Tinto Brass
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Giovanni Brass (born March 26 1933), better known as Tinto Brass, is one of the most well-known and controversial Italian filmmakers. He is noted especially for his work in the erotica genre, with films such as Così fan tutte and his literary adaptations such as The Voyeur. Comparisons with Russ Meyer are often overheard, but where Russ Meyer was the "breast man", Tinto Brass is all about the buttocks.
Contents |
Biography
Brass was born in Milan. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he created many avant-garde films, such as Nerosubianco, L'urlo, and La Vacanza. He is best known for his erotic epics, Salon Kitty, The Key, and Caligula, which was a collaboration with celebrated author Gore Vidal, Franco Rossellini (nephew of the Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini), and Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione. However, many consider Caligula to not be a true Tinto Brass film because post-production was not handled by Brass. In spite of this, it contains many of Brass's trademarks and remains his most widely-viewed work (and the highest-grossing Italian film ever released in the United States).
Brass' films follow an impressionistic style-that is, not showing immense landscapes, but bits and pieces of the scenery and peripheral characters and objects through pans and zooms, thus imitating how the viewer might see the events if they were actually present. This also gives the films an extraordinarily rapid pace. He often uses a television-like multicam method of shooting, with at least three cameras running at once, each focusing on something else.
There are many directorial trademarks throughout his films. From 1976's Salon Kitty on, mirrors play a big part in the set design. Sometimes he even goes as far as to begin a scene with a mirror shot, then pan over to the action being reflected, giving a disorienting feeling. His erotic films – especially The Key, Miranda and All Ladies Do It – often accentuate women's buttocks and hairy armpits, almost to the point of fetishizing that particular physical feature. Many of his erotic films seem to include unsimulated sexual acts, but his male actors usually are using prosthetic penises in these instances.
Many of his films also contain instances of animal abuse: L'urlo contains scenes of a man killing a mouse, and a goose being decapitated on camera; Salon Kitty contains a graphic scene of pigs being gutted in a slaughterhouse. In addition, he almost always works in a cameo for his friend Osiride Pevarello, and, in more recent years, for himself.
Selected filmography
- 1976: Salon Kitty
- 1979: Caligula
- 1980: Sodom 2000
- 1983: The Key (La chiave)
- 1985: Miranda (Miranda)
- 1987: The Italian Affair (Capriccio)
- 1988: Snackbar Budapest (Snack Bar Budapest)
- 1991: Paprika (Paprika)
- 1992: Cosi Fan Tutte (Così fan tutte)
- 1994: The Voyeur (L’uomo che guarda)
- 1995: P.O. Box Tinto Brass (Fermo posta Tinto Brass)
- 1998: Frivolous Lola
- 2000: Playboys
- 2002: Senso ’45 – Black Angel
- 2003: Fallo! – Do It!
- 2005: Monamour
Full filmography
- In capo al mondo ovvero Chi lavora è perduto (1963)
- Ça ira - Il fiume della rivolta (1964)
- La mia signora (1964)
- Il disco volante (1964)
- Yankee (1966)
- Col cuore in gola (1967)
- L'urlo (1968)
- Nerosubianco (1969)
- Dropout (1970)
- La vacanza (1971)
- Salon Kitty (1975)
- Io, Caligola (1979)
- Action (1980)
- La chiave (1983)
- Miranda (1985)
- Capriccio (1987)
- Snack Bar Budapest (1988)
- Paprika (1991)
- Così fan tutte (1992)
- L'uomo che guarda (1994)
- Fermo posta Tinto Brass (1995)
- Monella (1997)
- Tra(sgre)dire (2000)
- Senso '45 (2002)
- Fallo! (2003)
- Monamour (2005)
See also
