Main Cast: Asia Argento, Herbert Fritsch, Joe Coleman, Francesca D'Aloja
Release Year: 2000
Country: IT
Run Time: 89 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Shot on digital video, this no-holds-barred, semi-autobiographical film from Italian actress/model Asia Argento presents the bleak decent of a popular actress into a haze of drugs and overindulgence. Anna Battista (Argento) has seemingly everything anyone could ever want, yet sometimes everything is never enough. Fed up with going through the motions as an actor, Battista aspires to seek a career as a director so that she may truly explore her currently latent artistic talent. The queen of excess, Battista's attempts to realize her true talent are time and again shattered as the she is used and abused by everyone she comes into contact with. After a one-night fling with an emotionally distant and uncaring Australian rock star (Jean Sheperd) leaves the self-confessed whore a lovelorn mother-to-be, Battista's desperation to bring her story to the screen finds her dealing with a shady American producer (Joe Coleman), an agent reluctant to assist her in branching out, and a heroin-addicted former filmmaker who is as close to ending his life as Battista is to beginning hers. Her career in disarray and her uncertain future growing increasingly grim, Battista embarks on a numbing binge of sex and drugs that takes her from Europe to America and back again. Attempting to seek-out the father of her unborn child and find some sense of stability, Battista finds the truth about her one-time lover. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Review
It's often said that for an artist's work to truly resonate, the artist needs to have had life experience. Anyone familiar with Asia Argento's background undoubtedly knows that even at the relatively youthful age of 25 the worldly actress probably has enough experience to fill a trilogy. This said, the competent but flawed Scarlet Diva finds the ambitious Argento still struggling to find her footing as a director. It's easy to throw around words like "pretentious," "over-indulgent," "self-absorbed," and "vanity project" when confronted with an often uncomfortably excessive film such as Scarlet Diva, though closer inspection reveals that Argento is actually trying to say something about the entertainment industry and the soulless existence which can result from getting sucked into it's temptations. Containing a refreshingly punkish unrestraint and some telling situations that may cut a little too close to the bone for some entertainment industry insiders, Argento has filtered her experiences in the film and modeling business into a telling semi-autobiographical expose. In addition, Argento's powerful visual sense results in some striking and grotesquely beautiful imagery, no surprise coming from the daughter of one of the most visually flamboyant directors out there, Dario Argento. Yet despite the film's strengths, Asia Argento's inexperience in directing results in some stiff and unconvincing performances across the board, herself included. Her father's films have often been criticized as exercises in style over substance, and though Scarlet Diva certainly contains substance in abundance, the substance never hits the viewer as hard as Argento seems to have anticipated. In terms of effectively conveying the plight of her characters, Argento will never be truly effective until she finds the means to work with her actors to extract the emotion needed for her films to have true impact. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Vera Gemma - Veronica Lanza; Daria Nicolodi - Anna's Mother; Leo Gullotta; Paolo Bonacelli; Gianluca Arcopinto
Credit
Asia Argento - Director, Anna Napoli - Editor, Claudio Argento - Executive Producer, John Hughes III - Composer (Music Score), Alessandro Rosa - Production Designer, Sergio Stivaletti - Special Effects, Andrea Lancia - Sound/Sound Designer, Asia Argento - Screenwriter
John Hughes' first disc under his own name, the soundtrack to the Asia Argento film Scarlet Diva is a broody and pensive concoction of many styles. Those familiar with Hughes' earlier work in Chicago post-rock project Bill Ding will not be surprised to find the pastiche of electro, acoustic folk, free jazz, and ambient noise present on this record. The disc is a bit characteristic of his Bill Ding output because ex-Bill Ding member Dan Snazelle lends a hand, as do Tortoise's John McEntire and Scott Herren (aka Savath and Savalas). Hughes has a brilliant gift for arranging vocals and electro-acoustic instrumentation and creating a beautifully narcotic effect. His own voice has great depth and at times he seems to be able to sing in slow motion (a useful tool for his style of recording). While many artists fail miserably when combining a number of genres into one record, Hughes' compositions are so mobile that they have the potential to travel in any direction. And, be it jazz, rock, techno, or folk, they can switch on a dime. Hughes relies on the intelligent and intentional clumsiness that was so much a part of his former incarnation but follows this new cinematic vision so closely that it only slightly resembles a Bill Ding record. Hypnotic and brilliant. ~ Ken Taylor, All Music Guide
Tracks
Track Title
Composers
Performers
Time
Quelou
John Hughes
John Hughes
(1:55)
Lying in the Backseat, Pt. 1
Rick Embach, John Hughes
John Hughes
(:57)
Bathtub Flashback
John Hughes
John Hughes
(:43)
Evrything Will Be Just Fine
Craig Snazelle, John Hughes
John Hughes
(1:38)
Red Room
John Hughes
John Hughes
(2:01)
Set Me on the Couch
Craig Snazelle, John Hughes
John Hughes
(4:48)
Hotel Lobby
Rick Embach, John Hughes
John Hughes
(1:04)
Mother's Death (Flashback)
John Hughes
John Hughes
(2:01)
Nightmare Intro
John Hughes
John Hughes
(:38)
Lying in the Backseat, Pt. 2
John Hughes
John Hughes
(1:09)
Counting Backwards
John Hughes
John Hughes
(1:15)
Nightmare
John Hughes
(2:23)
Driving in La
John Hughes
(:55)
Rabbit Flashback
John Hughes
John Hughes
(2:17)
Street Song
John Hughes
(:43)
Got Me Lost
John Hughes
John Hughes
(1:43)
Make You Want It Even More
Rick Embach, John Hughes
John Hughes
(3:11)
Arriving in La
Scott Herren, John Hughes
Scott Herren
(:59)
Credits
John Hughes (Voices), John Hughes (Engineer), John Hughes (Mixing), John Hughes (Tracking), Phil Ranelin (Trombone), Roger Seibel (Mastering), John McEntire (Cymbals), John McEntire (Drums), John McEntire (Triangle), John McEntire (Electronics), John McEntire (Tracking), Marco Rossi (Cover Photo), Scott Herren (Electronics), Brandon Vamos (Cello), David Pavkovic (Drums), David Pavkovic (Tracking), Rick Embach (Vibraphone), Graphic Havoc (Layout Concept), Victor Villarreal (Guitar), Erik Bocek (Bass), Simin Ganatra (Violin)
The film won a Williamsburg Brooklyn Film Festival Award for Best New Director, which actually tied with two other films.
Plot summary
It is a semi-autobiographical film about her life as an actress who is looked at as a sex object, so she goes through a busy phase of her life by travelling across Europe to rescue a friend from an abusive relationship and she also wins an award while in Milan, then she travels to Los Angeles to meet with greedy film producers and also falls in love with a rock and rollstar, then finds out she is pregnant, then begins to use drugs to help her feel better. She also has some explicit simulated sex scenes including one with Italian adult film star Selen. Scarlet Diva was shot entirely on digital video.
