Boarding Gate (2007)

An Italian woman who lives in London has a passionate affair with a former financial big gun. She also had a second lover, a contract killer who has to kill the big gun. Her second lover's ... See full summary »

Director:

Olivier Assayas

Writer:

Olivier Assayas

Stars:

Asia Argento, Michael Madsen, Kelly Lin

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Asia Argento	...	Sandra
Michael Madsen	...	Miles Rennberg
Kelly Lin	...	Sue Wang
Carl Ng	...	Lester Wang
Kim Gordon	...	Kay
Alex Descas	...	Andrew
Joana Preiss	...	Lisa
Sau-Ming Tsang	...	Abacus Boss (as Raymond Tsang)
Bing Hei Chim	...	Abacus Worker #1 (as Jim Ping Hei)
Kim Lee Wing	...	Abacus Worker #2
Fan Wei Yee	...	Abacus Worker #3 (as Ricky Wong)
Boss Mok	...	Mr. Ho
Régis Vidal	...	DJ at Vega
François-Renaud Labarthe	...	Night Watchman
Mustapha Abdellah	...	Security Guard

Storyline

An Italian woman who lives in London has a passionate affair with a former financial big gun. She also had a second lover, a contract killer who has to kill the big gun. Her second lover's wife is behind the scenes, pulling the strings.

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Plot Keywords:

gun | italian woman | hong kong | new identity | bondage | 

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Taglines:

She's losing control again

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and some drug material

Details

Country:

France Luxembourg

Language:

English French Cantonese

Release Date:

22 August 2007 (France)

Also Known As:

Amatőr bérgyilkos

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$11,440 (USA) (21 March 2008)

Gross:

$49,333 (USA) (18 April 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canal+, Margo Films, October Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Lizard Point"
Brian Eno

User Reviews

Asia's Tectonics

Two things are interesting about the film.

The first and most discussed is the actress, Asia Argento. She and Beatrice Dalle are similar I think. They both have the quality of fearless commitment - like Emily Watson in "Breaking the Waves" and never afterward. They both have fumbled around facial features. They both are known as sexy — only because of nudity and the roles.

But more fundamental to me is that they both know things. I believe that an artist has to both have talent and be truly an interesting person; they have to know things we do not. Asia does. In fact, you can see it even in her first movie just as she is hitting puberty. This woman shows us a character that has qualities that this woman understands.

Streep has talent but no knowledge. Asia has less talent but she matters. This is one of her best. Don't miss it. Don't miss how she breathes. The nudity and story is nothing compared the grace of her visible breathing.

Here, she plays a woman who does what we all do: make compromises for companionship which if it has what we want we call love. The missing bits always catch up with us and with her the writer maps these pretty deftly into components of a thriller.

The structure of that thriller is the second notable bit. Of all genres, the thriller is most plastic. Allowing many flows so long as tension and guns are involved.

The story here sneaks up on you. Almost nothing is predictable. It starts slowly, and then bam. It goes off in an unexpected direction. The interesting narrative device here is that we follow her and discover things as she does. But she knows things, many things, that we do not. She does get surprised as we do, but not always so. At the end, she is allowed to write the future, for her lover at any rate.

My guess is that if she had never gotten and displayed that labial tattoo, she would have been taken more seriously. And we would be better off cinematically.

This is a good one. Angelic.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.