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Director Asia Argento's startling new work Incompresa was one of my very favorite films from last year (check out my review) and a new international trailer has surfaced that does a really nice job of hinting at the film's youthful anarchy. It's missing some of the movie's pathos, but since Incompresa is a film that also celebrates the ups that accompany the downs of adolescence, it feels appropriate to post. I urge you to check out this movie (I rarely lay down my affection for a film that hard in a review) when it gets a Us release date. It's probably closer to The 400 Blows than Welcome to the Dollhouse, but viewing it though either of those aesthetic lenses should suit you just fine. Check out the Incompresa trailer below. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Giulia Salerno and Gabriel Garko. We'll let you know about the Us release...

Earlier today, fellow film nerd Marc Heuck tweeted the following: Incompresa, the moving new @AsiaArgento film, still has no U.S. distributor. Wtf? Dozens of boutique labels here yet nobody's stepping up? — Marc Edward Heuck (@the_hoyk) February 17, 2015 I reached out to "Doctor Strange" director Scott Derrickson, who is a producer on the film and who talked to me about it before the Cannes Film Festival, where it absolutely flattened me. I asked him if it's true that the film is still without a distributor, and he told me they haven't been able to figure out anything. Not theatrical. Not VOD. Not even a basic DVD release. This is wrong. This is a mistake. Are you seriously going to tell me that there's not a single distributor out there who sees the merit in the film? Am I supposed to believe that there's no marketing hook you can craft around...

Leo Tolstoy famously opened his classic novel Anna Karenina with this statement: "Happy families are all alike. But all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way." You'd be hard pressed to find a family much unhappier than the one depicted in Misunderstood, the latest feature by actress-director Asia Argento, her third as director and her first filmmaking effort in about a decade. The opening scene wastes very little time in establishing just how hellish an existence being part of that family is. Over a family dinner, mom (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and dad (Gabriel Garko) hurl vicious insults at one another, while the children are caught in the middle of this violent whirlwind. The one who gets the brunt of the cruel, abusive, and casually neglectful behavior...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Misunderstood is a magnificently angry film. One can glean as much from the title, a potential evocation of everything from the Beats and Rebel Without a Cause to the sexually furious teens of Fat Girl and the New French Extremity. Asia Argento‘s third feature as director may not reference all of these different artistic moments, but it certainly fits into the larger cultural history of disaffected youth. Its adults are incompetent, acrimonious clowns whose negligence is only matched by their stupidity. Its children take after them, engaging in petty squabbles because they’ve likely never seen anyone behave any better. It is a film that sees right into the empty core of materialism and its discontents. All of this might be hard to take if it were not anchored by a defiant, cackling sense of humor and one of the most effective child protagonists of the last few years. Aria...

Back in May, the New York Times' Manohla Dargis spoke with Asia Argento about her third feature, Misunderstood (Incompresa), "a funny, free, tough-minded film… Set in the 1980s, it centers on a 9-year-old, Aria (Giulia Salerno), the underloved daughter of two monstrous narcissists, an actor (Gabriel Garko) and a pianist (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Soon after it opens, the parents separate and Aria–Ms. Argento’s original name–starts toggling between them even as they reject her, often brutally. Cast aside, she takes refuge in her love of a cat and in her imagination, which soars movingly both in her writing and in some wild fantasies." We're collecting more reviews and have posted the trailer and two clips. » - David Hudson...

Back in May, the New York Times' Manohla Dargis spoke with Asia Argento about her third feature, Misunderstood (Incompresa), "a funny, free, tough-minded film… Set in the 1980s, it centers on a 9-year-old, Aria (Giulia Salerno), the underloved daughter of two monstrous narcissists, an actor (Gabriel Garko) and a pianist (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Soon after it opens, the parents separate and Aria–Ms. Argento’s original name–starts toggling between them even as they reject her, often brutally. Cast aside, she takes refuge in her love of a cat and in her imagination, which soars movingly both in her writing and in some wild fantasies." We're collecting more reviews and have posted the trailer and two clips. » - David Hudson...

[Incompresa has been titled Misunderstood in the U.S. For the purposes of this review I will be referring to it by its original title.] In 1993 Hole’s Courtney Love was asked about the differences between their then-impending masterpiece Live Through This and their prior album, the cathartic but formally messy Pretty on the Inside. She replied, “it’s leaps and bounds different. It’s so different there should have been an album in between.” The same sentiment could be used to describe the vast gulf between writer/director Asia Argento’s last feature film, the undeniably visceral The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, and her new work Incompresa, which carries a sustained and palpable ache that could only be achieved by someone working at the top of their craft. That shared DNA with Live Through This doesn’t end there, as Incompresa also provides the singularly indelible experience of walking a mile in someone else’s disintegrating shoes. But that’s only a gateway comparison, this film is its own beast entirely. Incompresa...

Getting its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival, Asia Argento’s Misunderstood is ostensibly about a nine-year-old girl’s difficult childhood brought on by the wildly inappropriate parenting skills of a pair of narcissistic celebrities and/or bohemian artists. That being said, its depiction of a childhood devoid of authority is often so playfully strange that it seems a celebration of anarchy more than a lament.

The father (Gabriel Garko) is a popular action movie star who sports sunglasses and bleach-blonde frosted tips, smokes pot in front of his kids, and showers his other daughter—a busty teen who seems always on the verge of exploding out of her all-pink outfit in her all-pink bedroom—with almost incestuous affection. The mother (Charlotte Gainsbourg), meanwhile, disappears for weeks at a time on erotic adventures, brings home men who talk about “pussy” in front of the kids, and makes...

