What does Asia have to say about this movie?
"It was very hard to find finance since it's a very tough story. Unfortunately I come from a country ruled by television, and if a film isn't politically correct it'll be hard to find the money."
"I did Scarlet Diva when I was 23 years old, and I managed to pull it off in less than a year. Today I’m still amazed that I managed to pull that off being so young. And I fought really hard. It didn’t come easy but it was a necessity for me."
"When people criticize the fact that this movie is self-obsessed, or hedonistic or whatever you want to call it, what they’re criticizing is actually the strength of my movie, and by doing that they’re only throwing fuel in my fire. They’re only making it stronger."
This film you directed, Scarlet Diva, what is it about?
It's a very - how should I put it? It's an auto-autopsy. It's very personal, very inner, it's like a journey of an actress who wants to become a director and what she has to go through to do that.
So it's biographical?
In a way. Not that things that you see really happened to me necessarily. I manipulated reality and the reality of people around me to do it.
Why the title Scarlet Diva?
Well, it's very mystical. Scarlet is like the Scarlet Letter, the Letter A and the name of the character is Anna. And Diva because the actress in the movie is so not a Diva. This is what everyone wants to see her as, but in life she's very simply, lonely girl. So I wanted this contrast.
How true to life is the story of Scarlet Diva?
Well, every movie is always 100% real. It always talks about yourself, even though you're talking about something that is very different from you. Everything is inspired by people and places that I've been to, but everything is a reflection of them, so nothing is really real and everything is elaborated and fantasized. People wonder who this character is inspired by, but it's more like a reflection of anybody I've met and how I've demonised them and made them grotesque in order to exorcise them.
Your character's mother in Scarlet Diva is portrayed pretty negatively. Did that upset your real mother?
Well, my mother was playing my mother in the movie, so if she was that upset she wouldn't have done it! I think we both knew that in order for our relationship to grow, we had this incredible tool of making a movie, which is better than going to a shrink. So we used that to make this movie. She's not the person I'm talking about in the movie, although for a while I was seeing her as the mean mother. For her to play the mean mother was useful, like a sort of psychodrama.
Three curious facts
A lot could be written about 'Scarlet Diva' and its shooting, lots of interesting facts, but I would have to make a site dedicated only to that, and it's not my intention. If you want to know more about the movie, I recommend you buy a DVD that has comments from Asia herself. You'll learn a lot!
'Scarlet Diva' was based in part on Asia's book 'I Love You Kirk', published in Italy and France.
Asia first invited Blixa Bargeld and Vincent Gallo for the role of Kirk, who ended up being played by Jean Shepherd. But Blixa was too old for the character, and Vincent Gallo asked for too much money.
French actress Romane Bohringer was Asia's first choice for the role of the mysterious blonde Quelou, who has a lesbian encounter with Anna Battista. The role ended up with Selen, a famous Italian porn star, who was surprisingly shy during the shooting.
Synopsis (taken from the press kit)
Anna Battista (Asia Argento), a young rising actress idolized as the 'Scarlet Diva' by her adoring fans, is on the verge of collapse from the physical and emotional demands of her career. From the solitude of her empty apartment in Rome, Anna's whirlwind schedule of public appearances, awards ceremonies and screen tests sweep her into a maelstrom of inhospitable cities and loveless adventures.
Anna feels increasingly more and more alone in a life surrounded only by degradation, compromise and sordid sexual encounters. Whether it is the influential movie mogul Barry Paar (Joe Coleman) and his harassment; or the disillusionment of finding her literary idol Aaron Ulrich (Herbert Fritsch), an ugly wasted man ravaged by heroin, Anna finds it harder to see the beauty in life.
Drugs, just as cold as sex, are an old refrain for Anna who has lived in their constant ominous shadow since she was a child. The painful memories of her and her brother Alioscia (Leonardo Servadio) watching her addict mother (Daria Nicolodi), a former actress, sell herself to a corrupt doctor in exchange for methadone until she dies of an overdose.
Today, drugs are omnipresent and seem to track Anna's every step; during a London photo session with famous photographer Luke Ford (Vanessa Crane) and his 'Special K', the latest high, once again plunges her into pain and self-destruction.
Anna secretly longs for innocence and purity. Her desire is unexpectedly fulfilled in Paris when she meets Kirk Vaines (Jean Sheperd), an Australian singer on tour. Hopelessly in love, Anna discovers the stirrings of a strange new feeling, a sensation of loving tenderness and sharing where once she had known only violence and incomprehension.
Unknowingly, Kirk abruptly transforms Anna's life when she becomes pregnant. She decides to have the baby and only lives in the hope of seeing and being with Kirk again. Anna now loathes her excessive actress lifestyle and is completely repulsed when Mr. Paar (Joe Coleman) spews his obscene Hollywood rhetoric, makes sexual advances and flashes his money.
Months pass and Anna is haunted by strange dreams, specters from her past and disturbing encounters such as an erotic and mysterious visit from the young woman named Quelou (Luce Caponegro Selen). Anna's own spiritual rebirth is slowly underway, with her new desire to be faithful to the miracle of her love for Kirk.
When Anna learns that Kirk is performing in Paris again, she must go to him. Why all of these months without news? Why has he abandoned her? The life taking form within her- she had even seen its tiny fingers- fills her with joy but is it enough to enable her to overcome the confrontation with the ultimate terrible disillusionment.
Facing the future, Anna no longer feels alone in a corrupt world. She is now stronger with the incredible knowledge of her true capacity to love.
Music: Asia Argento - Disco Sux/U Just Can't Stop The Rock/Sad Core (2008)
