A Film That Felt Like a Confession
Europe’s film industry in the early twenty-first century did not include Scarlet Diva in the catalog of austere films which is the image it has retained even today. To Asia Argento, creating and wearing all of these different hats in the film at age 25, was an achievement, being the youngest woman to do so in Italy. She was not going to eliminate any of her passions. As autobiography and fiction converge, the murkier recesses of quotidian fame, sexuality and artistic ambition sexuality, and artistic ambition are keenly observed. Viewing it is less a question of being audiences and perhaps a bit more of having an intimate diary, whose darker recesses take on an urgency, eagerly offered on a platter to the world for fervent dissection.
In its initial run at film festivals and subsequently retrospective showings in India, Scarlet Diva was a revelation. Argento’s fierce candor resonates in a country where a woman’s psyche has been routinely muted and safely covered in celluloid. As with the films of Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta, with whose works Argento’s film was once again the target of moral and cultural policing, the subconscious of the woman is at the center.
Asia Argento: Encasing Life and a Character at Once
Asia Argento has the role of Anna Battista, an actress and singer who struggles with the disorder of fame. Anna stands at the crossroad of the show biz’ sweet and sour gory world. It has its untamed sections with the drugs, toxic affairs, and the frighteningly lost power. It isn’t hard to see for long that Anna is based Argento.
In real life, It was and is Asia was born into a family of the Cinema, with Dario Argento, the Italian horror film maker and Asia’s father and actress and screenwriter Daria Nicolodi as her mother. Asia was and is within cameras, scripts and the shadows. Chasing fame was and is a non-issue. By the time the Scarlet Diva was produced, Asia Argento had appeared in over a dozen movies having lived a life of the “director’s daughter” and having the burden of the life of a child.
When Anna was tired out, people witnessed the real life struggles of Argento. The portrayals of Anna’s cruel and dominant masculine partners were Asia’s portrayal of her own life in the film industry that is time and again said to be cruel to its women. Then, years after and for the first time, Asia Argento outed Harvey Weinstein. This was the time Scarlet diva was revised and was said to be the prophesy that so many ignored.
A Cast That Expanded Reality
Despite Argento’s face being the more recognizable aspect of the film, her supporting characters appear to be extensions of her private life. Whereas her friends and lovers on the screen do not fit the traditional mold, they seem to be extensions of Anna’s sense of isolation. A number of the cast were non-professionals, or selected for their genuineness over their lack of screen presence, and this was an intentional decision by Argento to ensure the film was more docudrama than drama.
For example, Anna’s involvement with an American rock star (played by Joe Coleman) closely mirrors Asia’s real life liaisons with destructive musicians and artists, and this American rock star’s character embodies the more chaotic duo. These hooks are themselves metaphors for an overarching tension surrounding artistic self destruction, and are themes that reach well beyond Italy.
India also makes for an apt analogy. Artists in this country, ranging the spectrum from poets to actors, oftentimes find themselves on the same high wire: glorified in the public eye, disdained in private, and preyed upon by an industry that seeks to exploit, and consumes, them whole. A young woman in Mumbai, or Kolkata, chasing after the ‘Bollywood dream’, is not an uncommon sight, and Anna’s story resonates with these women as well.
The Surrounding Context of the Film
When it was first released, Scarlet Diva was controversial. Some reviewers praised Argento for having the guts to make what was called a fervent feminist piece, while others thought the work to be excessive or too disorganized. What was accepted was the feeling of the work. Often the media would discuss less the artistry of the work in question, and instead, devote attention to Argento’s scandalous willingness to expose herself, physically and emotionally.
The audience experience was polarized. Crowds at European film festivals appreciated the film’s rawness, while others found it difficult to understand the disorganized and non-linear format of storytelling. In India, it was never released theatrically, but instead, it was circulated among film fans, attempting to understand the greater context of women filmmaker’s works of feminist cinema at the turn of the millennium.
What Fans Often Missed
The fans of this film who claim to appreciate it the most, saw the final product, and often focus on the spectacles of sex, nudity, and a drugs breakdown, argueing the film is most definining of its time. However Scarlet Diva presented much deeper themes and elements which often go unnoticed. Argento chose to shoot with hand held cameras and used what is often referred to as gorrila style shooting for what is often percieved as a budget issue, but in reality, Argento wanted the inner world of Anna, the protagonist, to feel just as unstable as the filmmaking process. It is the smoothness of the disunified rhythm, the dreamlike sequences that defy reality, and the poorly done transitions that make the piece a work of art.
Most people overlook Anna’s quest for a mothering figure. Anna’s father certainly shapes her destiny, but a caring mother figure is absent. In one episode, she goes on a hallucination about motherhood, which for Anna is prophetic and for Argento a reflection of her public discourse on motherhood and enduring trauma.
Producing the episode was a gargantuan task. Argento’s screenplay was expressionistic and untamed, full of life yet collapsing from integrity. The filming process was chaotic and patchy, with the crew members on the verge of a mental breakdown. Argento, the primadonna, was ubiquitous. She was director, actress, and the one that defined the way the film looked. The striving for continuity under these circumstances was a constant source of liberation and tension.
There are legends of Argento writing new dialogue on the set, improvising scenes when she couldn’t get the approval of her backers, and mapping the the financing of her film. One of the most generous Argento facts is that he spent a lot of time devising a plan in which he could parlay with actors who were prepared to perform in the most vulgar scenes. Some cast members fainted due to the violent nature of the script. This is what forced Argento to rely more on her friends, who were also underground, and creative people that were willing to support her.
What evolved from these processes was not a wholly refined feature, but a visceral assemblage of feelings. However, the construct was never meant to be neat. Scarlet Diva was meant to cause distress, intentioned to incite emotion, and most also, bleed of the screen to the viewer.
Why It Still Remains a Topic of Discussion
Scarlet Diva, even to this day, continues to serve as the quintessential progenitor of voyeuristic cinema. Long before the democratization of social media allowed artists to have a direct voice, Argento was using film to navigate her inner turmoil. The film seems to have only gained more relevance in this post-#Metoo world, where film goers have revisited it only to realize the toll of which women have lived and buried their truths, only to be disregarded.
For the Indian populace, the film seems to have a rather uncomfortable proximity to their experience. The same way Argento was able to take her messy life and turn it into art, so do many Indian artists, particularly women, find themselves in battles against censorship, tradition, and tarnished reputation. The struggle that Anna Battista endures, encapsulated in the tension between personal liberty and social condemnation is all too familiar in this country.
And that is the reason why Scarlet Diva is able to transcend time. It is not a beautifully crafted film, but rather a courageous, and unfiltered confession of the truth. It is a marvelous reminder that in some instances, cinema’s most powerful trait is not found in its ability to achieve perfection, but rather its ability to be candid.
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