Asia Argento: "I paid the price for being too impulsive"

Asia Argento confided in "20 Minutes" while she chairs the jury for the Gérardmer Fantastic Film Festival which begins this Wednesday and runs until February 2

Asia Argento on January 13, 2020 in Paris. (Photo JOEL SAGET / AFP) - AFP

Asia Argento is the first woman president of the jury at the Festival du Film Fantasitque de Gérardmer.
This figurehead of the #MeToo movement tells 20 Minutes to have "found peace".
Next summer, the Italian artist will film in a giallo run by his father, Dario Argento.

We can only admire Asia Argento, a figurehead of the #MeToo movement who dared to testify against Harvey Weinstein. Today, the actress, director and musician says she is "appeased" after months of turmoil, ready to become the first woman president of the jury of the Gérardmer Festival which takes place from January 29 to February 2.

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I worked on a new song with my dear friends @thepenelopes - it's a #Suicide cover “DREAM BABY DREAM” - coming out January 24th! Photo by Joël Saget ...... #AlanVega #MartinRev - Ho lavorato ad un nuovo pezzo con i miei cari amici @thepenelopes - una cover dei #Suicide “DREAM BABY DREAM” - uscirà il 24 gennaio 🤍

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The daughter of Italian horror master Dario Argento and actress and screenwriter Daria Nicolodi fell into the pot of fantasy cinema when she was a child. It was from Rome, just before flying to the Vosges, that she confided in 20 Minutes . She knows that Gérardmer does not pronounce "Gérardmère" and will not give in to the wearing of moon boots to survey the station. "A little class anyway! », She says in French which she knows perfectly.

What does this presidency of the jury mean to you?

I received the invitation while I was in bed after breaking my knee into three pieces. I spent fifty days immobilized and it was a gift that helped me recover. I think my body wanted to let me know it was time to rest ...

What is your state of mind today?

I just finished writing my new album which will be released in March. It is the first time that I write everything myself. I talk about intimate things by varying musical genres, singing in English and Roman, which makes me feel good. It is one of my most personal works, if only because I express myself in my native language ...

And since the Weinstein affair?

I went through very difficult times. I'm just beginning to find peace, to be in tune with myself. I needed to speak. I feel better. I had already tried to evoke my traumas in Scarlet Diva in 2001. This autobiography made in digital was not enough. It had to come out!

Do you regret your speaking?

Honestly, I did not expect such a storm. I suffered a lot. My mother told me since childhood to always think for ten seconds before speaking. I am incapable of it and I paid the price to be undoubtedly too impulsive. When we are the first to open the door, we often take it in the face before the others rush into the breach.

Aren't you proud of yourself?

I am proud of all the women who dared to speak and not only in the world of cinema. It was high time to declare war on patriarchy. Even if he returns in force to the United States with the retreats on abortion. We must continue to fight. Nothing is ever acquired. I now hope that Harvey Weinstein will end his life in prison.

Will you also fight to make your choices triumph in Gérardmer's jury?

In this area, I am not aggressive. I observed Isabelle Huppert when she was president in Cannes and that I was part of the jury. Like her, I will listen and I will share. I bought notebooks for all the members of the jury so that they could take notes. I'm old-fashioned for that: I think you have to take notes to argue well during the debates.

We accuse fantasy cinema of being sexist, do you think so too?

Cinema in general is sexist! For the fantastic, I know my father says that women are more beautiful than men when they express fear in the cinema. Directors may end up proving that he is wrong. There aren't enough yet, but it will come.

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Occhiali Neri - Black Glasses -2020 @darioargento_official

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Can you still be afraid in the cinema?

I'm always so scared when I see some of my father's movies like The Thrills of Anguish . Even if I know the film by heart. The last work that traumatized me is Climax by Gaspar Noé. I screamed ! I was so freaked out that Gaspar's assistant who had organized the screening did not know how to calm me down. I love these cinema experiences which immerse you completely to the point of making you forget that it is a fiction.

Will you personally return to the fantastic?

As recently as this summer when I'm going to shoot Dark Glasses with my dad. It's a screenplay by giallo that he wrote years ago and that I found. We have modernized it and I can guarantee that the film will be terrifying. My father knows a lot about it. We can trust him to terrorize the public.

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