Opening Night – World Premiere

Gone Girl

David Fincher, USA, 2014, Dcp, 150m

David Fincher’s film version of Gillian Flynn’s phenomenally successful best seller (adapted by the author) is one wild cinematic ride, a perfectly cast and intensely compressed portrait of a recession-era marriage contained within a devastating depiction of celebrity/media culture, shifting gears as smoothly as a Maserati 250F. Ben Affleck is Nick Dunne, whose wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) goes missing on the day of their fifth anniversary. Neil Patrick Harris is Amy’s old boyfriend Desi, Carrie Coon (who played Honey in Tracy Letts’s acclaimed production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is Nick’s sister Margo, Kim Dickens (Treme, Friday Night Lights) is Detective Rhonda Boney, and Tyler Perry is Nick’s superstar lawyer Tanner Bolt. At once a grand panoramic vision of middle America, a uniquely disturbing exploration of the fault lines in a marriage,...

Nearly 10 years after her second feature as a director, "The Heart Is Deceitful," Italian actress-turned-director Asia Argento -- who also happens to be the daughter of Italian cinema's giallo master Dario Argento -- finally returns to the director's chair for a second time with her new film, "Incompresa." Despite missing subtitles, the film's newly released trailer is captivating nonetheless. As The Playlist notes, "Incompresa," which translates to "Misunderstood" in English, appears to be a semi-autobiographical account of what it is like to grow up surrounded by fame and excess. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Gabriel Garko star as the famous parents of a young girl played by newcomer Giulia Salerno. Given the vibrant color scheme, baroque costuming and decadent lifestyle of the characters, Argento seems to share the same aesthetic and thematic preoccupations as her directing contemporary Sofia Coppola -- which doesn't come as much of a surprise given the fact that they worked together.

Earlier today we dropped our list of the 15 Most Anticipated Film Of The 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and while it's the highest profile titles that get the attention, we're always hoping for something to break out unexpectedly. Could Asia Argento's "Incompresa" be such a film? Playing the Un Certain Regard section, the film is Argento's first feature since 2004's "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things," and is inspired by her childhood. As you know, she's the offspring of giallo master Dario Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi, and this film seems to be a look into a world of fame and celebrity through a child's eyes, with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Gabriel Garko as the parental figures. And we're also intrigued by the soundtrack, which has been put together by Justin Pearson, Gabe Serbian and Luke Henshaw. Noise and punk fiends may know those names from bands such as The Locust,...

Croisette regulars veterans Jean Luc Godard, Ken Loach and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne will compete alongside Competition first-timers Alice Rohrwacher, Xavier Dolan and Damian Szifron at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

Artistic director Thierry Fremaux announced the Official Selection of the 67th edition on Thursday (17) at a packed press conference at the Normandie Cinema on the Champs Elysées in Paris.

“Anyone who makes a film of more than one hour in duration, has the right to submit a film to Cannes… this year we received some 1,800 films in total – all of which were screened,” said Fremaux.

He announced 49 titles in total from 28 countries and hinted a further two or three could be announced ahead of Cannes. [Click here for the full list.]

Fremaux, who tied up the line-up at 1am local time ahead of the announcement, said films were arriving later and later for consideration due to digitisation of filmmaking.

“It used to be that January was late,” he said. “Now...

Go Wild

Thomas Sadoski ("The Newsroom") is in negotiations to join Reese Witherspoon in Jean-Marc Vallee's "Wild," an adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's non-fiction book.

The story centers on a young woman who seeks a fresh start by hiking 1,000 miles of the Pacific Coast Trail. Sadoski will play her ex-husband who cares for her despite her infidelities. [Source: THR]

Life Itself

Cynthia Nixon ("Sex and the City") will join Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton in Richard Loncraine's "Life Itself". Filming begins in New York City next week.

The story follows a a married couple who get swept into a real estate bidding war when they put their Manhattan apartment on the market. Nixon will play Keaton’s niece who serves as her real estate broker. [Source: The Wrap]

Sex Tape

Ellie Kemper ("The Office") has joined the cast of the comedy "Sex Tape" at Sony Pictures. Rob Lowe and Rob Corddry also star.

The...

Charlotte Gainsbourg has been cast in Misunderstood.

She will reteam with Do Not Disturb co-star Asia Argento.

The film will be Asia's third directorial outing, following the 2004 feature The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.

Details of Misunderstood's plot remain under wraps. Gabriel Garko and Julia Salerno will also feature in the movie.

Gainsbourg will star in Lars Von Trier's upcoming, sexually explicit two-film project Nymphomaniac, which will premiere in Denmark in December.

Asia will next be seen acting in her father Dario Argento's Dracula 3D.

Gabriel Garko (photo) will play Rudolph Valentino (aka Rodolfo Valentino in places like Italy and Brazil) in a two-part Italian TV movie. To be directed by Alessio Inturri for Mediaset, the Valentino project is reportedly to be filmed this year in both Italy and the United States. Gabriel Garko, who’ll turn 38 next July 12, has worked steadily on Italian television. His feature-film appearances, however, have been sporadic. Most notable among those were supporting roles in Ferzan Ozpetek’s gay/bisexual drama Le fate ignoranti / The Ignorant Fairies (2001) and Franco Zeffirelli’s Callas Forever (2002). In terms of movie fandom, the Italian-born Rudolph Valentino was the George Clooney / Robert Pattinson / Johnny Depp / Zac Efron of the early-to-mid-’20s. One of Hollywood’s earliest superstars, Valentino’s movie career skyrocketed in 1921, after he was featured in Rex Ingram’s blockbuster The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and in George Melford’s The Sheik.