Daddys' little film stars
The Argentos join the father- daughter ranks
"The Mother of Tears," the latest panic-inducing horror film from Dario Argento, stars an Italian siren who is one of her country's biggest film stars. That the actress shares the director's last name shouldn't come as a surprise. Father-daughter director-actress teams have included some of the greatest and most famous of filmmakers.
In the case of the "Tears" duo, Asia Argento has been appearing in her father's films for most of her life. The 32-year-old starlet was 11 when she made her first appearance on the big screen in "Demons 2," a 1986 film co-written by Dario Argento. The elder Argento, the director of the disturbing "Suspiria" and many other movies, obviously saw something he liked in his daughter's performance in a minor role. Within a few years Dario would enlist Asia to star in a series of terrifying movies that helped introduce her to a larger audience.
Asia has since earned a slice of fame as the director of several films, the lead of many Italian movies, and a cast member in a diverse set of American offerings ("Land of the Dead," "Marie Antoinette"). But she has not deserted her father.
Opening Friday, "Mother of Tears" is another Argento collaboration, a film about women with mystical powers, burial plots, and associated mayhem.
Another such filmmaking team included the matchless Alfred Hitchcock, who cast his daughter Patricia in his TV series - the director made a cameo in which he said "I thought the little leading lady was rather good, didn't you?" - and would later hire her for supporting parts in several of his films, including 1951's "Strangers on a Train."
Pat Hitchcock, as she was known in the credits for "Psycho," would not win the sort of international stardom that has come to Asia Argento, but other actresses who've appeared in their father's films have become far more famous.
Anjelica Huston, for example, made her first starring appearance in "A Walk With Love and Death," a mostly forgotten 1969 movie directed by her father, John Huston. Years later John Huston would direct Anjelica in "Prizzi's Honor" - she won an Academy Award for her role in that 1985 film - and "The Dead," the 1987 movie that was his last as a director.
That same year Anjelica Huston starred in Francis Ford Coppola's military tale "Gardens of Stone." As it happened, Coppola was about to launch his own daughter's film career. Francis tapped his daughter Sofia for a part in his third "Godfather" film, which was released in 1990. Sofia would later star in her brother Roman Coppola's 2001 movie "CQ," but her family's casting whims wouldn't result in onscreen stardom. Still, Sofia Coppola has become one of the most accomplished filmmakers of this era, as the director of three very good films, "The Virgin Suicides," "Lost in Translation," and "Marie Antoinette."
A contemporary of Sofia Coppola's, Gwyneth Paltrow appeared in Bruce Paltrow's 2000 movie "Duets." Co-starring along with Paul Giamatti and Huey Lewis (yep, Huey Lewis), she played a passable singer in the second, and last, movie directed by her father, a longtime TV producer and director. Like Sofia Coppola, Gwyneth Paltrow also has a brother who's a filmmaker; Jake Paltrow recently directed his sister in "The Good Night."
Jennifer Edwards has acted in a number of her dad Blake Edwards's movies, and Jenny Lumet has had small parts in three Sidney Lumet films. Ron Howard, Clint Eastwood, and John Cassavetes have also put their daughters in their films, although the roles were generally very small. The pairings were nothing like the prolific combination of Dario and Asia Argento, a team that has earned many fans. Writing about "The Mother of Tears" in Salon, Stephanie Zacharek described Asia as "wonderfully brash and sensuous." Maybe familial favoritism isn't such a bad thing. 