Scarlet Diva (2000)

Man, what a movie. Pow! Zip! It's like an 18-act Italian opera taking place in the center ring of a three-ring circus while bears waltz and elephants stand on their heads on either side.Every camera trick known to man or beast is put to use. If Anna Batista (Argento), the famous actress, does a line of Special K, it's only to give the camera a chance to show us more phantasmagorical horrors in lurid color. The sink into which she tries to puke turns to rubber and so forth. And there's her mother's ghost.And it never stops. Well, not exactly. There are occasional pauses in the tumult while Anna and her friends seem to functioning normally, but the pauses are only there as lead-ins to the next bout of victimization.I lost count of the number of times Anna is roughly assaulted by men. The most memorable (because the funniest) is "the finest writer-director in the world" who summons her to Amsterdam. She's expecting to go over her script for Cleopatra but when she opens the door to his shabby multicolored garbage-strewn room she finds him lurching about, his pants unzipped, jerking in spasms, and managing to moan: "I've been an alcoholic for four years -- and now I'm on SMACK." The poor girl turns her head away in disgust while he shoots up. Then as he flops beside her on the couch and points out his new knife scar, she suggests they talk about the script. But the world's greatest writer-director has other things on his mind. He throws himself all over her, blubbering and pulling at her black slacks, while she squeals and manages to push him away. He calls her a woman of low repute, slaps her several times, and she rushes out the door.It must be some kind of female fantasy, or maybe it's just Asia Argento's thing, but the whole movie darts from one attempted rape to another. One is committed by some babe with surgically enhanced bosoms the size of basketballs. Another rape -- another rough one -- is attempted by some Hollywood producer of schlock films. He wears a curious beard but no underwear, and he sounds precisely like Dennis Miller.She has only one true love, an Australian rock singer of no distinctive talent. They meet and immediately go to bed. She winces when he crawls atop her and tells Keith that she's never made love before. "Are you a virgin?" "No, I'm a whore." That one-night stand with a man who turns out to have a wife and children was a dangerous one inasmuch as it impregnates her. On this discovery she runs big-bellied through the night-time streets of Rome until she collapses before a painting of the Virgin and Child. Her lost love appears in the distance, silhouetted by a halo of bright light -- so bright that she must blink when looking into it. It's left unclear whether she'll give birth to the next Messiah or the second Buddha. End of movie.It's a silly, low-budget piece of trash, and yet it doesn't diminish any respect I might have had for Asia Argento, the writer, director, and star. The writer and the director have thoroughly deglamorized the star. The DVD opens with Argento, sans makeup, looking wanly into the camera and telling us, "I know you might have heard some bad things about this movie. But don't be afraid. After you watch it, maybe you will get to know me a little better -- and I will get to know you." We get to know the character pretty well. For several minutes we watch her tattooed naked body before a bathroom mirror while she shaves her armpits, applies lipstick, and watches tears roll down her cheeks.The rape scenes are not at all erotic and Argento places the camera so that her body seems less like an object of desire than a dressed cabrito hanging in a butcher shop window. I mean, there is a brief shot of her bare ass as the slime ball Hollywood producer tries to pull her dress up and it the thought this undignified camera angle prompts is not how pretty her rear end is but how vulnerable the character, Anna Batista, is.The movie may or may not be very autobiographical, but in either case it's not a facile quest for pity from the audience. This bipolar dynamo can take care of herself. She lashes out hoarse, filthy curses at her tormentors in three different languages, a volcano of pejoration.I wish that energy and that disgust for artificiality had somehow been used as the engine for a better story. Or for any story at all. As it is, I think Argento was right when she said we might get to know her better. We wind up with more respect for her courage and sincerity.

"Scarlet Diva," written, directed, and starred in by Asia Argento is a look into the life of Anna Battista. Anna is an actress who delves into depression and lonliness in the wake of her career. The movie itself is filmed in digital, and takes on a documentary feel to it, which only adds to the realness of the film. This semi-autobiographical film reaches out to the viewer, forcing them to either fully embrace the main character or turn away. But, if you embrace her, and feel her intense sadness, the film will truly move you. Labeled by some as "too explicit," or "overly sexual," it pulls no punches when portraying Anna's escapes into drugs, sex, and self mutilation. But, possibly the most disturbing aspect of Anna's life are her peers. The people surrounding her seem hollow and surreal, giving the film's focus on Anna's lonliness a much more personal aspect. It is a rollercoaster ride of shocking perversity, subtle symbolism, and heart wrenching realism centered by one of the most talented people (IMHO) in Hollywood. I reccomend this film to anyone who enjoys realist art. Unpretentious, gritty, and utterly beautiful, "Scarlet Diva" is sure to haunt your dreams for a long time. 10/10.GuyintheTV

Boy, so much s--t was talked about this film, and I just want to thank you all for dropping my expectations so low that I was able to thoroughly enjoy Scarlet Diva. If you're sitting down to watch this film, one hopes that a certain context is assumed, and an interest has been established, such that terms like "self-indulgent" and "bad acting" do not even enter into the vocabulary. The film pulls you along with heavy visual style, holding its own sexy trash pulse while at the same time prostrating itself at the altar of the director/star's horror-god father Dario Argento, but in a good way. For example, the latter's trademark use of colored lighting is employed liberally, and to appropriate effect. Rapper Schoolly D and NY shock performer/painter Joe Coleman both make great respective turns, as a drug dealer and sleazy producer. Like the work of her auteur Dad, and writer Mother Daria Nicolodi (who appears as "The Mom" in the film), Asia Argento's Scarlet Diva is a horror film, and you will feel horrified at certain scenes. But it's a "horror of life" film, and it's assumed that much of it is semi-autobiographical. Would you pay to see it if it were Drew Barrymore's sleazoid child star/artist family upbringing? Dare to give 90 minutes up to the Scarlet Diva.

Cult actress Asia Argento, daughter of Italian horror legend Dario Argento and his former leading lady Daria Nicolodi, almost uses 'Scarlet Diva' as therapy. She is the first to admit that she has a lot of demons to battle, and this semi-autobiographical digital video movie about a successful Italian actress (and "the loneliest girl in the world") trying to find happiness, or at least some relief, through sex, drugs and some disastrous relationships, was obviously cathartic for her to make. Unfortunately it is a very uneven and at times unbelievable film and is almost impossible to get involved with. Anna/Asia's pain and despair isn't hidden but the script is so shallow and the acting so unconvincing that it becomes little more than a freak show. Personally I found Argento's commentary on the DVD much more interesting than the movie itself. In it she spells out just how much of the movie is based on real situations in her life, and explains what has been changed or slightly fictionalized. Hearing her talk honestly about how much this movie means to her, and how for example, getting her own mother (Nicolodi) to play her fictional mother altered their relationship for the better, was more effective than watching the actual movie. It also makes you feel bad for slamming this, but what can you do? It just isn't very good. Argento also talks about how she felt betrayed by her friend Vincent Gallo ('Buffalo 66'), who agreed to play the rock star Kirk Vaines character, but then blew it by asking for too much money. If you look closely you will see Asia stand on a picture of his face in one scene. She also discusses how working with Abel Ferrara on the troubled 'New Rose Hotel' inspired her to direct, and how Ferrara and her father Dario Argento (who gets a production credit) were the only two people to encourage her with this project. I just hope that if she directs again the results are a lot more interesting than this amateurish effort. I say avoid this movie unless you are a complete Asia Argento nut. Otherwise if you must watch it, make sure you listen to the commentary and watch the interview segment, as you will get a lot more out of them than 'Scarlet Diva' itself.