Tuscany, an auteur film set

by Ida Bini (ANSA) - SIENA, 20 SEP - More and more international directors choose Tuscany to shoot their films, seduced by the poignant beauty of its landscapes and the artistic richness of its cities.

The latest filmmaker was the British James D'Arcy who shot numerous scenes in Montalcino to make the film Made in Italy, released in August.

The film, starring the actor LiamNeeson, is the story of a London artist who tries to reconnect with his son, working on the repair of an old farmhouse in Italy.

The cottage in question is a rustic farmhouse in the Podere Fontanelle of the Argiano company, a historic winery located in the scenic territory of Montalcino, surrounded by rows of cypresses that draw the hills covered with vineyards and by the tiny medieval villages that hide stories among the stones.

We are in the heart of the Vald'Orcia, in the province of Siena, a land loved by Hebrew Americans who for decades have known every corner and which has inspired generations of international directors and writers, fascinated by its extraordinary landscapes.

James D'Arcy's film was shot in the vineyards of the Argiano estate, which was also the set for the finale of New Yorker Gary Winick's Letter to Juliet in 2010. The estate's building, built on an ancient castle, dates back to the 16th century. and is located on the crest of a hill covered with vineyards.

In the centuries the estate had noble owners who brought it closer to wine production until 1967, when it participated in the birth of the Brunello di Montalcino consortium.

   The first of the two directors was the British Anthony Minghella acting there scenes for his masterpiece The English Patient, winner of 9 Oscars: he chose the Val d'Orcia, traPienza and the castle of Cosona, to set the love story during the second war between a Canadian nurse and a mysterious Hungarian count who was staying in the monastery of Sant'Anna in Camprena, now a farmhouse, a few kilometers from Pienza.

It was 1996 and 13 years earlier it was the Russian director Andrej Tarkovskij who chose Bagno Vignoni, a delightful thermal village in the Sienese valley, as the set for the dreamlike film Nostalghia.

Two years later, in 1985 the Hollywood director James Ivory chose Florence to shoot the successful film Cameracon vista, based on the homonymous book by Foster.

In fact, the list of films shot in Tuscany is very long, but the Italian region with its poetic scenarios is perfectly ready for stories to tell.

Also in Florence, director Ridley Scott chose to set the film Hannibal, shot with Anthony Hopkins in 2001, and the year before some of the most evocative scenes of the famous film The Gladiator, set in the beautiful countryside of Pienza.

Finally, how not to mention Under the Tuscan sun, a 2004 film by the US director Audrey Wells, which tells the story of Frances, who, following her separation from her husband, leaves for Italy and in Tuscany buys an abandoned and dilapidated villa that is actually in Cortona and in its beautiful surroundings.

(HANDLE).