The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan • 2004

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Movie poster for 'The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things' by Asia Argento featuring collage artwork of a mother and child against a pink background.

Steeped in controversy, unflinching, unforgettable... Asia Argento’s adaptation of J.T. Leroy’s best selling novel The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is a searing exploration of trauma and survival in the underside of America’s heartland. Headlining one of the most intriguing casts of the 2000s, which includes Peter Fonda, Ornella Muti, Jeremy Renner, Lydia Lunch, Ben Foster, and Winona Ryder, Argento stars as Sarah, a woman who rips her son (played at various points by Jimmy Bennett, Dylan, and Cole Sprouse) out of foster care and throws him into her transient life as a sex worker at truck stops. 

Leroy was later revealed to be a fabrication of author Laura Albert and her sibling-in-law Savannah Knoop, a story that broke the year after The Heart Was Deceitful Above All Things was released. Argento’s blistering second feature finds real pain in a historic hoax, traveling to dark places most directors fear to tread.

Asia Argento
Laura Albert, Alessandro Magania
Asia Argento, Dylan Sprouse, Cole Sprouse, Jimmy Bennett, Peter Fonda, Jeremy Renner, Ben Foster, Marilyn Manson, Ornella Muti, and Lydia Lunch

Director & writer
Co-writers

Starring

97 minutes
English
Color
1.33:1
5.1

Runtime
Language
Color
Format
Sound

  • "While many have tried to tackle the idea that 'growing up is hell' few have been as daring, effective or brutal as Asia Argento’s second feature film The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things."

    Greg Bellavia

    Film Threat

  • "Artful and stylish, Argento's acting and filmmaking are edgy, authentic and rather nuts. The film is a feast (or maybe an assault) on the senses with light and colour, sound and texture, grimy rawness and goofy effects...Even if the film is almost overwhelmingly seedy and grim, it also has a bleak tenderness that reaches out to us, keeps us gripped, and lingers long in the memory afterwards."

    Rich Cline

    Shadows On The Wall

  • "A master cinematic stylist of the first order, Asia Argento has stubbornly made this tale as repellent as possible; it’s so chock full o’ nuts, you’re likely to gag on it even as you struggle to resist the director’s unambiguous passion for her work and the film’s seamy, tawdry, and technical brilliance."

    Marc Savlov

    The Austin Chronicle

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BLU-RAY

Blu-ray disc cover for 'The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things' by Asia Argento based on the book by J.T. Leroy. Available to buy on vinegarsyndrome.com

DETAILS

Region A Blu-ray

  • New 2K Restoration from the 35mm Interpositive Produced in 2023

  • Audio Commentary with Director Asia Argento and Producer Chris Hanley

  • "Lot Lizards & Meth Labs" - Behind the scenes featurette

  • "JT Under Cover" featurette

  • New York Film Premiere & Party featurette

  • US Theatrical trailer

  • Booklet essay by filmmaker Gillian Horvat

  • English SDH subtitles

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PAST SCREENINGS

AFI Fest Los Angeles, CA • Cleveland International Film Festival Cleveland, OH • Independent Film Festival Of Boston Boston, MA • Longbaugh Film Festival Portland, OR • Milwaukee International Film Festival Milwaukee, WI • Nashville Film Festival Nashville, TN • SXSW Austin, TX • Toronto International Film Festival Toronto, ON

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