Search - Transylvania on DVD

No vampires, but Asia Argento.

G. Merritt | Boulder, CO | 03/08/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I discovered this 2006 French drama on late-night cable television. I was instantly and totally mesmerized. Transylvania stars Asia Argento, which is reason enough to see this film. For starters, Asia is the daughter of actress Daria Nicolodi and Italian horror film genius, Dario Argento (Suspiria). (Her father reportedly read Asia his horror film scripts as bedtime stories when she was a child.) She started her acting career at age 9, and is known for her roles in George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, The Stendhal Syndrome, and Marie Antoinette. She also stars in Catherine Breillat's period drama, Une vieille maîtresse (An Old Mistress), which I am eager to see. Asia is a fascinating actress, fluent in several languages, and known to be an introvert and agoraphobic.

French-Algerian director Tony Gatlif's Transylvania is not a vampire movie (as one might assume). Rather, it is a beautiful rogues' gallery of memorable scenes, local color, multiple languages, lively Romanian music, frenetic dancing, dazzling cinematography, multi-cultural romance on the open road, intriguing landscapes, and seductive sights and sounds. It tells the story of a beautiful, sensual, free-spirited young woman, Zingarina (Argento), who travels to Transylvania in search of her lover, Milan (Marco Castoldi), who left her in southern France without explanation. She is two months pregnant with Milan's child. When she arrives in Transylvania with her friend Marie (Amira Casar) and interpreter Luminitsa (Alexandra Beaujard), Zingarina finds Milan during a gypsy-pagan festival. He rejects her. This prompts her to leave her two friends, her past, and Transylvania behind with a traveling loner named Tchangalo (Birol Ünel), in search of a new life without ties or borders. This is a fascinating film that deserves a cult following.

G. Merritt
"