Yes ASIA!

It's true; the whole Acidemic thing got started because of Asia Argento. It was 2003 or so. We were in love with her from SCARLET DIVA onwards. Her sheer reckless bravery was the inspiration behind Acidemic. We wanted to make something worthy of her. She was set to do our cover story/interview and even sent us cool self-portrait photos. Then, we lost communication. It was around the time her HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS premiered at Cannes and got trashed by the critics (a lot of whom have since come around and praised it). We figured she just had to hole up somewhere and cut loose the inessential strings until the heat died down. Hell, we did that all the time ourselves.

And so, we decided print was too expensive and to go with the web after all. Anyway, what could we say in an interview? Asia already opened her guts and soul to us, and even more, in her work. She later read and said she liked my article analyzing SCARLET DIVA. I'm still atwitter and aflutter!

Now she's getting huge! She ROCKED Cannes this year with three or four films, including the upcoming Catherine Breillat film, THE LAST MISTRESS, her dad Dario's MOTHER OF TEARS, some new thing from Abel Ferrara, and BOARDING GATE by my new favorite du jour, Olivier Assyas (reviewed below).

Anyway, here are some of the photos she sent as options for the cover...self portraits and bad assedness! I have the cover somewhere around here... we used the top photo but only the left half so you only see the word "Die" --- Yes! Death and Sex are one in cinema and embodied perfectly in the mythical archetype of the blood goddess anima... an anima named Asia!