REVIEW | HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 66TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

September 18, 2009

Director Bobby Paunescu made a strong debut with Francesca, which stylistically follows suit with other recent Romanian indies, with scenes composed of one single take lasting for several minutes and a camera that minimally moves. But unlike so many films that use this real-time approach, you forget the presence of Paunescu’s camera, mostly because of the direct story line and the strong cast.

Monica Birladeanu in FRANCESCA (Photo: Venice Film Festival)

Its heroine, 30-year-old Francesca (Monica Birladeanu), has saved 2,000 euros to pay a middle man for a caretaking job near Milan. Her boyfriend reassures her that it’s the best decision she could make—to get the hell out of the country and start a new life. What he doesn’t tell her is that he owes an excessive amount of money to loan sharks. (And there’s an additional secret that only he and the audience are privy to.)

Filmed entirely in Romania, the film’s real villain is anti-immigrant Italy. Over and over again, Francesca is warned that she could be treated as a slave, or worse, forced into prostitution, if she immigrates there. The cutting barbs directed at Italian right-winger Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of Il Duce, and the mayor of Verona, who declared his city free of Romanians, received cheers from the well-attended audience.

After the director has laid out Francesa’s dilemma, the film drags a bit before it reaches its resolution. However, Francesca is an exceptional example of a feature film that has the narrative freedom to depict a social issue more viscerally and concretely than a documentary, as in the case with another film at the festival, Il Colore delle Parole (The Color of Words), an amicable and saintly profile of a Cameroon-born poet and teacher who has lived in Italy for 35 years. The film generally describes the Italian resistance to its growing nonwhite population.

Review by Film-Forward.com

REVIEW | FRANCESCA (ROMANIA) - REVIEW BY VARIETY.COM

A Mandragora Movies production. (International sales: Mandragora, Bucharest.) Produced by Bobby Paunescu, Cristi Puiu. Executive producer, Anca Puiu. Directed, written by Bobby Paunescu.
With: Monica Birladeanu, Dorian Boguta, Luminita Gheorghiu, Teodor Corban, Doru Ana, Dana Dogaru, Mihai Dorobantu, Dan Chiriac, Isabela Neamtu, Ion Sapdaru, Ion Besoiu.

Bobby Paunescu, producing partner of Cristi Puiu ("The Death of Mr. Lazarescu"), makes an intriguing debut as feature director with "Francesca," an immigrationyarn given substance by its blackly comic view of the characters and an involving perf as the titular wannabe emigree by Monica Birladeanu. Pic is largely festival and cable fare, with occasional arthouse dates in Europe likely.

Most of the script's quiet humor trades on tensions between Romania and Italy, where more than 1 million Romanians reside and some politicians have made strident anti-Romanian pronouncements following violence by immigrants. (One politico, Alessandra Mussolini, who's named in the movie, threatened to take out a lawsuit at the time of the pic's Venice screening.)

Francesca (Birladeanu) is a 30-year-old kindergarten teacher who lives with her mother, Ana (Luminita Gheorghiu), and idealistically dreams of setting up a kids' school in Rome to improve Romanians' image in Italy. Her relationship with longtime b.f. Mita (Dorian Boguta) is going nowhere, but she still vacillates over the move as one after another friend or relative gives her advice.

The basic joke is that, though many Romanians think Italians are only a cut above uncivilized, they consider each other equally duplicitous. But Francesca is still in thrall of the post-communist dream that a better life is to be lived elsewhere, preferably in West Europe.

One of her friends, Maria (Isabela Neamtu), introduces her to a black marketeer, Pandele (Ion Sapdaru), who promises Francesca a job as a nurse to an old invalid near Milan. The deal, which involves her leaving almost immediately, has a bad smell: Francesca's father, Ion (Teodor Corban), is against it, but her mother and Mita encourage her to go. Mita says he'll join her soon, as soon as he's finished a deal he's working on, but his monetary problems conspire to prove a further drag on her plans.

Working with several cast members from "Lazarescu" (Birladeanu, Gheorghiu, Boguta), Paunescu draws simpatico performances from his players, despite often long takes from a fixed camera that pans back and forth between protags in a scene. The curiously clunky visual style -- clearly deliberate -- almost gives the film the flavor of a 35mm homemovie, though one that is always well lit, in both interiors and exteriors.

Offbeat style is also part and parcel of the movie's black humor, including a sequence between Francesca and her money-lending godfather that's almost surreal, and another in which Francesca and Ana are visited by a quietly menacing thug (Mihai Dorobantu) who's looking for Mita.

With not a great deal happening plotwise, it's in such grace notes that the appeal of the film lies. With a less skillful cast, the offbeat mixture wouldn't work -- and the pic could still use some trims: A far too long scene of Mita recounting his money problems to Francesca is one obvious candidate.

By DEREK ELLEY

Posted: Sat., Sep. 19, 2009, 4:55pm PT; Variety.com

Venice

MEDIA | MONICA BÎRLĂDEANU STARRING IN FRANCESCA

Monica Bîrlădeanu is starring in "Francesca" a Romanian film written/directed by Bobby Paunescu that is opening the Orizzonti selection at Venice Film Festival in Sept 2009.

She plays  Francesca, a young kindergarten teacher whose dream is to immigrate to Italy. Searching for a better life, Francesca is ready to face any obstacles, even the doubtfulness and the worries of the people close to her. The plan is that her boyfriend, Miță, should join her in Italy as soon as he finishes a small businesses he’s involved in. Things take an unfortunate turn, painful truths come to light and priorities change.

MEDIA | MONICA DEAN WILL STAR IN THE MOVIE FALL DOWN DEAD

Monica Dean will join David Carradine and Dominique Swain for the movie "Fall Down Dead", directed by Jon Keeyes.

