‘Scarlet Diva’ before #MeToo
Asia Argento said it loudly and forcefully last weekend at the Cannes Film Festival. But even though we didn’t understand it at the time, she said it all 18 years ago in her directorial debut, “Scarlet Diva.”
Argento took the stage during the closing ceremony at Cannes on Saturday night, May 19, and said:
“In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein here at Cannes. I was 21 years old. This festival was his hunting ground . ... He will live in disgrace by a film community who once embraced him and covered up for his crimes.” But she didn’t stop there: “Even tonight, sitting among you, there are those who still have to be held accountable for their conduct against women for behavior that does not belong in this industry, does not belong in any industry or workplace . ... We will not allow you to get away with it any longer.”
Argento, the Italian actress and filmmaker and the daughter of classic 1970s horror master Dario Argento (“Suspiria”), has been at the forefront of the #MeToo movement since its inception.
But Asia Argento is only saying out loud what she was trying to tell us back in 2000, when she made her first film as director, “Scarlet Diva.” Dismissed by critics and audiences in 2000, it now stands as perhaps the earliest #MeToo film (there’s sure to be more), a fullthroated rage against the international filmmaking machine.
See for yourself; this astounding work will play for five screenings over seven days at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco beginning Friday, May 25.
Argento, who also wrote the script, stars as Anna Batista, a 24-year-old Italian movie star who has acted in more than 20 films (just like Argento). Anna is lost in a dangerous circle of drugs,
alcohol abuse and meaningless sex. She is tired of being a starlet, where every film requires nudity and every photo shoot, interviewer and director treats her like a sex object.
Anna can barely hold it together and confesses to one interviewer she is “a relentless romantic — and a lonely person. It is very hard for me to love someone.”
She’d really like to reclaim herself by writing and directing, but she is still in high demand as an actress, and she has an opportunity in Hollywood: A big-time producer, one Barry Paar (a.k.a. Weinstein) wants to cast her as Cleopatra. He claims Robert De Niro (pushing 60 at the time) will play Marc Antony and Gus Van Sant would direct.
When he asks her to his hotel room to discuss the project, Barry (Joe Coleman) instead attempts to rape her — much the same way Argento claims Weinstein attacked her in ’97 — beginning the assault with a request to give him a massage, which we now know was a standard Weinstein tactic.
“I’m not the big bad wolf,” Barry says. “Think of me as a teddy bear.”
Yeah, right.
If that scene was all that made “Scarlet Diva” relevant today, it wouldn’t be much of a film. But it is so much more — a really bravura piece of filmmaking and a brave central performance.
Argento explores ways in which men manipulate women — and how women allow themselves to be manipulated — by two relationships. One is between her best friend, Veronica (Vera Gemma), and her abusive husband, Hamid (Alessandro Villari).
“You’re like those American housewives who get beaten up and don’t rat on their men,” Anna tells Veronica.
But Anna is not immune. She falls for an Australian rock star, and when they go to bed, Anna begins to do some of the kinky things with which she is accustomed. He says he doesn’t want to have sex with her; he wants to “make love” to her.
“This is my first time making love.”
“Don’t tell me you’re a virgin?”
“No, I’m a whore.”
But is she? No, not at all. She is simply a young woman caught in an industry and a society in which she is objectified to such an extreme that even she can’t find her own identity.
Now we can see what we couldn’t see in 2000: “Scarlet Diva” isn’t a confessional, or an expose of the film world, nor a kinky sex film.
It’s a horror movie. But not like the ones dad used to make.