I just rewatched this for the first time since about 2001. This is a DVD i bought when I was 15/16, primarily because I was just getting into Dario Argento and Asia Argento and she was kind of peaking as far as popularity in US media (XXX starring Vin Diesel and co-starring her had just come out) - she was all over my favorite magazine at the time, Bizarre, and she had just released this, her directorial debut. I think when I first watched it at that age, I was just hoping for some legit whack-it material, and it's funny because this movie is LOADED with graphic sexual content and scenarios, but I think it's just way too dark and grimy and seedy to actually get into that zone with. I mean the opening scene is Asia getting dogged out hard by a gargantuan muscular dude in her trailer on a film set, that kind of sets the tone right away, but it starts out kind of neutral and then slowly gets grimier and grimier as the movie goes.
I definitely remembered this movie being really amateurish feeling and very dreamlike and strange, but after this rewatch I realize there was just so much I didn't understand at all about it. First of all, it's a total biopic and it gets really meta in a pretty effective way. It's a movie about Asia being an actress and wanting to make her directorial debut Scarlet Diva, but it focuses on all the horrendous obstacles she had to face while trying to get there, most of those which are in heinous men making her think they care about her art but then end up just wanting to bang her - sounds typical but there's really a lot of depth to all of it. There are also several sequences based off of her IRL experiences with Hollywood's infamous demon, Harvey Weinstein.
The movie is FULLY unhinged, in fact, I might say it's one of the more unhinged movies I have ever seen, especially knowing it's Asia playing Asia and basically just wanting to push the point that she was such "a whore" (those are her words in the film, not mine) that it almost destroyed her. Towards the end, it goes so off the rails as she approaches "rock bottom", including bad drug trips that end up feeling like he father's legendary horror films ON DRUGS, surreal rants about bestiality, and...much more. It's easy to tell that the roller coaster in Asia's brain goes much harder than 95% of human beings - and it's a ride she couldn't get off of even if she wanted to. I wouldn't recommend this to EVERYONE but I LOVE it now - a movie can't get more personal than this. It's so raw and real and crazy! A truly wild viewing experience. I'm not gonna sell this DVD - I'm holding on to it.
I definitely remembered this movie being really amateurish feeling and very dreamlike and strange, but after this rewatch I realize there was just so much I didn't understand at all about it. First of all, it's a total biopic and it gets really meta in a pretty effective way. It's a movie about Asia being an actress and wanting to make her directorial debut Scarlet Diva, but it focuses on all the horrendous obstacles she had to face while trying to get there, most of those which are in heinous men making her think they care about her art but then end up just wanting to bang her - sounds typical but there's really a lot of depth to all of it. There are also several sequences based off of her IRL experiences with Hollywood's infamous demon, Harvey Weinstein.
The movie is FULLY unhinged, in fact, I might say it's one of the more unhinged movies I have ever seen, especially knowing it's Asia playing Asia and basically just wanting to push the point that she was such "a whore" (those are her words in the film, not mine) that it almost destroyed her. Towards the end, it goes so off the rails as she approaches "rock bottom", including bad drug trips that end up feeling like he father's legendary horror films ON DRUGS, surreal rants about bestiality, and...much more. It's easy to tell that the roller coaster in Asia's brain goes much harder than 95% of human beings - and it's a ride she couldn't get off of even if she wanted to. I wouldn't recommend this to EVERYONE but I LOVE it now - a movie can't get more personal than this. It's so raw and real and crazy! A truly wild viewing experience. I'm not gonna sell this DVD - I'm holding on to it.