German movie filming in Lynn

LYNN – Neighbors may not know it yet, but 115 Bulfinch St. is home to a man with questionable child-rearing skills and an airline stewardess. Well, at least that’s the plotline for a movie filmed Monday in the three-apartment house.A production crew hired by German film company Van Wormer International set up shop last Saturday in 115 Bulfinch and worked through Monday filming scenes for “Ways of Love,” an hour-long romance movie slated to run on German TV channel ZDF.”It’s the NBC of Germany,” said Michael Ricci, a film location specialist working with Van Wormer location manager Timothy Gorman.The German company did not make the kind of splash crews filming “Black Mass” made locally when they brought movie star Johnny Depp to Lynn in June and July and closed downtown streets and the Porthole Pub to film scenes for the movie about notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.But filming on Bulfinch Street caught resident Leon Ramsay’s attention. He said the Van Wormer crew members were friendly and polite to neighbors.”I like it. It brings a little excitement to the neighborhood,” he said.Ricci said “Ways of Love” and other Van Wormer romance movies are a German television staple, typically broadcast on Sunday nights. “Ways of Love” is the 19th movie in a series Ricci likened to Lifetime television network movies.”They are about strong women overcoming obstacles,” he said.Van Wormer has filmed four of the mini-movies in the Boston area so far this year using Rockport, Peabody, Lynn and Logan Airport as filming locations. German actors are in the scenes and Van Wormer’s key production people are German, but Ricci said the company hired American crew members to help make the movies.The production based operations in Danvers, Ricci said, but the plot for “Ways of Love” will also unfold in Lynn locations, including the public library, where crews last Monday converted the building’s exterior temporarily into a courthouse.According to Ricci and a production press release, crews also filmed since Sept. 12 in Central Square and on Washington Street as well as City Hall, where Veterans Memorial Auditorium’s stage provided a backdrop for a theatrical production scene.”We also set up right by the mayor’s office,” he said.Ricci said movie director John Delbridge credited city officials and residents for making the city an easy place to film.”He said, ?I’d come back here in a heartbeat,'” Ricci said.