Boarding Gate

Controversial actress Asia Argento teams up with equally divisive director Olivier Assayas for this sexy thriller. Sandra (Argento) has left a life of prostitution behind, but her past haunts her when an old lover (Michael Madsen) returns. Their tryst doesn't turn out as either had imagined, and Sandra is forced to escape to Hong Kong. But a change of scenery doesn't reduce the danger in her life, and her new friends aren't what they seem.

One “of the more contentious selections from the 2007 Cannes Film Festival [is] Olivier Assayas’s Boarding Gate, starring a mesmerizing Asia Argento as a woman with a taste for rough trade (aka Michael Madsen) and a thing for crossing borders (sexual, ethical, geographic). The film, which opens on March 31, sharply divided critics at Cannes, some of whom were affronted by its pulpy particulars (Variety dismissed it as sleazy, as if that were a bad thing) and overly distracted by its trajectory from freaky head-and-sex trips in France to chaotic intrigue in Hong Kong. Ms. Argento’s commitment to this material feels more genuine than Mr. Assayas’s, but his extraordinarily beautiful and somewhat ethereal visual style works in fascinating counterpoint to her lowdown and dirty vibe.” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times)

“[Boarding Gate] rocked me pretty hard.” (Glenn Kenny, Premiere)