Intrepid first-time filmmaker Val Franco sets out to do for suburban working-class Italians what Ed Burns did for their Irish counterparts in her no-budget debut, Remembering Mario, a romantic comedy about four thirtyish Yonkers-based (New York) friends looking for love in all the wrong places.

Franco plays Anna, who's shed her ethnic heritage for whitebread ways as a college educator. Mario, her Italian father, is dying from Alzheimer's disease and can no longer recount the family stories that Anna once tuned out and now misses. Though Mario remains an unseen presence, his offscreen voice drives Franco's film and at press time she was negotiating to land a high-profile Italian-American actor for the role. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani makes his film debut as Anna's uncle in a brief scene outside City Hall. "One thing I'm trying to do here is break away from the familiar stereotypes of Italian Americans on film for a more realistic cross-section," says Franco. "Frank Vincent plays a wise man instead of a wiseguy."

Franco, 30, grew up in Yonkers and graduated Fordham University before embarking on a varied show business career that has included production work and stints as radio d.j., off- Broadway actress, stand-up comic and voice-over artist dubbing foreign films. She studied acting at New York's Circle in the Square Theater School and workshopped her one-woman show, Start with A Bang, on both coasts. Her cartoon volume, How to Stop that Table from Wobbling and 63 Other Uses for An Actor's Headshot, is in its third printing. Franco financed the color 16mm Mario herself from savings and says the production's seed money fell into her lap unexpectedly when Richard Dreyfuss pulled her from a crowd of extras for a small bit on his latest film, Mad Dog Time.

Mario's guerrilla 12-day shoot last August kept the small company on the move between Manhattan (Grand Central Station and Fordham University at Lincoln Center), Queens (J.F.K.'s Alitalia terminal) and bucolic suburbs to the east and north. Product placement deals resulted in a shiny red Porsche for one scene's visual gag. Luck ran out, however, when Franco's lab (Guffanti) lost a roll of film - a whole day's work - that her cut-rate production insurance didn't cover. The film's first public screenings are set for January and all rights are available.

Cast: Frank Vincent, Val Franco, Bernadette Penotti, Geraldine Sivero, Kenneth Favre, Antonia Sisti Crew: Producer/Screenwriter/Director, Val Franco; Associate Producer, Jen D'Angelo; Cinema-tographer, Richard Siegel; Line Producer, Max Reichman; Costumes, Maria Marzilli; Editor, Franco; Composer, Shane Visbal. Contact: Val Franco, Willy Nilly Productions, 15 Falmouth Road, Yonkers, NY 10710 Tel/Fax: (914) 337-4877.

(pi) - Darren Aronofsky
Floating - Meredith Cole
Liar - Josh Pate & Jonas Pate
Little City - Roberto Benabib
Louis and Frank - Alexandre Rockwell
Push - Jason Jennings
Remembering Mario - Val Franco
The Second Wife - Michael Steinberg
Shopping For Fangs - Quentin Lee & Justin Lin
The Sticky Fingers of Time - Hilary Brougher
Whatever - Susan Skoog