Francesca Comencini

Directing

Francesca Comencini

Born 1961-08-19 · Roma, Italy

Born in Rome in 1961, she is a director and screenwriter who studied philosophy at La Sapienza University before interrupting her studies to move to Paris, where she lived for eighteen years and where her three children were born. Her debut film, Pianoforte (1984), won the De Sica Award at the Venice International Film Festival. Since then, she has worked tirelessly across documentary and fiction, tackling themes that continually question reality and its conflicts, including Carlo Giuliani, Boy (2002), I Like to Work (Mobbing) (2004), In fabbrica (2007), and The White Space (2009). In the following years, he directed several episodes of TV series such as Gomorrah and Django. In 2024, he released The Time It Takes, an autobiographical film dedicated to his father, Luigi Comencini, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Nastri d’Argento awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay.

Acting credits

The French as Seen by… poster
6.9

In 1988, Figaro magazine asked a few famous directors to direct a series of short movies to celebrate the 10 years of the revue. The movies have been released for the French revolution bicentenary. Includes: Werner Herzog's Les Gaulois, David Lynch's The Cowboy and the Frenchman, Andrzej Wajda's Proust contre la déchéance, Luigi Comencini's Pèlerinage à Agen, Jean-Luc Godard's Le dernier mot.

The French as Seen by…

1988

What Do You Know About Me poster
7.0

Until the 1970s, Italian cinema dominated the international scene, even competing with Hollywood. Then, in just a few years, came its rapid decline, the flight of our greatest producers, a crisis among the best writer-directors, the collapse of production. But what are the true causes and circumstances of this decline? In an attempt to provide an answer to this question, Di Me Cosa Ne Sai strives to depict this great cultural change. Begun as a loving examination of Italian cinema, the film transformed into a docu-drama that alternates between interviews with the great names of the past and fragments of cultural and political life of the last 30 years. It is a travel diary that shows Italy from north to south, through movie theatres; television-addicted kids; Berlusconi and Fellini; shopping centers; TV news editors; stories of impassioned film exhibitors and directors who fight for their films; and interviews with itinerant projectionists and great European directors.

What Do You Know About Me

2009

Filming Desire: A Journey Through Women’s Cinema poster
8.0

The film consists largely of a series of interviews with female filmmakers from several different countries and filmmaking eras. Some, such as Agnès Varda and Catherine Breillat (both from France), have been making films for decades in a conscious effort to provide an alternative to the male filmmaking model; others, such as Moufida Tlatli (Tunisia) and Carine Adler (England), are relative newcomers to directing, and their approaches seem more personal and less political. The film as a whole manages to cover some important topics in the feminist debate about film -- how does one construct a female gaze, how can one film nude bodies without objectifying the actors (of either sex), what constitutes a strong female role -- while also making it clear that “women’s film” comprises as many different approaches to filmmaking as there are female filmmakers.

Filming Desire: A Journey Through Women’s Cinema

2000

Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita poster
7.3

Cinecitta is today known as the center of the Italian film industry. But there is a dark past. The film city was solemnly inaugurated in 1937 by Mussolini. Here, propaganda films would be produced to strengthen the dictator's position.

Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita

2021

Women Directors poster
NR

Registe, talking on a blade is an Italian documentary about the Italian Cinema signed by women and about the pioneer of the Silent Cinema Elvira Notari (1875-1946) plays by Maria De Medeiros. The directors interviewed are the most important Italian women directors: Lina Wertmüller, Cecilia Mangini, Francesca Archibugi, Francesca Comencini, Wilma Labate, Cinzia Th Torrini, Roberta Torre, Antonietta De Lillo, Giada Colagrande, Donatella Maiorca, Ilaria Borrelli and others.

Women Directors

2014

Pilgrimage to Agen poster
NR

Christina and Francesca Comencini go on a pilgrimage to Agen, France to find the places where there Dad Luigi Comencini spent his childhood.

Pilgrimage to Agen

1988

Behind the camera

Visions of Europe poster
5.3

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Visions of Europe

2004

Shakespeare a Palermo poster
NR

In the late 1990s, in a dilapidated theater in the heart of Palermo, Carlo Cecchi is working on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the second play in his Shakespearean trilogy, translated by the poet Patrizia Cavalli. Director Francesca Comencini – who sees Cecchi as the last representative of an Italy not subservient to the media and Berlusconi’s power – decides to follow him and is allowed to film the show’s rehearsals, on the condition that she does it all on her own and with discretion.

