Asia Argento

At the Festival de Cannes 2026 , Asia Argento returns with “Death Has No Master” , the new feature by Venezuelan filmmaker Jorge Thielen Armand , presented as a world premiere in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes . The film , also titled “La muerte no tiene dueño” , follows Caro, a woman who travels to Venezuela to sell her late father’s cacao plantation, only to find the family mansion occupied by its former staff. Asia Argento describes the experience as both destabilising and artistically necessary. Acting in Spanish and spending two months in Venezuela, one dedicated to preparation and one to shooting, placed her in a state of vulnerability that became part of the role. “It made me feel very insecure, not speaking the language,” says the actress. “I used that frustration for my character.” Caro, inheritance and the violence of ownership For Asia Argento , Caro is not simply a woman reclaiming property. She is someone already close to collapse, forced to confront what land, inheritance and family history can conceal. The actress describes the character as marked by entitlement, colonial memory, and an unresolved relation to Venezuela. “There is this primal animal in me,” says Asia Argento , reflecting on how the film explores the instinctive violence attached to home, property and bloodline. In her reading, “Death Has No Master” examines a basic human impulse: the transformation of grief and inheritance into conflict. The mansion becomes more than a location. It is a place where buried histories return through bodies, rooms, sounds and gestures. The film’s official synopsis frames this struggle as one that unearths violence embedded in the land and its memory, and Asia Argento connects that idea to a more intimate performance process. She explains that she built an entire past for Caro, including details never shown on screen, to inhabit her instability with precision. Isolation as method The shoot in Venezuela became, in Asia Argento ’s words, an experience of self-imposed isolation. She says she did not go to the beach, restaurants or leisure spaces, choosing instead to remain in her hotel room and reread the script obsessively. “I’m not gonna miss this chance,” says Asia Argento . “So I gave it my all.” That intensity shaped a performance she now recognises as disturbing and deliberately unguarded. “When I looked at the movie, I was like, wow, I looked really deranged,”</e

This week in physical media with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski they look at one of the rarely talked about Coen Bros. films, John Ford basically doing Red Dust again and Herschell Gordon Lewis’ film about a Chicago garage band. There’s also the Karate Kid series continuation, a Sundance short that became a Sundance film plus a whole bunch of Christopher Lee and Asia Argento. 1:52 - Criterion (The Man Who Wasn’t There ) 13:15 - Warner Archive ( Mogambo ) 20:58 - AGFA ( Blast-Off Girls ) 29:40 - Sony ( D.E.B.S. ) 37:07 - Severin (The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 3 (1960-2024) ) 45:06 - Vinegar Syndrome (The Phantom of the Opera (1998) (4K) ) 52:36 - Cinematographe ( New Rose Hotel ) 58:33 - IFC (The Last Mistress ) 1:02:15 – New Television on Blu-ray ( Cobra Kai (The Complete Series) , Strange New Worlds Season 3) 1:08:09 - New Theatrical Titles On Blu-ray ( Zootopia 2 (4K) , The Running Man (2025) (4K) , Hamnet (4K) , Lurker , Merrily We Roll Along , Ella McCay ) 1:14:50 - New Blu-ray Announcements CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST OR BUY FROM MOVIEZYNG Be sure to check out Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library. (Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.) Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere. The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts . MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations. USE COUPON “MOVIEMADNESS” TO GET 10% OFF ALL DUBBY PRODUCTS SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus