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DVD B. Monkey
Director Michael Radford made a surprising about-face from his international hit Il Postino to this grungy British romantic crime thriller. Asia Argento (Dario's daughter and costar of Abel Ferrara's New Rose Hotel) is the title character, a street criminal whose specialty is breaking and entering: "I can get into anywhere." Jared Harris (Richard's son and Andy Warhol in I Shot Andy Warhol) is a bookish, shy schoolteacher with a yen for jazz who becomes smitten with Argento's sexy wildcat. Argento brings a vitality to the supercharged street thief trying to break with her past, but stick-in-the-mud Harris is restrained to a fault and Radford never quite finds the right chemistry to make their union any more than curious. Rupert Everett costars as a smart-mouthed, sleepy-eyed ne'er-do-well whose drug habit puts him deep in debt, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is Argento's volatile partner, a jittery young punk on a hair trigger. Radford has more fun with the villains than his ostensible hero; the film bubbles when they're on screen and the movie's single heist scene is a short, sharp, energized shot in the arm to a slowing story. Only Harris sticks out as an impossibly resolute saint who's dedicated his life to a passionate sinner. The conclusion reverberates with echoes of Straw Dogs, as remade by a kinder, gentler filmmaker. --Sean Axmaker
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is certainly a love story, but for me this is only important in that love is one of the things most of us look for in life. The deeper search, and this is where Asia'a character starts out, is for a life that is not "frayed at the edges," perhaps another way of saying "whole." What plays out is two people, driven in part, for certain, by their passion for each other, but even more for their passion for authenticity, who deepen themselve, each other and an amazing relationship through that search. It is the insistence of each of these people to fully honor themselves, individually, that causes them to succeed both in their personal quest and in love. It is they way they ultimately honor each other. This is a deep life lesson that is not learned by many, which, perhaps, is why so many reviewers miss it.
What they learn is that when they find themselves, "They Can't take that away from me," as the music that accompanies the credits at the end says.
A fantastic flic. Good music, color, cinematography, acting, editing and other things, too.
A magnetic Asia Argento--heists and true love....
The right person can help you overcome your self-destructiveness. That's pretty much the moral of this oddly endearing love story/crime story.
The principal character--very strongly and naturally played by a not-at-all-inhibited Asia Argento (ie, lots of nudity). I was very impressed by the other main character, Jared Harris, an actor I had only seen previously as Andy Warhol (I Shot Andy Warhol). He's terrific. His voice is fabulous (something in common with dad, the late great Richard H.) He's a good guy, the clean-cut teacher who cares about his students, law-abiding, gentle, jazz-loving. She's the thief with a soft heart, looking for a reason to leave that life, looking for "family" (her childhood was not chipper). She's got an ersatz family (a dysfunctional one) with Rupert Everett (as a charming, drug-addled thief) and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (as a pretty-boy, screwed up emotionally thief). They care about each other, but are also violent and volatile with each other.
The teacher gets pizzazz in his life from Beatrice (B Monkey); B. gets stability from him. But the dark elements of her character and her dangerous associates intrude into their lovey-dovey life, and they have to make tough decisions about how to continue together. It's very moving when Harris' character asks Beatrice, "If if was just you and me, and nothing else, would that be enough?" Ultimately, isn't that what true love may come down to? Is being with that person, like Adam and Eve, just the two of you, enough? Can you give up the thrills of a dangerous life and settle down and be happy?
The ending, violent and an ultimate test of loyalty and love, is explosive and appropriate given what came before. It's a satisfying, if gruesome conclusion to an askew love story.
I've never seen Miss Argento before, and I agree with the other reviewers that she is genuinely charismatic.
Hidden treasure
Why, oh why doesn't Hollywood make movies with this much heart and atmosphere?
This movie (i caught it 1st on cable) is so luscious, the performances so brilliant and believable that i was mesmerized. Asia Argento is amazing. She deserves to be a big star. This movie works on so many levels, the love story, the gritty underground scenes, it all fits together. And the music is wonderful, Portishead, Portishead, Portishead (and Barry White briefly) along with some wonderful old jazz.
Italian starlet Asia Argento (who costarred in XXX with Vin Diesel, as well as several films directed by her father, horror maestro Dario Argento) wrote, directed, and stars in this story of an emotionally unstable Italian starlet named Anna Battista, who describes herself as "the most lonely girl in the world." Anna flailingly searches for love as she grapples with the pressures of life as a star (including grabby fans, lecherous producers, and abusive directors), travels from Rome to London to Amsterdam, has a drug-induced freak-out at a photo shoot, and smokes a lot of cigarettes. A tryst in Paris with an Australian rock star leaves her pregnant and convinced she's in love; but when he abandons her, she starts burning herself. Scarlet Diva features copious... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Asia Argento DVD Release Date: Released the 26 November 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Kate Beckinsale plays an art restorer. While working on her current commission, she discovers a previously hidden inscription, which points to a murder conspiracy 500 years ago. As she tries to solve the mystery, whose key lies in the paintings depiction of a chess game, people around her, connected in one way or another to the painting, begin to die. Is the past reaching out to wreak vengeance on the present? And who is the Black Queen?
I won't tell you, except to say that the answer is painfully obvious. Based on The Flanders Panel, a novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, author of The Ninth Gate, this is a much less successful film than Roman Polanski's effort. The premise is intriguing, but the resolution is deeply disappointing. Beckinsale's character, furthermore, is so... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jim McBride DVD Release Date: Released the 16 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A love letter to movies (and the French new wave of the 1960s in particular), Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers starts with a 1968 riot outside of a Parisian movie palace then burrows into an insular love triangle. Matthew (Michael Pitt, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), an expatriate American student, bonds with a twin brother and sister, Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel), over their mutual love of film--they not only quote lines of dialogue, they act out small bits and challenge each other to name the cinematic source. Matthew suspects the twins of incest, but that doesn't stop him from falling into his own intimacies with Isabelle. As the threesome becomes threatened, Paris succumbs to student riots. The Dreamers aspires to be kinky, but the results are more... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Bernardo Bertolucci DVD Release Date: Released the 13 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"The Red Siren" is a French thriller starring all European cast (speaking English, perhaps worldwide market in mind), including Jean-Marc Barr, Asia Argento, Frances Barber, and newcomer Alexandra Negrao. The story is based on a French bestseller Maurice G. Dantec's "La Sirene Rouge" and the film is directed by Oliver Megaton from France.
THE STORY is about a girl Alice (Negrao) who seeks for a help in a police detective Anita (Argento). Alice claims: "My mother, she kills people," and she shows a video which shows a woman brutally tortured and killed. The complication is, the "snuff" video could be a fake, and Alice's mother Eva (intentionally campy Barber) belongs to a very influential family.
Anyway, the compassionate detective starts to investigate while Alice accidentally finds... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Olivier Megaton DVD Release Date: 13 July 2004
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Tangled is meant to describe the messy web of the characters' emotions, but it could just as well apply to the ornate plot of this tale of an overheated collegiate love triangle. David (Shawn Hatosy, Outside Providence) is madly in love with Jenny (Rachael Leigh Cook, She's All That), but she falls for his old friend Alan (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Velvet Goldmine). Though David knows that Alan has a history as a heartbreaker, nothing he says convinces Jenny that she's making a mistake--until Alan starts behaving erratically, and David has to take steps to protect her... steps that grow increasingly drastic. Though the actors are all attractive and have done good work in other films, the script of Tangled is disjointed and overwrought. Also featuring... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jay Lowi DVD Release Date: Released the 14 January 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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