The opening scenes of “Boarding Gate” are intense conversations between an international businessman (Michael Madsen) and an ex-flame (Asia Argento) who might have worked as a prostitute in the past.

These talks are so self-contained and tantalizing they feel like a writing exercise, as though screenwriter-director Olivier Assayas had begun noodling on the script without knowing where it would lead.

Of course, after about 20 minutes or so, “Boarding Gate” has to lead somewhere. Depending on your tolerance for Assayas’ storytelling style, this is where the movie gets into trouble.

The fate of the two main characters appears to be tied up in an international smuggling ring with connections in Hong Kong. After opening in Paris, that’s where the movie travels, and Argento’s main connections (Carl Ng and Kelly Lin) are on hand for an increasingly bewildering series of gun-brandishing confrontations.

Assayas is a director capable of great beauty — his movies “Cold Water” and “Late August, Early September,” are stunning. Evidently “Boarding Gate” is meant as his tribute to B-movies, although most B-movies manage quicker, more coherent storytelling than he achieves here.

But maybe he wasn’t really trying that hard. This director is more interested in impressions, and moments, than in capturing our attention with a story.

Thus, you could find yourself drawn in by the jangly soundtrack or the casually fluid look of the movie, or by the strangeness of the actors. The print I saw of the movie didn’t even have subtitles for the scenes in French and Cantonese, which somehow seemed appropriate.

The cast includes a cameo by ravaged Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon. The hefty Madsen, famed for his knife prowess in “Reservoir Dogs,” looks like the escapee from Tarantino-land that he is.

Asia Argento, daughter of Italian filmmaker Dario Argento, continues to cast a spell. Her combination of decadence and vulnerability has decorated many European and Hollywood movies (including “Marie Antoinette” and “Land of the Dead”), and she brings her usual dangerous allure to this picture. I didn’t always know what “Boarding Gate” was about, but I was always curious about what she would do next.