Scarlet Diva (2002)

DIVAS LIVE '"Scarlet Diva'''s Jean Shepard and Argento aren't that shocking

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.