DP BordingGate11/05/0716:19Page24 Design: Benjamin Seznec • TROÎKA DP Bording Gate 11/05/07 16:19 Page 2 François Margolin presents A thriller by Olivier Assayas MIDNIGHT SCREENING International Press World Sales RICHARD LORMAND MEMENTO FILMS INTERNATIONAL France, 2007, 106', World Cinema Publicity 6, Cité Paradis colour, Scope, SRD www.filmpressplus.com Tel: +33 1 53 34 90 20 [email protected] Fax: +33 1 42 47 11 24 In Cannes (May 15-27): 75010 PARIS In Cannes Tel: 06 1585 9198 [email protected] 5, La Croisette (1st Floor) 06 2424 1654 www.memento-films.com 06 06 98 76 32 06 2416 3731 DP Bording Gate 11/05/07 16:19 Page 4 Synopsis Sexy ex-prostitute Sandra (Asia Argento) hooks up again with debt-ridden entrepreneur Miles (Michael Madsen). Mixed signals incite the former lovers to give it another go, but rekindling an old romance isn't on Sandra's agenda. She is forced to flee to Hong Kong to seek out a new life. Attractive young couple Lester (Carl Ng) and Sue (Kelly Lin) promise Sandra papers and money. Nothing turns out as expected for Sandra, whose feelings and intentions remain a mystery till the end. DP Bording Gate 11/05/07 16:19 Page 6 CommentsOlivier from Assayas ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT In March 2006, I scouted locations for BOARDING GATE, followed by Paris A news brief caught my eye about the murder of French financier Edouard pre-production to start shooting in July 2006. We shot for six weeks, three Stern during an S&M session. It seemed like something right out of my film in and around Paris and three in Hong Kong. The film ended up costing DEMONLOVER. That triggered the story of a murder involving an ambiguous less than 2 million euros. sexual relationship and the world of modern finance. I also thought about a woman on the run, trying to escape both the murder and the past. So the THE KEY IS TO SHOOT QUICKLY first part of the story ended up being centered around the confrontation Frankly, I didn't feel any loss. Less locations makes it easier to shoot for between a man and a woman, their cat-and-mouse game. I wanted the less. In Paris, we shot primarily in the office and apartment of Miles (Michel second part to be about her escape, her being desperate and on the move. I Madsen). For the other locations, I wanted to shoot in the outskirts to give knew the first part could pretty much take place in any Western city. But the the feeling of a no man's land which could just as easily be Paris or second part had to be Hong Kong. I know that city well, but I had never somewhere else. The industrial suburbs of a modern industrial city filmed there before. I had been dreaming about it a long time. somewhere in the Western world. This would only strengthen the contrast with ultra-urban Hong Kong. BOARDING GATE The key is knowing how to shoot quickly. This is something I learned a long I chose this term as a title to evoke the idea of a passage between two time ago by simple survival reflex. It's essential to have a solid crew of worlds. Early on, I wanted the film's title to be the word stamped on technicians and actors ready to take the same risks as the director. This passports when leaving Hong Kong: “departed.” But I found that Scorsese requires a lot of energy because the constraints and the pressure forces had just finished a film with a similar title! you to constantly invent new solutions. This was definitely the case in Hong Kong. Shooting there isn't really costly if you do it the local way. If you go B MOVIE ECONOMICS there with a full Western crew, Western habits and a Western infrastructure, After DEMONLOVER and CLEAN, I had originally wanted to make a very then things will quickly turn expensive and heavy. French film focusing on provincial life. But the project met with a lot of financial complications. A sign of the times. While waiting to see if my ASIA: ALWAYS READY AND WILLING French film was going to happen or not, I decided to write and even shoot The narrative was inseparable from my desire to work with Asia Argento. She quickly another project. Why not make a sort of B movie in English? Why was the only actress capable of truthfully incarnating the different facets of the not take my place in the new order of film finance by constructing a project character. Asia is a physical actress. You can tell she has fun doing action around B movie economics? Slashed budget and fast shoot, but all the scenes, running around with a gun in her hand. She was behind the film the benefits of complete creative freedom. It was something I knew how to do. whole way, always ready and willing, even for the toughest acrobatics. And she I made IRMA VEP under similar circumstances and for the same reasons. fell in love with Hong Kong, where she had never been to before the shoot. DP Bording Gate 11/05/07 16:19 Page 8 always in the heart of the film, in the heart of her everything and re-orchestrate so as not to lose the character. She has a nearly unreal bond to the whole concept of the sometimes very long sequences. camera. Michael can be very over-the-top and go to extremes. After a certain point, he can take you to some very MICHAEL MADSEN scary places. Things can get out of hand and I met Michael Madsen through Nick Nolte, which was situations can take on a troubling truthfulness. Asia a good sign. I was looking for an actor with a strong called his bluff and took some big risks. Michael didn't physical presence who could play both dangerous seem to like the idea of being pushed to the limits by a and seductive. When I contacted him, he was able to girl. For example, the sex play scene with the belt. I find the time in his schedule to do the film. He was originally wrote something much simpler. But Michael patient enough to stick with us every time we moved had some very precise ideas about what Asia should the shooting dates. We only needed him 10 days or do to him. There were some takes that scared both of so as his character shot only on three locations in us, Asia and me! Paris. KELLY LIN AND CARL NG WHEN MICHAEL MET ASIA Since I was going to shoot in Hong Kong, I wanted to The scenes between Asia and Michael were shot in do my film under the same conditions as Hong Kong chronological order. Their first shot together, the one cinema. I wanted to look toward the new generation of with the cufflinks, was actually their first meeting. actors directly there instead of trying to cast out of They had never seen each other before. Seduction Paris. Carl Ng, who plays Lester, is an actor-model started instantly between them, but also a certain who grew up in London. He's the son of Richard Ng, a defiance. star from the 80s. He has very strong presence which I He's a bit of a bear. He tries to completely identify immediately found right for his relationship with Asia's ASIA: ALL INSTINCT with his role, to get under the skin of his character. This can be risky for him character. Kelly Lin has worked with directors like Johnny To and Patrick Van Sant's LAST DAYS. I knew she had spent some of her teenage years in Asia is one of few actresses completely at home on a film set with no and those around him. Asia is pretty radical herself, so this produced a real Tam, and she's one of the best new Chinese-speaking actresses around. Hong Kong where her father was, I think, teaching. So I had no trouble regard to stature. She has been on film sets since she was very young so electricity on the set. It was like a pressure cooker between them, as if they BOARDING GATE is the first time she acts in English in an international film. imagining her as this Cantonese-speaking American based in Asia. she's more at ease with technicians on a chaotic set than shut away in a were constantly competing, checking each other out. dressing room. Asia has a certain freedom in the way she thinks, reacts, in Even if the shots were carefully laid out and the movements very SONIC YOUTH'S KIM GORDON SHOOTING IN HONG KONG the choices she makes. This isn't something she puts on. She simply puts choreographed, Michael always shook things up with his unpredictability. I've known Kim Gordon for a while now. I met her and Thurston when I used We were only a few Europeans on the set: Asia, the cinematographer, the it out there very courageously. She's innately rock 'n' roll, which isn't very Both Asia and I had to manage to follow him. Sometimes even against him, one of their songs in my film IRMA VEP (1996). Then we stayed in touch. I had sound engineer, the assistant, the script supervisor, our line producer and common among actresses. There's nothing prefabricated about her. She's we had to firmly hold on to the line of the scene.