American Cousins

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, 2002, 97 min
Section: Another View
Oficiální stránky: www.american-cousins.com

Synopsis

Forced to leave New Jersey, two American gangsters named Gino and Settimo head for what seems like an ideal refuge: Glasgow, where their cousin Roberto lives and works. Roberto little suspects how his cousins earn their living, so at first he believes that they indeed are ad agency consultants. Roberto’s first great love is his small restaurant where he sells ice cream sundaes and fish and chips. His second is Alice who works at the restaurant; unfortunately, he hasn’t, as yet, been able to voice his affections. After the cousins’ arrival, his peaceful and pleasantly stereotypical life changes completely – Gino starts flirting with Alice, and out of good will Settimo helps him settle accounts with the local thugs who are constantly after him; Settimo´s means of “defence,” however, seem to be rather too professional. But in the end the famous saying abides: blood is thicker than water. American Cousins is an entertaining film with a highly witty ending. The director succeeded in creating an original and stylised film both in terms of artistic conception and the Italian musical accompaniment.

About the director

Donald Coutts left school in 1967 with very bad marks. A year later he decided to head for London where he got a job with Columbia Pictures. He also worked in film labs and editing rooms as an assistant editor. Then came work at Anglia TV, BBC Norwich and the BBC. He left television in 1982 and founded the independent production company RPM (Rock, People, Movies). In 1986 he decided to go it alone and become a director. He’s made hundreds of films for the BBC, ITV and Channel Four. His dramas, documentaries, shorts, music and entertainment programs have won many awards. American Cousins is his feature debut.