Naman Shrestha
Starring Trace Lysette portraying the titular character, ‘Monica’ is a drama movie co-written and directed by Andrea Pallaoro that chronicles the life of a woman named Monica who returns home for the first time in two decades to take care of her dying mother. We get a glimpse of her world of fear, pain, and courage with the help of themes such as aging, acceptance, rejection, abandonment, and forgiveness.
Apart from Lysette, the movie includes heartfelt onscreen performances from talented actors like Patricia Clarkson, Emily Browning, Adriana Barraza, and Joshua Close. The ordinary visuals and the plain backdrops, mainly of the ailing mother’s house, reflect the simple yet sentimental storyline of the drama movie, which is likely to make one curious about the actual filming sites of ‘Monica.’ In that case, you might be interested in what we have to share about the same!
Monica: Where Was it Filmed?
‘Monica’ was filmed in Ohio, especially in the Cincinnati Metropolitan Area. As per reports, principal photography for the drama movie commenced in late June 2021 and wrapped up around mid-August of the same year. Now, without further ado, let’s follow Monica and get a detailed account of all the specific locations that appear in the Andrea Pallaoro directorial!
Cincinnati Metropolitan Area, Ohio
All the pivotal sequences for ‘Monica’ were lensed in the Cincinnati Metropolitan Area, aka Greater Cincinnati, with the production team setting up camp in numerous streets and neighborhoods. For instance, the neighborhoods of East Walnut Hills, on the Southeast side of Cincinnati, and Hyde Park, on the city’s east side, feature quite heavily in the movie.
The cast and crew members were also spotted taping several key portions in the residential neighborhood of Carthage, in Cincinnati’s Mill Creek Valley, and the village of Newtown in Ohio’s Hamilton County. As far as the main house, where many important scenes were recorded, the director Andrea Pallaoro had a few things to say about how he found it when asked by The Moveable Fest in May 2023.
Pallaoro said, “During the location scout, that was the first house that we saw, and my director of photography, my production designer, and I were so confident that that was the house, but then, of course, we had such a long list of properties that we had to see that were scheduled, so for the next two days we just kept looking at properties, but we knew that we had found that house and I feel like it served our purpose so well.” In the same interview, he was asked about the scene set in the empty pool outside, where Monica reconnects with her brother, and how the camera movements complement the entire scene.
The filmmaker explained, “Like many scenes in the film, I wanted that to be shot in a single take, and I didn’t want the interruption of editing to affect it because editing is a marvelous tool to foster emotion and meaning, but I didn’t want to interrupt that conversation in any way. And I wanted for it to play within the boundaries of what we were experiencing in front of us, and I knew that also movement was going to play a very important part as well, and the choreography was something that we really found together, both with the performers, Trace and Josh, but also with my director of photography Kate Arizmendi.”
Read More: Is Monica Based on a True Story?
