Francesca
Comedy, Short Films, 07-Feb-2024
A woman practices a speech for her sister's wedding. Chester Vincent Toye directs “Francesca,” a slice-of-life vignette where a young woman’s efforts to workshop a speech snowballs into a self-reflective consideration of her own life. Late at night, Francesca walks around the moon-lit city in a desolate area. Her older sister, Lauren, is getting married. On quiet intersections and in empty parking lots, she comes up with quippy one-liners and tries to figure out which stories are right to share. Through her brainstorms, we learn about the sisters’ fraught relationship and hear a poignant story about going to Disney World as a child. A tender character study carried by the endearing performance of Francesca D'Uva, the film is somewhat of a departure from Toye’s previous works we’ve featured, “Hangtime” and “I’m SO Sorry.” -JM. Director: Chester Vincent Toye, Cast: Francesca D'Uva, DP: Corey Gegner, Editor(s): Bryan Monroe Simpson, Chester Vincent Toye, Sound Design and Re-Recording Mix: Andrew Siedenburg.