Media Blasters!  I love you guys!  You have given us some of the most sought after pieces of cinema from anime to zombie films, from kung-fu ass kicking to exploitation ass licking.  I have learned to trust Media Blasters' releases to be sure fire additions to my collection, and you should too. BUT this time...something slipped through...something very bad indeed.  

I have always had a certain problem with the art community, and I can sum it up with one sentence.  Far more often than not, critics and fans alike mistake a severe lack of talent for genius or creativity.  Words like "brilliant", "inventive" and "groundbreaking", replace the far more accurate "disjointed", "simple", or "easy".  In a world where "modern artists" can splash paint on a canvas and produce a piece of...and I use the term loosely...art to fulfill some vision, it should come as no surprise that a wonderful directors daughter can throw some moving images together and start winning some awards.  But still, I am surprised with Scarlet Diva.

This "story" (please excuse the over-use of quotation marks but I don't want to confuse anyone) is a semi-autobiographical tale of a young actress, named Anna Battista for the film, and her experiences.  I would like to say that there is a reason for these experiences, but there really isn't...at least not that I could find.  What we get instead are impressions.  I am under the impression that Anna is a drug user.  This is due largely in part to the numerous scenes of drug use.  I am also under the impression that Anna is a bit of a whore.  This is because of the numerous scenes of Anna having sex, with lots of people, men and women...some of which she knows, some she does not.  Also the fact that her doctor has performed numerous abortions for her tells a little something.  I also get the impression that Anna doesn't have a whole heaping lot of self esteem since she lets people treat her like s--- the whole film and falls in deep love with the first familiarly tortured soul she can find and then lets him s--- on her as well.

Now all of this has the makings of a wonderful morality tale dealing with this poor girls rise from the ashes like a junkie phoenix transforming herself into a stable person.  Nope.  Or maybe if it was the antithesis of that, and our heroine was teaching us of life's disappointments and the fact that no one gets ahead that isn't born ahead.  But nope.  There really is no point.

Worse, the impressions that we are given about this character are not always reliable.  Anna is pushed into a rage as her best friend is abused by her man, to the point where she attacks the guy.  But after a quick back-hand, Anna watches in fascination while this guy has some abusive makeup sex and leaves her friend with this guy content that even though she got smacked, her friend is getting some.  

I could go on and on but basically there is no point.  I am not surprised that this won several film festival awards, because lets face it, they pride themselves on applauding anything outside the norm (how many people were given motion sickness, or just plain sickness by theatrical releases of the Blair Witch...releases that would not have happened had it not garnered some awards?).  

Scene after scene of nudity, sex, drugs, alcohol, attempted rape and horrible acting can be excused if they are trying to tell us something.  But if it is just for reaction and to earn that title of "breakthrough filmmaking" than they are just garbage, and this one should be taken out to the curb straight-away.  

-aaron-
 

Directed By: Asia Argento   Written By: Asia Argento   Cast: Asia Argento Jean Shepard Herbert Fritsch Gianluca Arcopinto

DVD Features: English Subtitles Interview with Asia Argento Director's Commentary Theatrical Trailer Photo Gallery