Ostensibly billed as a video diary capturing the daily life of actress and director Asia Argento, Don’t Bother to Knock takes the premise of cinema verite to the world of blog culture and beyond.  Published as a series of short vlog clips over a period of a week and a half, Don’t Bother to Knock slowly unfolds a narrative about loneliness, the tenuousness of human connection, and what it means to really live.  As the narrative unfolds it becomes apparent that what the audience is getting isn’t actually a gritty documentation of Argento’s life; by the end, it is obvious that the video clips are staged.

The audience, who was able to respond to the vblog posts via comments, had a palpable desire to believe that what they were seeing was True.  The narrative element of the project took several interesting turns when Asia’s posts began to intersect with the viewers’ commentary and expectations.  Ultimately, Don’t Bother to Knock was an interactive spectacle that underlined the important role artifice plays in our daily lives.

Of course, the video clips are not without problems.  The constructedness of many of the later clips is distracting and several of the episodes reach a feverish pitch of melodrama.  Also, as is the case in most of her acting roles, Argento spends a great deal of the project naked; while I’m sure this is supposed to denote emotional vulnerability, it panders more to prurient interest and detracts from the overall power of the emotions invoked.

Click here for Don’t Bother to Knock

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