Shakespeare a Palermo

1997

Shakespeare a Palermo poster
NR

In the late 1990s, in a dilapidated theater in the heart of Palermo, Carlo Cecchi is working on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the second play in his Shakespearean trilogy, translated by the poet Patrizia Cavalli. Director Francesca Comencini – who sees Cecchi as the last representative of an Italy not subservient to the media and Berlusconi’s power – decides to follow him and is allowed to film the show’s rehearsals, on the condition that she does it all on her own and with discretion.

Shakespeare a Palermo

1997

I Like to Work – Mobbing poster
6.6

A woman comes across the difficulties of modern work: to force her to resign from her job, her firm tries all the humiliation techniques known as "mobbing". The film is based upon real cases reported by Italian unions.

I Like to Work – Mobbing

2004

I Like to Work – Mobbing poster
6.6

A woman comes across the difficulties of modern work: to force her to resign from her job, her firm tries all the humiliation techniques known as "mobbing". The film is based upon real cases reported by Italian unions.

I Like to Work – Mobbing

2004

La lumière du lac poster
8.0

An urban gigolo on the run from a mobster hides out at the remote cabin of a female novelist in this plodding romantic drama. Her neighbors include an elderly man with a penchant for growing sunflowers and an unhappy neighbor girl with emotional problems. Love blossoms for the unlikely couple who somehow realize their liaison is doomed to failure.

La lumière du lac

1988

La lumière du lac poster
8.0

An urban gigolo on the run from a mobster hides out at the remote cabin of a female novelist in this plodding romantic drama. Her neighbors include an elderly man with a penchant for growing sunflowers and an unhappy neighbor girl with emotional problems. Love blossoms for the unlikely couple who somehow realize their liaison is doomed to failure.

La lumière du lac

1988

Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to This World poster
5.5

Claudia and Flavio were once passionately in love, but all of that is over. Now, in their fifties, they must venture anew into the world of love and dating once more but for Claudia confronting the end and accepting a new beginning isn’t so easy. Claudia is unwilling to let go and forget the life she’s built with Flavio, while Flavio, eager to move on, soon finds himself in a relationship with a much younger woman. Claudia soon reconnects with Nina, a student from her days as a professor.

Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to This World

2017

Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to This World poster
5.5

Claudia and Flavio were once passionately in love, but all of that is over. Now, in their fifties, they must venture anew into the world of love and dating once more but for Claudia confronting the end and accepting a new beginning isn’t so easy. Claudia is unwilling to let go and forget the life she’s built with Flavio, while Flavio, eager to move on, soon finds himself in a relationship with a much younger woman. Claudia soon reconnects with Nina, a student from her days as a professor.

Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to This World

2017

The White Space poster
5.7

An unexpected pregnancy and premature birth become a burden that Maria is unprepared for. Lacking control over events for the first time in her life, she retreats into an emotional space where she is alone, until the day arrives when she must learn to live again for the sake of her vulnerable child.

The White Space

2009

The White Space poster
5.7

An unexpected pregnancy and premature birth become a burden that Maria is unprepared for. Lacking control over events for the first time in her life, she retreats into an emotional space where she is alone, until the day arrives when she must learn to live again for the sake of her vulnerable child.

The White Space

2009

The Time It Takes poster
6.9

A devoted father working in film shares a magical bond with his daughter, but as she enters adolescence and falls into addiction, he takes her to Paris in a final effort to save her and their fading connection.

The Time It Takes

2024

The Time It Takes poster
6.9

A devoted father working in film shares a magical bond with his daughter, but as she enters adolescence and falls into addiction, he takes her to Paris in a final effort to save her and their fading connection.

The Time It Takes

2024

Carlo Giuliani, a Boy poster
7.1

The film recounts Carlo Giuliani’s day of July 20 and, parallel to it, the July 20 of the march of the ‘disobedients’, or the ‘white overalls’, among whose ranks Carlo died. An individual’s story is told in all its absolute concreteness, the friends he meets, the snack bar he goes to for a bite, the roll of scotch tape he picks up on the street; whereas a multitude’s story is told in all its epic tragedy, the night under the rain, the colossal preparation against the march, the advance behind shields, the attack of which the multitude was victim, the defense that gets organized.

