MEDIA HORDE

Asia Argento

“If there’s a scene in
a movie where I have
to cry, I use what I call
‘sadcore’ music [to
prepare]. Cat Power
is always great for that.
But you just want
to kill yourself when
you listen to it.”

“The tattoo I have on
my neck—the 23? I had
this mystic reasoning
for it, but it was all
bullshit, as you can
see from the terrible
movie with Jim Carrey
about the number 23.
I would love to get rid
of it because of that.”

“When I was eight, I
was so obsessed with
Tears for Fears that
for my birthday, my
father [director Dario
Argento] took me to
their concert in Milan.
I wore this skinny tie
with ridiculous musical
notes on it. I was in
love with [singer]
Roland Orzabal,
which is unbelievable
to me today: a little
girl with all these
fantasies about a guy
named Roland.”

“Roman Polanski is
one of the best horror
directors out there.
There’s something
about The Tenant
that scares me to
my bones. The main
character goes to live
in an apartment where
a woman committed
suicide, and he ends up
becoming this woman.
You really don’t see
much, but it’s the
atmosphere and the
little recurring details,
like a tooth hidden
in a hole in the wall,
that creep me out.”

The guide to how entertainers entertain themselves. This month: The filmmaker and Boarding Gate star.

“For ten years I didn’t
even have a TV, but
sometimes when
I’m really depraved,
I watch Fox News. I
know it’s completely
manipulative, but at
least I get to know
what Britney is doing
every day. It’s not even
about the news. It’s like
a complete lobotomy.”

“I love the grandiosity
of Rainer Werner
Fassbinder. In 15
years he made more
than 40 movies, but
none of them feel
thrown away. I recently
had to go to several
film festivals here in
Europe, and it was
torturous how boring
the movies were. I
felt like I was getting
raped by European
cinema for a week.”

“I read Death on the
Installment Plan, by
Louis-Ferdinand Céline,
more than once. Céline
is very funny and, at
the same time, he
tells you really hard-
core things about his
childhood. There’s
almost a sickness to
it, like he has to share
as much as possible.”

“I’m a fan and a
friend of Sonic Youth.
They were very
kind to give me
music for a movie I
directed [The Heart
Is Deceitful Above
All Things]. To me,
the sound of Sonic
Youth is the sound
of the nervous
system—or tinnitus.”