Scarlet Diva

    On May 26, 2000 I attended the Rome premiere of Asia's directorial debut SCARLET DIVA.  As many of you may be expecting, it is quite visually potent much like her father's work.  But here is where the comparisons will have to end.  In my opinion, this film was amazing.  Visually, it had a very spastic look, there was never a dull moment in the entire film.  The camera was always moving or dwelling on something beautiful, whether it be  a person, a set piece or location.  I was very amused to see an IHOP (International House of Pancakes) restaurant make an appearance in Los Angeles during the film.  The character of Kirk is present here as he is in Asia's book I LOVE YOU, KIRK where there are several poems about this person.  Whether he is a real person who influenced the story, I don't know, but it has a dreamy quality that lends greatly to the mystique of the movie.  Just the way Asia says 'I love you Kirk' as she is standing on a balcony in Paris smoking a cigarette was beautiful.  The look on her face, the lighting and the sunset, just beautiful!

    The story concerns an actress named Anna Battisti, who we see in the opening credits in the midst of camera flash from every direction and screaming fans and photographers.  Her fame, fortune and happiness are of no doubt to us, yet we seem to be misled.  In reality, Anna is wild, and seemingly unhappy about everything in here life, that is except for Kirk.  This ghostlike creation of her fantasies is real yes, but he is omnipresent in her life inside her head the entire film..  She has sex in her trailer on the set of a film, she does drugs at a party with some friends in a pool, which may or may not be a hallucination or fantasy, and that is not the half of it.

    I cannot discuss the film itself any more for risk of ruining the plot for those who have not seen the film.  I can, however say that it is a love story with some unexpected twists along the way.  There were times in this film when I was almost in tears at seeing this poor creature suffer.  Perhaps the emotional power of this film lies in that it is so real.  I couldn't help but wonder if this film was indeed semi auto- biographical.  At times I wasn't sure whether I was watching a home movie or a scripted, planned shoot.   The digital film cameras used enhance the documentary feel greatly, and the music, there are no words.  John Hughes, an American composer has done a wonderful job mixing contemporary dance, trance beats with some more low key ambient sounds to create a faultless soundscape for the picture to play out upon.  This rave of the music is saying quite a bit coming from me since I am not a huge fan of dance/techno music.  Yet here, it succeeds on every level.

    Seeing this wonderful film was only heightened by the fact that I got to meet and speak with Asia Argento.  When I first arrived at the theater, I was quite nervous at the prospect of meeting her, but that quickly waned once I was greeted and got a hug from her.  During our conversation she told me that SCARLET DIVA was mainly shot in English and that the distributor had already sold the film to France, England, and Germany, and that she hoped the U.S. was on the way to buy it.  I only hope so.  It would be  a shame for U.S. audiences to have to wait like we have to for her father's films to reach us here, only to land on video.  At first, Asia told me that she didn't want to sell the film to the U.S. because she thought it wasn't a good film for audiences here, but I guess she has changed her mind, and I am glad of it.  Recently DIVA screened at the Toronto Film Festival.

Below is a photo of Asia and yours truly.