09.06.10 Pupi Avati

Christened Giuseppe Avati (Bologna, 3 November 1938), is an Italian director, screenwriter and producer. He began his career as a jazz musician (he was part of the Doctor Dixie Jazz Band from 1959 until 1962) and later spent four years as a manager at Findus frozen foods, a period he describes as the worst of his life. Inspired by the experience of seeing Fellini's “81/2”, he decided on a career in cinema. In 1970 he got funding to shoot two films: “Balsamus, l'uomo di Satana” and “Thomas and the Bewitched”, two grotesque and unashamedly provincial horror films.
After working as a co-writer on the screenplay for “Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom”, Pier Paolo Pasolini's final work (he was paid but not credited for copyright reasons), he directed his third feature, “La mazurka del barone, della santa e del fico fiorone”, followed by “The House of the Laughing Windows”, another well made horror that has since become a real cult favourite. Avati would revisit this genre, seemingly well suited to his personality, but with a bigger budget at his disposal and a team that included Maurizio Costanzo as screenwriter.
In 1977 he made “Bordella”, a madcap comedy whose cast featured a very young Christian De Sica. Later that year Avati succeeded in putting the poorly received “Bordella” behind him and at the same time reaffirming his talent as a master of suspense with the grotesque effort “Tutti defunti... tranne i morti”, which unfortunately didn't fully convince the critics or the public, despite being a clearly better work than its predecessor.
In 1978 the name Pupi Avati became very well known to the general public thanks to the RAI's decision to broadcast “Jazz Band”, a series on the Doctor Dixie Jazz Band, followed by “Cinema!!!” and two other TV programmes by Avati (“Dancing Paradise” in 1982 and “Accadde a Bologna” in 1983).
His 1980 script “Macabro” was filmed by first-time director Lamberto Bava, and in 1983 he revisited the comedy genre with the gentle “Una gita scolastica” before reverting to thriller-horror with “Zeder”, considered by genre specialists to be one of his best efforts. In 1984, after the bitter “Impiegati”, he was back at the helm of a significant feature, “Christmas Present”, which eventually resulted in a 2004 sequel entitled “Christmas Rematch”.
After this came “The Story of Boys and Girls”, “Bix” and “The Childhood Friend”, all set in the USA and boasting Hollywood production values, then the disturbing horror effort “The Mysterious Enchanter”.
In 1997 he made “The Best Man” and in 1999 “La via degli angeli”. After period of rest the returned in 2003 with the sentimental “The Heart is Elsewhere”, which starred Neri Marcorè and Vanessa Incontrada, who played the part of a sightless girl.
2005 was a good year for Avati: he succeeding in bringing together Vittoria Puccini, Paolo Briguglia and Claudio Santamaria in the romantic comedy “When Will the Girls Arrive?” He also directed Antonio Albanese, Katia Ricciarelli and again Neri Marcorè in the amusing “The Second Wedding Night”. After this came “A Dinner for Them to Meet”, with Diego Abatantuono in the lovely company of Francesca Neri, Ines Sastre, Vanessa Incontrada and Violante Placido, and “The Hideout”, yet another Avati horror adventure, featuring Laura Morante as an Italian woman who sets herself up in a strangely creepy building in Davenport, Iowa. In 2008 he filmed “Giovanna's Father”, and in 2009 “The Friends at the Margherita Café” and in 2010 “The Youngest Son”.
2008 was also the year in which he published his autobiography “Sotto le stelle di un film” and received the 20th Ascoli Piceno International Award, organised by the “Cecco d'Ascoli” High Institute of Medieval Studies. He is chair of the Federico Fellini Foundation, created in 1995 in memory of the great Rimini director who has had such a strong influence on him.