Vera Gemma Movies
A serial killer with a knack for video poker and a taste for blood taunts a determined policewoman in director Dario Argento's attempt to bring the traditional giallo into the digital age. Detective Anna Mari (Stefania Rocca) is sitting at her desk when a message from an anonymous online gambler bearing the moniker "The Card Player" invites her to join a game of video poker. When the game screen loads, Mari is horrified to learn that the stakes of the game are higher than she ever could have imagined, as an unidentified female in an over-pixilated web-cam window screams for her life. Though the chief initially refuses to take part in the killer's horrifying game, the death of the innocent victim leads Mari to seek more unconventional means of tracking the murderous gambler. As the killer continues to taunt police, British policeman John Brennan (Liam Cunningham) is brought in to help solve the case. When the killer ups the ante by kidnapping the police chief's daughter, it's only a matter of time before the killer and Mari herself are locked in a pulse-pounding, life-or-death game in which anyone could hold the winning hand. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Liam Cunningham
Shot on digital video, this no-holds-barred, semi-autobiographical film from Italian actress/model Asia Argento presents the bleak decent of a popular actress into a haze of drugs and overindulgence. Anna Battista (Argento) has seemingly everything anyone could ever want, yet sometimes everything is never enough. Fed up with going through the motions as an actor, Battista aspires to seek a career as a director so that she may truly explore her currently latent artistic talent. The queen of excess, Battista's attempts to realize her true talent are time and again shattered as the she is used and abused by everyone she comes into contact with. After a one-night fling with an emotionally distant and uncaring Australian rock star (Jean Sheperd) leaves the self-confessed whore a lovelorn mother-to-be, Battista's desperation to bring her story to the screen finds her dealing with a shady American producer (Joe Coleman), an agent reluctant to assist her in branching out, and a heroin-addicted former filmmaker who is as close to ending his life as Battista is to beginning hers. Her career in disarray and her uncertain future growing increasingly grim, Battista embarks on a numbing binge of sex and drugs that takes her from Europe to America and back again. Attempting to seek-out the father of her unborn child and find some sense of stability, Battista finds the truth about her one-time lover. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Asia Argento, Herbert Fritsch, (more)
- 1994
This autobiographical Italian comedy paints an honest, yet ironic portrait of the film's creator and star, Piero Natoli. It also provides an insider's critical look at the Italian film industry. Mercurio, a professional filmmaker, is no stranger to hard times. The gentle man's crew, including his daughter Carlotta will follow him anywhere at anytime to make a film. His newest film is all ready for release, but he needs a distributor. Unfortunately the only distributor in Italy is too busy to see it. At the distributor's assistant's suggestion Mario must show the film at Cannes, at his own expense, where maybe his boss will see it. Unfortunately, only one person, a young French woman, Josephine, comes to his screening, and the disappointed Mercurio returns to Rome. Josephine follows. Back home, the director devises a scheme to send his film to Venice. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Piero Natoli, Joanna Chatton, (more)
