The Birth of Lucretia
Running Time: 7 min.
Release Date: Nov. 28th, 2001

"Sometimes Even Death Can Be Forgiving"

Cast and Crew:
Melissa Monson as Lucretia S.

Written and Directed by Robert Monson
Sound Design by Robert Monson

The Birth of Lucretia is a very short film that revolves around a young woman named Lucretia and her early attempts to defeat her curse. The main idea here is that anyone properly named Lucretia at birth is destined to die in some horrible way. Lucretia has recently turned 18 and the curse is all-consuming. In desperation, she has figured the only way to defeat her paranoia is by killing herself first.
Shot in black and white and pieced together with no narrative aside from a few subtitles, the film itself delivers on its focus; a moody piece where the veiwer wil have a nearly voyueristic experience watching a young woman attempt to kill herself.

Click on the title below to view the entire film.

View the entire original script here.
(Warning: May be difficult to read. This is the only available copy of this script that ever existed.
Hand-written on notebook paper the day before it was shot.)

Director Blog:
"The Birth of Lucretia came about in a very big hurry. I was a few months out from finishing up art school and one of my last classes was film editing. My instructor was none other than Michael Heagle, founder of the Carschool Film-O-Rama and director of some of Troma's latest, including "Go To Hell" and "PlanetFall." In a very short time, Mike introduced me to the world of do-it-yourself filmmaking and by watching him work, I saw first hand what it means to always maintain perspective and never let your aim exceed your capabilities. That last bit was learned inversely, of course, as Mike shoots for the heavens right out the gate and, like the rest of us, always comes up a tad short. Luckily, Mike's got enough heart not to let that bother him.
His first assignment to me was to create a short film, using MiniDV cameras, full lighting kits and any other goodies they had available. (Note: I still don't know what half of those goodies were or even how to use them.)
I went to work immediately. I was excited at the opportunity to finally use film as a medium and luckily, I had been developing a new character named Lucretia at that same moment. Lucretia was going to be my mascot for a website I never started called, shockrock.com. At this point I figured I could make a cool video about her to use on the main page of my website. I quickly wrote out a treatment and storyboarded my shots. That night I brought home the video equipment from school and a week later I presented my film to the rest of the class. From the response, I knew I needed to expand on this character in the future."
- Robert Monson, January 2008.

Making Of "The Birth of Lucretia" photos:

Lucretia Blog:
"I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My boyfriend was in a film class at our school and he needed to make a film that we could shoot in a day or two. It was natural that I would be in the film mostly because I was available. Everything about this film was done sort of backwards. We both loved the name Lucretia from a Sister's of Mercy song and then we found out that there was a famous ancient girl named Lucretia with a pretty intense background so that inspired Robert to make up a tragic story of his own for our Lucretia. The wardrobe was mishmashed from the goth staples in my wardrobe and several white pieces bought at a consignment store. The set was the living room of our tiny apartment and we filled the scene with every "awesome" thing that we owned. I had not acted since I played the mom in a musical in 6th grade, but luckily Robert has a gift for making something out of very little so he pieced together a portrait of a girl that embodied everything that we thought was cool in the world. I was a difficult film star to work with, the low points being when I was glued to floor with chocolate syrup and when I was asked to put my hair in the tight rubberbands that tore it out in patches here and there. I didn't realize that when compared to the next film's conditions, these would have seemed the most minor of inconveniences. When the film was done, I was in love with it, so proud of it, and we showed it to everyone and anyone who would watch it. The style is stark and dark and we leaned towards german expressionism before we even knew what that was. Lucretia may have died in this film, but that didn't mean that we were done with her."
- Melissa Monson, January 2008.

To Order your copy of The Birth of Lucretia:
There are two ways to get this film on DVD. Our recommended way is to buy the "Some Girls Never Die Special Edition of The ReBirth of Lucretia" in which this film is included as a bonus feature. To order that film, see ordering details here. Otherwise, if you are a purist and want to own this film in its orginal packaging, please send your request to robert@liveboulevard.com and a check or money order for $10.00 (US) to the following address:

LiveBoulevard Design
1431 270th Street
Madrid, IA 50156

As a special bonus, all copies ordered directly will be signed by both Lucretia herself and the film's director, Robert Monson.

Screenshots
Click on a thumbnail below to see the full size image

 

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© 2008 LiveBoulevard Design unless otherwise noted.
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robert@liveboulevard.com