Pupi Avati

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La Mazurka del Barone, della Santa e del Fico Fiorone (1975) reveals his na�ve, magical, popular, and boisterous spirit, highlighting a director with a surreal vein (the legend of a miraculous fig even stuns an atheist who inherits it). Bordella (1976) confirms the provincial silliness, sarcastic dialectics, and burlesque heresy of the director.

La Casa dalle Finestre che Ridono / The House with Laughing Windows (1976) is a rural horror-thriller; a young restorer working on the fresco of a suicidal painter finds himself at the center of inexplicable murders: sacristan, taxi driver, schoolteacher; meanwhile, it is discovered that the painter was a maniac who had his subjects killed by his sisters to capture their last moments; the whole village guards the horrifying secret.

Tutti Defunti tranne i Morti (1977) confirms him as an original desecrator of the Gothic: sinister butlers, mist-shrouded castles, investigators, and corpses, all set in the Po Valley where the director was born and raised, reimagined from a farcical perspective. A book salesman trying to sell an heraldic volume to noble families becomes entangled in a dark affair filled with absurd incidents and parodic caricatures.

Le Strelle nel Fosso (1979) emphasizes his horrific surrealism: four dimwitted, gullible, virgin brothers spy on noblewomen as they stop to urinate in the woods, engage in the most absurd tasks, and play pranks on a mad count; one day a beautiful fairy appears, joins their innocent games, marries them all at once, and then disappears at night, leaving the fools to their pure slumber.

In the following three years, Avati prepared three television screenplays: Jazz Band, an autobiographical recollection of the postwar period; Dancing Paradise, another jazz-paced musical comedy in a rural setting (fairy-tale structured); and Cinema, a diary of his first cinematic experiences.

Aiutami a Sognare (1981) revisits the American myth of the 1940s, when America meant primarily cinema, jazz, and liberation; a young widow with three daughters, displaced to the countryside, welcomes and helps an American aviator, who seduces her and then leaves; the film, though set during the Resistance, tells of that Italy which lived far from Nazis and partisans, fought mainly to survive, and dreamed of America as something mythical; the brief idyll makes the woman dream, needing to forget troubles and danger. Another sentimental comedy, musical, autobiographical, but without the grotesque and surreal tone.

Una Gita Scolastica (1983), a page from the album of memories, depicts a walking trip from Bologna to Florence; along the way, high school students encounter the rural world of the time, in a fantastic and magical atmosphere reminiscent of Soviet folk allegories.

The horror Zeder (1983), released on video as Revenge of the Dead: Zeder is the name of a German scientist who discovered how to resurrect the dead, a theory followed by a recently deceased priest, and a journalist sets out to trace it; Gothic atmosphere, suspense, horror.

Noi Tre (1984): the young Mozart meets in an Emilian castle a familial environment made up of lovable characters (the beautiful countess) and eccentrics, mad, and arrogant people.

Impiegati (1985), with the same pathetic-ironic tone of personal recollection, tells of the sentimental education of a young bank clerk and his gradual integration into the environment.

Festa di Laurea (1985)

Regalo di Natale (1986)

Ultimo minuto (1987)

Regalo di Natale (1988): Avati�s traditionally cuddly friends are transformed into sly and wicked beings, and a long poker game reveals their secret grudges: a trick is the purpose of the gathering.

Later films include: Storia di ragazzi e di ragazze (1989), Bix (1991), Fratelli e sorelle (1991), Magnificat (1993), L'amico d'infanzia (1994), Dichiarazioni d'amore (1994), L'arcano incantatore (1996), Il testimone dello sposo (1998), La via degli angeli (1999), I cavalieri che fecero l'impresa (2001), Il cuore altrove (2003), La rivincita di Natale (2004), Ma quando arrivano le ragazze? (2005), La seconda notte di nozze (2005), La cena per farli conoscere (2007), Il nascondiglio (The Hideout, 2007), Il pap� di Giovanna (Giovanna's Father, 2008), Gli amici del bar Margherita (2009), Il figlio pi� piccolo (2010), Una sconfinata giovinezza (2011), The Big Heart of Girls (2011), Il bambino cattivo (2013), A Golden Boy (2014), Il Signor Diavolo (2019), We Still Talk (2021), Dante (2022), La quattordicesima domenica del tempo ordinario (2023), The American Backyard (2024), etc.