Scarlet Diva 09/23 Blu-ray (Rental)

In her stunning, semi-autobiographical directorial feature debut, Asia Argento plays Anna Battista, a rising young actress who, despite her popularity and success, experiences despair and degradation at the hands of an abusive industry. Her harrowing journey towards redemption leads her on a sordid spree of excess across America and Europe while trying to recapture her innocence and find true love. Newly restored in HD, Scarlet Diva has been rediscovered by audiences and critics alike in the wake of the "Time's Up" movement for it's "full-throated rage against the international filmmaking machine" and is credited as "perhaps the earliest #MeToo film" (San Francisco Chronicle). Review WINNER - Best Actress - Melbourne Underground Film Festival OFFICIAL SELECTION - Toronto Int'l. Film Festival OFFICIAL SELECTION - Mar del Plata Film Festival OFFICIAL SELECTION - Thessaloniki Int'l. Film Festival OFFICIAL SELECTION - Belgrade Film Festival --- The thesis of Scarlet Diva -- that the cinema's icons of young, female sex appeal are subject to constant abuse and exploitation and that they find both pleasure and anguish in such attention -- is hard to dispute. Ms. Argento's response, at once earnest and thoroughly calculated, is to take revenge by exploiting herself more thoroughly than anyone else could, turning sado-masochism, which is customarily played as a duet, into a solo performance. --A.O. Scott, The New York Times It's a demented kitsch mess...but it's savvy about celebrity