Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over 100 feature film, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films span a variety of different genres, ranging from violent and bizarre to dramatic and family-friendly movies. He is a controversial figure in the contemporary Japanese cinema industry, with several of his films being criticised for their extreme graphic violence. Some of his best known films are Audition, Ichi the Killer, Visitor Q, Dead or Alive, and various remakes: 13 Assassins, Hara-kiri, and Graveyard of Honor. He has also acted in more than 20 films.
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. His influential work in the horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, has led him to being referred to as the "Master of the Thrill" and the "Master of Horror".
Asia Argento is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with appearances in XXX (2002), Land of the Dead (2005) and Marie Antoinette (2006). Her other notable acting credits include Queen Margot (1994), Let's Not Keep in Touch (1994), Traveling Companion (1996), Last Days (2005) and Islands (2011). Argento is the recipient of several accolades, including two David di Donatello awards for Best Actress and three Italian Golden Globes. Her directorial credits include The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) and Misunderstood (2014).
Luce Caponegro, also known by her stage name Selen, is an Italian actress, TV presenter, and former pornographic actress.
Last Days is a 2005 American drama film directed, produced and written by Gus Van Sant. It is a fictionalized account of the last days of a musician, loosely based on Kurt Cobain. It was released to theaters in the United States on July 22, 2005 and was produced by HBO. The film stars Michael Pitt as the character Blake, based on Cobain. Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Scott Patrick Green and Thadeus A. Thomas also star in the film. This is the first film from Picturehouse, a joint venture between Time Warner's New Line Cinema and HBO Films subsidiaries to release art house, independent, foreign, and documentary films. The film polarized critics.
Cynthia Morris Sherman is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.
Kelly Lin or Lin Hsi-Lei is a Taiwanese actress and model who has appeared mainly in Hong Kong city films.
Dracula 3D is a 2012 vampire horror film co-written and directed by Dario Argento and starring Thomas Kretschmann, Rutger Hauer, Marta Gastini, and Unax Ugalde. An Italian-Spanish-French co-production, the film is Argento's first 3D film. Kretschmann took the role of Dracula; he later played Abraham van Helsing in the Budapest-shot television series Dracula.
The Son's Room is a 2001 Italian film directed, written and produced by Nanni Moretti. It depicts the psychological effects on a family and their life after the death of their son. It was filmed in and around the city of Ancona, with a cast led by Moretti, Laura Morante and Jasmine Trinca.
Mother of Tears is a 2007 supernatural horror film written and directed by Dario Argento, and starring Asia Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Moran Atias, Udo Kier and Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni. The film has also been billed in English-speaking media as Mater Lachrymarum, The Third Mother and Mother of Tears: The Third Mother.
Bertrand Bonello is a French film director, screenwriter, producer, composer and actor. His work has been associated with the New French Extremity. He wrote and directed Something Organic (1998), The Pornographer (2001), Tiresia (2003), Cindy: The Doll Is Mine (2005), On War (2008), House of Tolerance (2011), Saint Laurent (2014), Nocturama (2016), Zombi Child (2019), Coma (2022), and The Beast (2023). He also starred in Portrait of the Artist (2015), and Titane (2021). He was nominated for the César Award for Best Director for Saint Laurent, and was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2015.
Andrea Di Stefano is an Italian actor and film director.
Transylvania is a 2006 French drama film starring Asia Argento. In 2006, Director Tony Gatlif and composer Delphine Mantoulet won the Georges Delerue Prize at Film Fest Gent for the score, and Gatlif was nominated for the Grand Prix award. Transylvania premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival in France on 28 May, and premiered in the United States on 16 March 2007 at the Cleveland International Film Festival and in the United Kingdom at the Cambridge Film Festival on 6 July 2007.
Absurda is a surrealist short film directed by David Lynch and shown at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as an opening short to Wong Kar-wai’s film My Blueberry Nights. The film is approximately two and a half minutes long. It employs dream-like imagery, with stationary visuals which show a theater and the screen on which nightmarish images are projected. The film is part of the To Each His Own Cinema anthology. Lynch uploaded the film on his YouTube channel in 2020.
The 62nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 May to 24 May 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert was the Jury President. The Palme d'Or winner was The White Ribbon, directed by Michael Haneke.
The Last Mistress is a 2007 French-Italian film based on the novel Une vieille maîtresse by the French writer Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly. It stars Asia Argento and Fu'ad Aït Aattou as the two main characters. The movie was directed by the French filmmaker Catherine Breillat and was selected for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
Go Go Tales is an independent 2007 film by Abel Ferrara. Ferrara based the film on The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, directed by John Cassavetes. It stars Willem Dafoe as a strip club owner and co-stars Bob Hoskins, Asia Argento and Matthew Modine. Ferrara had the cast improvise much of their lines. He described the film as his "first intentional comedy".
Traveling Companion is a 1996 Italian drama film directed by Peter Del Monte. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. For her performance Asia Argento won the 1997 David di Donatello for Best Actress.
Misunderstood is a 2014 Italian drama film directed by Asia Argento. It was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
Close Friends is a 1992 Italian teen drama film directed by Michele Placido. It was entered into the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
