The American: Clooney in Sulmona

In 2009 Sulmona woke up to find George Clooney under its arcades. Anton Corbijn’s The American is a slow, near-silent thriller shot almost entirely in the province of L’Aquila: the story of a gunsmith and assassin who takes refuge in a mountain village after an ambush.

Abruzzo as the film’s landscape

The Abruzzo Region Film Commission documents the locations: besides Sulmona, the film shot in Castel del Monte, Pacentro, Castelvecchio Calvisio, Calascio, Corfinio and Campo Imperatore. A catalogue of the region’s most photogenic villages and high plateaus, used not as postcards but as empty space for Clooney’s character to disappear into.

Four days on Piazza Garibaldi

The film’s urban centre is Sulmona, and specifically Piazza Garibaldi, the great market square dominated by the medieval aqueduct. Filming lasted four days, with around 1,600 extras and some thirty businesses on the square taken over by the production.

Among them was Caffè Tucci, a family-run bar under the arcades. Owner Sante Tucci told the newspaper Il Centro that he took down his outdoor gazebo to clear the way for the camera: “We said yes right from the start, we’re very happy about it.”

As always, we stop where the sources do: the venue’s involvement in the shoot is documented; which specific scene was filmed there is not.

What to see in Sulmona

Beyond the square and the aqueduct, the Cathedral of San Panfilo, the Santissima Annunziata complex and the historic confetti factories are all worth a stop — the sugared almonds that made Sulmona famous long before cinema did. The town is also a good base for the Majella National Park.

In short

The American put Abruzzo’s hill towns on screens worldwide, and Piazza Garibaldi is still the best place to find that atmosphere: a coffee under the arcades, the aqueduct opposite, the mountains all around. Discover more films and shows shot in Italy.