Scarlet Diva (2002)

In Scarlet Diva, Asia Argento, the Italian punkette starlet who's the eye candy in ''XXX,'' has stringy black hair, the beatific full lips of Uma Thurman, and a tattooed angel rising up out of her pubic hair; she appears designed for sin and redemption at the same time. If your quest is to act like an unholy baby-doll slut and still come off as a poor, tortured romantic, it helps a lot to look like Argento, who wrote, directed, and stars in this video shot ''transgressive'' road odyssey about a 24-year-old movie star who keeps dreaming up new ways to take off her clothes, all because she wants to be loved.

Playing this Victim of Fame, Argento globe-hops from Rome to Paris to L.A. to Amsterdam, confronting such tormenters as a rampaging lesbian, a rapist movie producer, and a fashion photographer who gets her tripping on Special K.

Each adventure is like a new circle of kink hell, but if Argento has the showbiz instinct to turn herself into a Eurotrash fusion of Edie Sedgwick and Little Annie Fanny, as a filmmaker she's every bit as slapdash-lurid as her father, the cult horror director Dario Argento. ''Scarlet Diva'' has a voyeuristic tug, but all in all it's a lot less sensational than it wants to be.

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