardson, set in the stunning Tuscan countryside around Monticchiello. It marks James D’Arcy’s directorial debut and was produced with the help of the Toscana Film Commission programme Sensi Contemporanei Toscana per il Cinema. You can see the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E68yJohxTM&feature=youtu.be

The film revolves around a father-son relationship devastated by the death of their wife/mother in a car accident about two decades before the film opens. In real life, the actors Neeson and Richardson, suffered a similar tragedy when Natasha Richardson died in a skiing accident in 2009. In the film, father and son travel to the family’s Tuscan villa, abandoned after the death of their wife/mother. Neeson’s character, Robert, a rather grumpy artist, is terrible at DIY so he finds help from some locals including the no-nonsense Kate (Lindsay Duncan), a transplanted English woman making a living selling real eastate. Richardson’s character, son Jack, is haunted by memories of his mother at the house in happier times. But he soon finds the attractive, vivacious Natalia, a local chef, who brings a ray of sunshine into his life. Their attempts to repair the once beautiful house full of memories bounce between comedy and drama as father and son are forced to open up to each other and grieve the loss of their wife/mother.

The house is another important character in the film, a gorgeous Tuscan farmhouse set in the glorious green hills of the Val D’Orcia with cypress-lined country roads and hill-top medieval villages. The area is one that has provided the back-drop to so many important films, probably the most memorable being The English Patient and Gladiator. (see my article Filming Tuscany – 3 reasons to film in small Tuscan towns)

Made in Italy opened in the US in August 2020.