The story focuses on Christie Wallace (Dominique Swain), a woman who becomes the target of the Picasso Killer; a serial killer who uses his victims as the canvas for his macabre art. One night, in the middle of a blackout, seven strangers become trapped in an office, struggling for survival, as the Picasso Killer hunts through the building for Christie Wallace, the woman that can identify him.

Monica Dean plays the role of Helen and filming begins on August in North Carolina.

Fall Down Dead is produced by New Films International and Jon Keeyes production company, Highland Myst Cinema Group.

MEDIA | MONICA DEAN TO STAR IN NIP/TUCK, SEASON 4

"The deeply superficial series returns!"

Monica Dean will be a guest star in the second episode of the 4th season, playing the role of femme fatale Jennifer.

Season four of Nip/Tuck begins on September 5th with a hefty list of celebrity guests: Larry Hagman, Brooke Shields, Catherine Deneuve, Richard Chamberlain, Kathleen Turner and Jacqueline Bisset.

Nip/Tuck is a disturbingly perfect drama set in a south Florida plastic surgery center, McNamara-Troy, centering around the two doctors who own it.

In 2004 Nip/Tuck was nominated for Best Television Series - Drama and in 2005 won the Golden Globe Award for best US television drama.

Nip/Tuck was created by Ryan Murphy and premiered in July of 2003 on the FX Networks.

MEDIA | INTERVIEW MAGAZINE - MONICA DEAN BY BRANDAN LEMON

"...We don`t really do small talk in Romania," says actress Monica Dean; this is a charmingly odd admission from a woman who made her name as the host of a lighthearted chat show back in Bucharest. Now based in Los Angeles, the 27-year-old is known to American audiences as Gabriela, a wealthy woman who exchanged a kiss with Matthew Fox`s Jack on an episode of Lost...

For reading the full interview, click here.

INTERVIEW is the ultimate pop culture magazine. Created in 1969 by pop art pioneer Andy Warhol, INTERVIEW takes its readers on an extraordinary journey through brave new worlds in film, fashion, music, art and more. An exciting mixture of fame and discovery, glamour and intellect, INTERVIEW has its finger on the pulse of what's happening at the moment. INTERVIEW brings readers the uncut truth, straight from the cutting edge.

MEDIA | MONICA DEAN, PRESENT IN THE SUCCESSFUL ROMANIAN WOMEN TOP 100 PUBLISHED BY CAPITAL MAGAZINE, THE 2006 EDITION

Her latest performance at Hollywood has led Monica Bîrlădeanu in the top 100 successful women. Monica Dean has been nominated by the Capital magazine for the "Top of Romanian 100 successful women", as a model of young accomplishment.

In this year's edition of the "Top 100 of successful Romanian women", Romanian women who met with success abroad entered into direct competition with those who were successful in Romania. The top is dominated by businesswomen, followed by women physicians, artists, women from the world of fashion and beauty, media, sport, and women working for renowned international bodies.

"Capital" is the Best Financial Business Romanian-Swiss Magazine, also author of the Romanian "Fortune List of 300 Richest People in Romania".

For reading the full article, click here and here.

Further details - on Capital website.

MEDIA | MONICA DEAN AT THE 2006 INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS CEREMONY

The awards ceremony, organized by Film Independent, took place on March 4, in Santa Monica - California, where it celebrated the best of independent films.

Brokeback Mountain won the top prizes, sharing the spotlight with three other double-winners: Capote, Crash and Transamerica.

Monica Bîrlădeanu represented the movie "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu"  by Romanian director Cristi Puiu, nominated for Best Foreign Film. The winner of this category was "Paradise Now" of the director Hany Abu-Assad.

The Independent Spirit Awards are organized by Film Independent, a group of independent filmmakers, and winners are determined by the group's 9,000 members nationwide. The IFP Independent Spirit Awards are hosted annually on the Saturday before the Oscars, showcasing independent American and international cinema.

Details - on Independent Spirit Awards website 

MEDIA | INTERVIEW FOR PLAYBOY.COM - WOMAN ON THE VERGE, BY PATRICK Z. MCGAVIN

...Playboy.com: Because you're mysterious and beautiful and speak with an accent, does that classify you as "exotic"?

Monica Dean: I know I'm swimming in a different pool. I don't know if it's an exotic one, it's just a different one. I don't know how I'm perceived. I never see myself through my accent or my nationality...

For reading the full interview, visit playboy.com website.

FILMS | MONICA DEAN - GUEST STAR IN LOST

In November 2005, Monica Dean got a recurring part in "LOST", the no.1 TV show in the United States.

The multiple Emmy Award-winning Lost returns for a second season of action-packed mystery and adventure. The movie recently won a Golden Globe - Best Television Series - Drama.

Monica Dean was distributed in episode 11 - "The Hunting Party", playing Gabriela Busoni, a wealthy Italian woman.

FILMS | DEBUT ON THE BIG SCREEN - THE DEATH OF MR LAZARESCU (2005)

Monica Bîrlădeanu made her debut on the big screen playing the role of a nurse in the movie "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" by Romanian director Cristi Puiu. The movie was awarded the "Un Certain Regard" Prize at the Cannes Festival in May 2005 and obtained over 30 international prizes, becoming the most awarded Romanian film. At the end of 2005, it was distributed in the U.S (where it was awarded a Silver Hugo Special Jury prize in Chicago) and also in France, in January 2006.The movie was nominated for The Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Details about the movie - on Mandragora Website.

PHOTO | GALLERY

New images with Monica Bîrlădeanu are available now in the Photo Gallery section.