BONELLO SHORT

The following is a short film Bonello did with Asia Argento, a star and director associated with the New Extreme, titled CINDY: THE DOLL IS MINE, which played at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.  The film is clearly referencing the work of Cindy Sherman, an artist associated with abject art, and the self-portraits that she is known for.  Bonello and Argento, who worked together in ON WAR (2008), problematize gender by casting Argento in a stereotypically feminine role of performer and a stereotypically masculine role of artist.  Like male and female are challenged in TIRESIA, CINDY: THE DOLL IS MINE questions femininity and masculinity in relation to the roles of performance and artistic creation and the relationship between performer and director.

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)