The ReBirth of Lucretia
Running Time: 20min.
Release Date: Aug. 10th, 2006"Some Girls Never Die"
Cast and Crew:
Melissa Monson as Lucretia S.
Barbara Wright as The Latimer
Vanessa Brayton as The Ghost Blood
Written and Directed by Robert Monson
Music by Melissa Monson and Vanessa Brayton
Additional Sound Design by Robert Monson
"Birth Unwinding: The Theme for Lucretia" written by Robert Monson. ©2002
You can download it here.THE REBIRTH of LUCRETIA was designed as a film that would improve upon everything that we had (and hadn't) done with The Birth of Lucretia. The Lucretia character had been improved upon drastically between the two films, so much so that I knew there was no way we would be able to show anything more than a sliver of her life. I dug through my notes and found what I believed to be the best example of Lucretia's story: the day of her ReBirth and the dilemma between her, her ghosts and her creator and nemesis, The Latimer.
The plotline is complex due to its nature. There is no reason for anything that happens and there is no resolution. What you see is more of an experience than a traditional narrative. (Based on the reviews: an art film.) Lucretia has devised yet another plan to rid herself of The Latimer. This time she ventures out to kill her very first ghost, the image of herself on the night she first received her curse from The Latimer. However, witnessing the event happen from a different perspective is far too terrifying and Lucretia hesitates, allowing it to happen all over again. Becoming more determined, Lucretia tries a desperate approach and goes after The Latimer directly, hoping to kill her by seperating the source of her curse from her own body while The Latimer lies unconscious. It's an idea that may have worked, if Lucretia had actually killed the witch...
Click on the screen below to view the trailer.
Director Blog:
We were able to deliver on our promise of improving every aspect of the filming process. We had three locations to shoot in, two of which were without electricity or running water. We shot all the exteriors in and around an old farmhouse (which was later burned down) and all of our interiors were filmed in the basement of a crumbling section 8 flophouse, complete with a working coal chute (and which was also burned down). The remaining shots with Lucretia and Latimer in the barn were done inside a machine shed with available power. The closest thing we've had to a real sound stage.Ultimately, our only shortcoming was in our camera. We were set to use a Canon XL2 and a full lighting kit, but the plan fell through in the 11th hour and we were forced to use the only other video recorder we had available: Our trusty, now legendary, Kodak Z740 5.1MP Digital Camera. The results are personally inspiring.
Click HERE to view the "Making Of" video.
Lucretia Blog:
"Rebirth started with one statement from Robert, "I could probably make a film."One of our mutual friends had recently been to a film festival in western Iowa and happened to mention it. That was all it took to plant a creative seed in his brain so that Lucretia burst forth back into our world. All I really knew was that I wanted a wig for this one. We knew we had to take Lucretia a step further, develop her more as a character, as a person, so that she could impact the audience even with my limited acting skills and our technical (and monetary) limitations. Every step of the way there seemed to be an easy and clear answer to our needs - that would ultimately blow up in our face. We had a contact who was a talented composer and pianist - who in the end never even returned our calls. Robert ended up piecing together a sound design along with snippets of me on piano and my sister on violin to create a memorable soundscape that is now inseperable from the film. We also had some video equipment issues. We did luck out on shoot locations, however. The exterior of one house was perfect, the interior basement of another and through the magic of editing, the ideal location was achieved. The one thing that these locations lacked was electricity - no heat and no water. That spells something between discomfort and disaster when dealing with makeup, wardrobe changes, and lots and lots of chocolate syrup. Don't believe what anyone tells you - March in Iowa is cold. Lucretia did manage to become an endearing heroine in this segment of her story...she was a lot braver than I was when it came to adversity. My favorite memory of filming is when my sister and I put our butts together over a small propane grill to keep warm between shots. Robert had achieved what he set out to - this installment was certainly grittier."
- Melissa MonsonScreenshots
Click on a thumbnail below to see the full size image
You can read the entire original script here.
GOLD EDDY AWARD
Best Pro-Am Freestyle Film
2007 Cedar Rapids Independent Film FestivalFilm Reviews:
"The Rebirth of Lucretia is somewhat like Psycho as written by Poppy Z. Brite."
- Ryan Lies, No-Fi magazine
Read the full review here."This film looks like a piece of police evidence, like an elaborate suicide note, or even like the movie that was discovered looping on a victim's TV at a grisly crime scene... Crisp, shadowy, evocative images delicately balanced on the border between Night of the Living Dead and The Blair Witch Project."
- Michael Heagle, Carschool Film-O-Rama"Ultimately, the greatest strength - and the greatest weakness - of The Rebirth of Lucretia is its unapologetic inability to adhere to any sense of cinematic convention."
- Ilker Yücel, ReGen Magazine.
Read the full review here."Not the strongest script in the [WRIFF] festival, but Robert and Melissa Monson's horror film contains excellent visual design work. Meant to be viewed through an artistic rather than a main-stream lens."
- Jeffrey Bruner, Des Moines Register
To Order your copy of The ReBirth of Lucretia:
There are several ways to get "The ReBirth of Lucretia" DVD. You can order a copy from either indieflix.com or filmrunner.net, both of which offer the film at a very low price, but with no bonus content or display case packaging.
You can also order a copy directly from LiveBoulevard Design and recieve the "Some Girls Never Die Special Edition DVD" which is not available anywhere else by sending 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 50156As a special bonus, all copies ordered directly will be signed by both Lucretia herself and the film's director, Robert Monson.
Also, when "ReBirth" originally shipped, there was a special promotion where if you ordered the film at indieflix.com and entered the proper code, you would recieve an exclusive "Case Study 429: The Strange Fate of Lucretia S. Psychiatric Evaluation" to include with your DVD. That promotion has now passed, but if you missed your chance and would still like your copy of this, you can download the booklet here:
Case Study 429: The Strange Fate of Lucretia S. Psychiatric EvaluationIf you ordered your copy of "The ReBirth of Lucretia" from IndieFlix.com or FilmRunner.net and would like your DVD to have the same packaging as a copy ordered directly from LiveBoulevard Design, you can download a Hi-res copy of the slipcase by clicking the image below.
Please note that this art is designed to fit a standard DVD Slimcase.All information contained on this page
© 2008 LiveBoulevard Design unless otherwise noted.
For more information, please send an email to
robert@liveboulevard.com
