ASSAYAS SHORT -- PARIS JE T'AIME

This short film from PARIS, JE T'AIME (2006) shows Olivier Assayas' softer side.  It tells the story of an American actress and her French drug dealer.  Despite a palpable desire between the two, they are hesitant to act on their impulses, perhaps they do not want to mix work and pleasure.  A drastic shift in tone from DEMONLOVER, Assayas' short demonstrates his love for fluid camera movements, cinema, and incomplete or open narrative structure.  Even this film manages to incorporate an suspenseful ending that leaves the audience hanging, wondering what will happen next.

DEMONLOVER SCREENING

"I was struck by the complete lack of morality."

-Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

"Expect DEMONLOVER to become a midnight-movie staple in the coming years. And expect shards of it to roil your dreams for weeks."

-Ty Burr, BOSTON GLOBE

"It's an exasperating, irresistible, must-see mess of a movie about life in the modern world and so very good that even when its story finally crashes and burns the filmmaking remains unscathed."
-Manohla Dargis, LOS ANGELES TIMES

With DEMONLOVER, Olivier Assayas turned his filmmaking 180-degrees following his stately costume drama SENTIMENTAL DESTINIES (2000).  The film explores the back-door dealings of a large French communication conglomerate intent on purchasing the rights to a Japanese animation company specializing in Internet pornography.  Technology, torture porn, and transnationalism dominated the landscape of DEMONLOVER, a film that gleefully eschews coherence.  So many double crosses it is hard to keep up and several half-ideas drifting around, DEMONLOVER forms a fascinating commentary on our modern times and our increasing emphasis on the body as commodity. 

Suggest Supplemental Screening:  BOARDING GATE (Assayas, 2007) [The film feels like a companion piece to DEMONLOVER, they seem to be operating in the same cinematic world]

The film also stars Asia Argento, daughter of Dario Argento (the Italian horror master), who is often associated with the New Extreme as an actress (BOARDING GATE, THE LAST MISTRESS) and as a director (SCARLET DIVA, THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS)