Film: Scarlet Diva

Directed by: Asia Argento

Language: Italian (viewed with English sub-titles)

Year: 2000

Starring: Asia Argento, Jean Shepard, Herbert Fritsch

Reviewed by: The Zombieslayer

Asia Argento stars as Anna Battista, a highly neurotic but popular Italian Actress. Anna goes through life without any purpose, does a lot of drugs, has reckless sex, parties, and gets exploited by just about everyone.

Argento pretty much plays herself, except exaggerated. In real life, her mother doesn't die of a drug overdose, but you could tell by watching the movie that her relationship with her mother leaves something to be desired. Her father on the other hand is nowhere to be seen. I kind of took it that Argento wanted a separate identity from her famous father (Italian director Dario Argento), so she completely neglected any father character.

The very first thing that I noticed when watching this flick was that Argento was too cheap to use film and used video instead, like a porn. At first, it turned me off, but then I saw why she did this.

It almost felt like a porn and some images were hard to watch, like the domestic violent scenes and her disgustingly co-dependent best girlfriend who you'd hope would never reproduce. So the video worked.

A few things didn't work though, like it was excessive and self-indulgent. Argento was almost screaming to the viewer "feel sorry for me." As a famous actress, she blatantly showed the downside of fame - the lack of privacy, the groping, the disrespect, and the fact that every male sees her as a piece of meat.

There was plenty of sex and nudity, which should have been a plus, but none of it was erotic. Argento's got a killer bod, but the scenes she shows it in, you almost have to look away.

A good first try. I'm looking forward to seeing her other movies. I'll only recommend this one to those who are interested in Asia Argento as a director. Otherwise, feel free to skip it.

Six dead zombies.

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