Reviews

Scarlet Diva is a novel of radical dismantling. Anna Battista / Asia Argento -- " The best actress of the year", as a voice announces on the first line of the film; "a whore", as she puts it - throws herself on a planetary crusade (Rome / Locarno / Paris /Naples / Rome / Milan / London / Los Angeles / Amsterdam / Rome / Paris) of stereotyped situations: she's late on the set because she's having sex with a big black man on her trailer; she answers boldly to journalists; frees her best friend from bondage, buys hash in Paris; she falls in love with a singer; etcetera. But every stereotype is lit by a strange light, from intense, never banal staging, and an ironic, startled, clear and passionate view of the world. Scarlet Diva is a real woman's film. Anna Battista not only is a victim of destiny, she's also the author of her own story. Anna Battista is an actress wanting to become a director, desperately trying to write a film called Scarlet Diva, a film which ends with these words: "A light snow begins falling, like cotton candy" (which is also a perfect image to describe Asia Argento style as a director: a sweet and morbid lightness). This is Scarlet Diva, a mixture between story and telling, the glance of the actress and the glance of the director, body and camera. In one of the most intense scenes of the film, Anna / Asia, naked in front of a mirror gets made up, then destroys the makeup with her tears. In just a few shots there's all Scarlet Diva: a light intimate photography, a fearless, confident acting, merciless and touching sound track: a precious and grazing staging.

I had never seen before Asia Argento in a film. I don't know how in the world somebody could define her presence on the screen "tremendous" - maybe they meant it as "incredible"? I had never seen a star shine so bright in the darkness. Argento, or her character Sandii managed to wake up even those two half-dead carcasses (meaning Walken and Dafoe)... I believe it will be very hard even to them to forget her. The only reason why I'll remember this film will be because this girl was in it, and even if I am an Abel Ferrara fan, I think she's bigger than him. She is like Buster Keaton, or Louise Brooks. As you can see I think I have madly fallen in love with her.

If it wasn't for the huskily-voiced Argento, her sublime, powerful, hard-assed performance I would say this movie is unbearably idiotic. But Asia Argento saved B.Monkey and made it a believable story. I had never seen her before on the big screen, and she surely made a big impression on me. I look forward to see all her future films.

I saw B.Monkey at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

Dario Argento's films are not thrillers, never horror, they're locked/liberated in visionary architectures that ignore everything that does not belong to their own reality. Dario Argento is maybe the last "fellinian" in the italian cinema, the only one who's capable of creating visionary universes, independent and totally abstract, following their own rhythms, erasing everything else but the obscure, autistic fantasy of their author. That's why his movies, and especially his last movies, are probably misunderstood by people - they are probably too visionary, too deep down in the depths of the director's obsessions, too abstract and sublime to find the critic's approval. When you watch a Dario Argento movie you have to remember the artificious naivety of a perception that recognizes only its light. You have to accept the poetical world of an author who plays with the shadows of his soul creating characters that are made only of anguish and life. And death. Reality is somewhere else, it belongs to another universe, it reveals to other eyes. So, the Phantom of the Opera: a romantic (melo)drama dedicated to a shadow that has never met the sun, the film is totally locked into itself, trapped in the artificial world of the Opera, whipped by passion, possession, addiction, liberation. The outside world is excluded: we see it only once, Paris's roofs floating in the thin air, a lyrical space of a fantasy (that's why it's emphasized), Argento is christening a world that doesn't - can't - know his reality. The whole movie gets deliriously sublime and genuinely lyrical as it gets farther away from reality, announcing life/death in the end, stretching itself into nothingness until the last painfully beautiful image of Christine Daaè/Asia Agento's face, running, her back towards the light (salvation), while her face still facing the shadows, the darkness, the inside. Like Burroughs said "real directors are those who can create a universe in which they've lived or they'd love to live". So, ironically Argento today is the only possible hypothesis of "politically useful" cinema. I hope that Dario Argento, Asia Argento and Claudio Argento will keep delivering us these precious gems for a long, long time.

New Rose Hotel is to Ferrara what Videodrome was for David Cronenberg. Gibson's world works as a mirror, through which we're thrown in a maelstrom (vortex) of pain which I consider to be the essence of Ferrara's films. I think that New Rose Hotel is a film about love. About the essence of love. But also a film about regret and frienship. Great actors. Expecially Asia Argento, who lights up the screen with her exotic beauty and electric performance. Abel Ferrara is a great talent, misunderstood by his own country. Shame on America!