Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Robert J. Maxwell Man, what a movie. Pow! Zip! It's like an 18-act Italian opera taking place in the center ring of a three-ring circus while bears waltz and elephants stand on their heads on either side.Every camera trick known to man or beast is put to use. If Anna Batista (Argento), the famous actress, does a line of Special K, it's only to give the camera a chance to show us more phantasmagorical horrors in lurid color. The sink into which she tries to puke turns to rubber and so forth. And there's her mother's ghost.And it never stops. Well, not exactly. There are occasional pauses in the tumult while Anna and her friends seem to functioning normally, but the pauses are only there as lead-ins to the next bout of victimization.I lost count of the number of times Anna is roughly assaulted by men. The most memorable (because the funniest) is "the finest writer-director in the world" who summons her to Amsterdam. She's expecting to go over her script for Cleopatra but when she opens the door to his shabby multicolored garbage-strewn room she finds him lurching about, his pants unzipped, jerking in spasms, and managing to moan: "I've been an alcoholic for four years -- and now I'm on SMACK." The poor girl turns her head away in disgust while he shoots up. Then as he flops beside her on the couch and points out his new knife scar, she suggests they talk about the script. But the world's greatest writer-director has other things on his mind. He throws himself all over her, blubbering and pulling at her black slacks, while she squeals and manages to push him away. He calls her a woman of low repute, slaps her several times, and she rushes out the door.It must be some kind of female fantasy, or maybe it's just Asia Argento's thing, but the whole movie darts from one attempted rape to another. One is committed by some babe with surgically enhanced bosoms the size of basketballs. Another rape -- another rough one -- is attempted by some Hollywood producer of schlock films. He wears a curious beard but no underwear, and he sounds precisely like Dennis Miller.She has only one true love, an Australian rock singer of no distinctive talent. They meet and immediately go to bed. She winces when he crawls atop her and tells Keith that she's never made love before. "Are you a virgin?" "No, I'm a whore." That one-night stand with a man who turns out to have a wife and children was a dangerous one inasmuch as it impregnates her. On this discovery she runs big-bellied through the night-time streets of Rome until she collapses before a painting of the Virgin and Child. Her lost love appears in the distance, silhouetted by a halo of bright light -- so bright that she must blink when looking into it. It's left unclear whether she'll give birth to the next Messiah or the second Buddha. End of movie.It's a silly, low-budget piece of trash, and yet it doesn't diminish any respect I might have had for Asia Argento, the writer, director, and star. The writer and the director have thoroughly deglamorized the star. The DVD opens with Argento, sans makeup, looking wanly into the camera and telling us, "I know you might have heard some bad things about this movie. But don't be afraid. After you watch it, maybe you will get to know me a little better -- and I will get to know you." We get to know the character pretty well. For several minutes we watch her tattooed naked body before a bathroom mirror while she shaves her armpits, applies lipstick, and watches tears roll down her cheeks.The rape scenes are not at all erotic and Argento places the camera so that her body seems less like an object of desire than a dressed cabrito hanging in a butcher shop window. I mean, there is a brief shot of her bare ass as the slime ball Hollywood producer tries to pull her dress up and it the thought this undignified camera angle prompts is not how pretty her rear end is but how vulnerable the character, Anna Batista, is.The movie may or may not be very autobiographical, but in either case it's not a facile quest for pity from the audience. This bipolar dynamo can take care of herself. She lashes out hoarse, filthy curses at her tormentors in three different languages, a volcano of pejoration.I wish that energy and that disgust for artificiality had somehow been used as the engine for a better story. Or for any story at all. As it is, I think Argento was right when she said we might get to know her better. We wind up with more respect for her courage and sincerity.

tommyblah I just saw the unrated cut of Scarlet Diva, and I have to disagree with almost everyone who has written a review about it. I think this is a great movie! I'm a big fan of Asia Argento as well as a fan of her father's, and this movie was everything I wanted it to be.There was nothing low-budget about it...the picture quality and sound was excellent; what exactly do you people want? Spaceships and aliens? If you are a fan of Asia, it gives you real insight into her life...you see first-hand how a woman who plays roles like hers gets treated by men; you really feel the creepiness. The style of filming was very effective; it definitely conveyed the real-life aspect of the movie. The quick cuts and sometimes nauseating camera movements and angles portray her state of mind, which at times is very unstable. There is a scene where she does special K, and being someone who has done it, it sent chills up my spine; they very accurately reproduced the sounds you hear in your head, the confusion and overlapping events, the sense of everything in your head being completely backwards...And lets not forgot the very sexual nature of the movie. If you're a conservative Christian, you probably won't like the movie. I, however, loved the many sex scenes (including a very hot lesbian scene). But it isn't all just gratuitous humping; there is intimacy in some places and lack of in others, all intentional.I'll stop babbling and just say, if you are a fan of Asia and know to some degree what she's all about, you WILL in fact enjoy this movie. If you know little about her type of lifestyle, you'll probably just see a lot of it as nonsense. For me, it was very emotionally engaging and definitely has some images that stuck in my head days after watching it. Asia is beautiful, intelligent, and very talented. The rock star she falls in love with is pretty lame, but I'm an aspiring rock star myself and say that about a lot of people.I think she should consider doing a follow-up or sequel. I definitely hope all the bad reviews have not discouraged her from following her own path.

David E Romm Self indulgent and occasionally sexy... and those are the good points. Asia Argento is trying to make La Dolce Vita and winds up making Syd and Nancy from Nancy's point of view... if Nancy were Scary Spice. Okay... okay... that's unfair. But not by much. Flashes of a good movie are few and far between, but they're there. Not recommended except for fans.

Dr. Gore *SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*There is a very big question you have to ask yourself before deciding whether or not to watch this movie. It is: Do I care about Asia Argento and her pain? If you could care less, I would steer clear of this one. Asia lets it all hang out as she tells us of her tormented life.I'm not going to mix words. I bought this DVD to see Asia Argento get naked and have sex. I'm happy to say Asia does get naked and does have sex. She shows us her angel tattoo and all is right with the world.On the DVD, before the movie begins, Asia looks straight into the camera and tells us that we probably heard this movie was no good but not to worry because it is. She also hopes that we might get to know her better…or less. So basically she's saying, "Here's my movie, I did it, you're watching it and there you go." It was kind of strange to have the director reassure the audience before the flick. I was a little thrown off by it.So the movie is about a girl named Anna, (Asia Argento), who is a big movie star and very unhappy about it. Sex, drugs and rock and roll make Anna miserable. She is a very lonely woman. One guy is sweet to her and visions of love start dancing in her head. Will Anna ever be happy?For this movie to work, you have to believe that Asia is being sincere. You have to believe that most of the stories in the movie happened to her in one form or another at some point in her life. So is the flick Asia spilling her guts out for the world to see? Is it a cry for help? Or is it just a self indulgent flick with Asia crying and weeping as movie stars tend to do?For me, it felt sincere. It's not an exploitation flick although there is enough sex and nudity to make it seem otherwise. Asia had a lot on her mind and wanted to have a cathartic experience with this flick. If you like Asia Argento, it's definitely worth a look.