I just saw the unrated cut of Scarlet Diva, and I have to disagree with almost everyone who has written a review about it. I think this is a great movie! I'm a big fan of Asia Argento as well as a fan of her father's, and this movie was everything I wanted it to be.There was nothing low-budget about it...the picture quality and sound was excellent; what exactly do you people want? Spaceships and aliens? If you are a fan of Asia, it gives you real insight into her life...you see first-hand how a woman who plays roles like hers gets treated by men; you really feel the creepiness. The style of filming was very effective; it definitely conveyed the real-life aspect of the movie. The quick cuts and sometimes nauseating camera movements and angles portray her state of mind, which at times is very unstable. There is a scene where she does special K, and being someone who has done it, it sent chills up my spine; they very accurately reproduced the sounds you hear in your head, the confusion and overlapping events, the sense of everything in your head being completely backwards...And lets not forgot the very sexual nature of the movie. If you're a conservative Christian, you probably won't like the movie. I, however, loved the many sex scenes (including a very hot lesbian scene). But it isn't all just gratuitous humping; there is intimacy in some places and lack of in others, all intentional.I'll stop babbling and just say, if you are a fan of Asia and know to some degree what she's all about, you WILL in fact enjoy this movie. If you know little about her type of lifestyle, you'll probably just see a lot of it as nonsense. For me, it was very emotionally engaging and definitely has some images that stuck in my head days after watching it. Asia is beautiful, intelligent, and very talented. The rock star she falls in love with is pretty lame, but I'm an aspiring rock star myself and say that about a lot of people.I think she should consider doing a follow-up or sequel. I definitely hope all the bad reviews have not discouraged her from following her own path.

Although I have to admit, I watched this movie largely out of the prurient interest of seeing Dario Argento's lovely daughter naked and engaging in (reportedly unsimulated) sex scenes, I was genuinely surprised at how good this movie was. While Asia A. has said in various interviews that as a director she has been most influenced by her father, on one hand, and maverick NYC auteur Abel Ferrara, on the other, she demonstrates here, in her directorial-debut, a personal warmth and emotional honesty that is generally absent in the stylistic excesses of the former and usually lost in the sheer pathos of the latter. True, the movie does straddle and (occasionally crosses)the thin line between personal and self-indulgent, but generally it is a moving, semi-autobiographical story of a young woman who has had to, as Lou Reed, once put it "grow up in public". Strangely, the movie isn't really that erotic. One of the most memorable scenes, typical of the movie as whole, has the director/actress completely naked, shaving her armpits in the mirror. While she looks great, of course, there's nothing really sexy or contrived about this scene. She's just a normal girl, totally unself-conscious, going through a morning routine. Asia A. has been often treated by the tabloid press as an Italian version of Paris Hilton or some other scandal queen, but what she may very well turn out to be is another Sofia Coppola, emerging from the shadow of past scandals and a famous father to become a respected artist in her own right.

Self indulgent and occasionally sexy... and those are the good points. Asia Argento is trying to make La Dolce Vita and winds up making Syd and Nancy from Nancy's point of view... if Nancy were Scary Spice. Okay... okay... that's unfair. But not by much. Flashes of a good movie are few and far between, but they're there. Not recommended except for fans.

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.