MovieChat Forums > Scarlet Diva (2000) Discussion > Unbelievably Self Indulgent and Immature

Unbelievably Self Indulgent and Immature

posted 18 years ago by propaganda21
2 replies | jump to latest

Having been impressed by Asia Argento's direction and acting in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, I thought I'd check out her earlier work.

Boy, is this film a stinker!

A self-serving, narcissistic, unbelievably childish and cliched film about a train wreck of a young actress, Anna Battista (which would have been more believable if she'd been a foolish 18 rather than 24 years old) , who... guess what, takes drugs, screws around, lives recklessly and then wonders why her life is so chaotic and why she is so unhappy. It's one of those 'My life is so painful, that I wouldn't want it any other way' self-indulgent teen-angst films desperately trying to look cutting edge, but coming out as terribly dated.

If you are an unhappy 13 year old girl in love with the whole Courtney Love school of 'Look at me, I'm such a badass because I'm just soooo *beep* up' drama queen mentality then you might get off on this film - as an extended fantasy. Likewise frat boys looking for a few glimpses of gratuitous sex and nudity might think that they'll find it here, but they'd be better off with a porno. There's little that's shocking in the film that hasn't been done before - and so much better.

The only redeeming feature is that it's part road movie, as Anna travels around the world in a series of tedious, predictable, episodes of brought on self destruction. A big yawn.

I do hope that Asia Argento has got over this infantile period so that she can go on to more mature work - The Heart is Deceitful shows similar signs of the same masochistic 'it's only interesting if it's painful' claptrap but at least it feels a little less contrived and has a better plot and acting, and is placed in a better context.

If you think I'm being unduly harsh about this film, you may wish to spare a thought about the various news reports of young women in war-torn countries who are often repeatedly raped and beaten against their will and who suffer real hardships. If Asia Argento can ever get over herself, perhaps making a realistic film about this could be a good vehicle to package her interest in pain and human degradation.

[–] YouKnowMyName68 17 years ago

I agreed with another poster's sentiments about this and it seems you've enlightened me more about Europe (and anywhere else really) and the true psychological ravages and traumatizing effects of war on men AND women. Asia is from Italy where there's got to be harshness there too, right? But, can she honestly and truly relate to it? It seemed like a treatment. The whole film seems like a study for script to see how it plays out 'live', that's my strongest impression, it seems more like a test and then they should have critiqued where the weaknesses are and try to make changes that could make a scenario seem true.

[–] jamesmccrimmond 8 years ago

Crise shes Darios daughter give her a break its not like shes everybodies average daughter to a average father what do you expect when you born from the loins of Dario Argento?????