Carlo Giuliani, a Boy

2002

Carlo Giuliani, a Boy poster
7.1

The film recounts Carlo Giuliani’s day of July 20 and, parallel to it, the July 20 of the march of the ‘disobedients’, or the ‘white overalls’, among whose ranks Carlo died. An individual’s story is told in all its absolute concreteness, the friends he meets, the snack bar he goes to for a bite, the roll of scotch tape he picks up on the street; whereas a multitude’s story is told in all its epic tragedy, the night under the rain, the colossal preparation against the march, the advance behind shields, the attack of which the multitude was victim, the defense that gets organized.

Carlo Giuliani, a Boy

2002

The Words of My Father poster
7.0

At 30, Zeno's father dies, and he realizes that his youth is almost over. Meeting Giovanni Malfenti, a succesful gallery owner with four daughters, he's impressed by Malfenti's energy, and falls in love with one of his daughters. This relationship helps Zeno find peace and direction.

The Words of My Father

2001

The Words of My Father poster
7.0

At 30, Zeno's father dies, and he realizes that his youth is almost over. Meeting Giovanni Malfenti, a succesful gallery owner with four daughters, he's impressed by Malfenti's energy, and falls in love with one of his daughters. This relationship helps Zeno find peace and direction.

The Words of My Father

2001

Pianoforte poster
6.5

Maria studies at the university while her boyfriend Paolo is an established journalist. Both are drug addicts. Maria and Paolo try to detox with the help of a specialized clinic but it doesn't last long: back from a trip during which they proved to themselves that they could resist without drugs, both fall victim to addiction again. The consequences are not long in coming.

Pianoforte

1985

Pianoforte poster
6.5

Maria studies at the university while her boyfriend Paolo is an established journalist. Both are drug addicts. Maria and Paolo try to detox with the help of a specialized clinic but it doesn't last long: back from a trip during which they proved to themselves that they could resist without drugs, both fall victim to addiction again. The consequences are not long in coming.

Pianoforte

1985

Annabelle partagée poster
3.7

In this mildly explicit sexual drama, the lovely dancer Annabelle (Delphine Zingg) has a passionate relationship with an older man but eventually decides to devote her romantic energies to a younger man with whom she has more in common. Between sex scenes, and philosophical discussions between friends and lovers about love and relationships, the viewer is treated to shots of the lovely dancer mulling over her life at various scenic locations in Paris.

Annabelle partagée

1991

Annabelle partagée poster
3.7

In this mildly explicit sexual drama, the lovely dancer Annabelle (Delphine Zingg) has a passionate relationship with an older man but eventually decides to devote her romantic energies to a younger man with whom she has more in common. Between sex scenes, and philosophical discussions between friends and lovers about love and relationships, the viewer is treated to shots of the lovely dancer mulling over her life at various scenic locations in Paris.

Annabelle partagée

1991

Our Country poster
5.4

Set in Milan, where people's lives are invisibly lead by money in its different shapes: too much, too little, stolen, earned, visible and even impalpable. The money flows from one story to the next, from one person to the other, becoming the engine of the film.Everything moves around two antagonist characters: Ugo and Rita. Ugo is a banker involved in a not really clean business. Rita, the Finance Police officer, is a strong and obstinate woman in charge of capturing Ugo. Other characters wander around them, with their weaknesses and fragility, their goodness, their evil and their contradictions. Characters meet, clash, love and hate each other, their lust for money becomes intense feelings.

Our Country

2006

Our Country poster
5.4

Set in Milan, where people's lives are invisibly lead by money in its different shapes: too much, too little, stolen, earned, visible and even impalpable. The money flows from one story to the next, from one person to the other, becoming the engine of the film.Everything moves around two antagonist characters: Ugo and Rita. Ugo is a banker involved in a not really clean business. Rita, the Finance Police officer, is a strong and obstinate woman in charge of capturing Ugo. Other characters wander around them, with their weaknesses and fragility, their goodness, their evil and their contradictions. Characters meet, clash, love and hate each other, their lust for money becomes intense feelings.

Our Country

2006

L'Aquila 2009: Five Directors in the Rubble poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

L'Aquila 2009: Five Directors in the Rubble

2009