Mona Lisa Is Missing

Gr 9 Up—Writer/director Joe Medeiros solves the mystery behind the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa in this fast-paced biographical documentary filmed on location in France and Italy. The daughter of Vincenzo Peruggia, Celestina, always thought her father stole the painting to take revenge on his coworkers, French-born workers who taunted him and called him "macaroni" because of his Italian heritage. Medeiros traces the steps of Vincenzo to solve the mystery of why and how he stole the masterpiece and how he was able to hide it in his apartment for almost two-and-a-half years. The filmmaker combines animation, photographs, and interviews for a quirky educational piece that fits in neatly with a historical study of immigrant life at the turn of the 20th century. It's told through first-person accounts and the examination of original police reports in French and Italian archives. Medeiros combines the world today with that of 1911 by revisiting the places Vincenzo lived in and speaking to his descendants and others that knew about him. Fans of Tomie DePaola books will fall in love with Celestina, an Italian grandmother who only wants to know more about her dear "papà," who died when she was only six.—Ellen Frank, Flushing High School, Queens, NY