Tinto Brass

Tinto Brass with Caterina Varzi at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival

Tinto Brass (real name Giovanni Brass , born March 26, 1933 in Milan ) is an Italian film director and screenwriter .

Life

Film career

Brass worked and studied at the Cinémathèque française in the late 1950s and then became Roberto Rossellini's assistant director . His first own works, which he edited himself - like most of the films of his career - are clearly shaped by the new forms of European cinema of the time; recognizable the will to provoke. His autobiographical debut Chi lavora è perduto celebrates anarchism, plays brass with forms and conventions in the spaghetti western Yankee , with pop-art elements in Ich bin wie ich bin, and with surrealism in Nerosubianco and L'urlo .

Tinto Brass, 1990

Brass was regarded as a promising experimental and avant-garde director in the 1960s and early 1970s and was sometimes referred to as the "Antonioni of the 70s". In 1964 Umberto Eco commissioned him to create two films for the Triennale di Milano , which Brass freely designed and which experimented with symbols and film language. In collaboration with Guido Crepax , who designed storyboards and comics shown in the film, I am how I am was created in 1967 , whose aesthetics were seen as particularly innovative and experimental. In 1968 Paramount Pictures Brass offered to direct Uhrwerk Orange , but this was not possible due to scheduling reasons. L'Urlo was screened at the 1970 Berlinale , La Vacanza (starring Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero ) won the Film Critics' Prize for Best Italian Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1971 . In 1972 Tinto Brass was a member of the jury at the Berlinale.

After Salon Kitty (1976) and especially Caligula (1979), his film style changed. Caligula - planned as a provocative satire about power structures - was heavily rewritten or mostly re-cut by the producer against Brass' will in the absence of Brass. Numerous satirical scenes were removed or heavily changed, and pornographic scenes that had been shot without Brass' knowledge were added, so that the finished film, cut without Brass, is more likely to be classified as a pornographic drama. Brass tried in vain to prevent this version from appearing in court, but was able to enforce not to be named as the director of the film.

After Caligula , Brass shot the surrealist satire Action (1980), which was stylistically linked to his earlier films, but was not a commercial success. After the appearance of Caligula , the following films began to feature Brass more and more as an adult film maker . Recurring features of his works since 1983 are actresses with large busts, wide buttocks and lush armpit and pubic hair as well as props such as mirrors. When asked about his films from 1983 onwards, Brass made the following, not entirely serious statement: “Women cheat and lie, their faces are masks. But their bums do not lie, the soul of a person can be seen on their bum. ”Many of Brass' late films are or were on the index because of their proximity to pornography in Germany .

Private

Tinto Brass was married to Carla Cipriani (1930-2006) from 1953 to 2006. She has appeared behind the camera in many of his films and he referred to her as his "muse".

Filmography (selection)

• 1964: Those who work are lost (Chi lavora è perduto)
• 1966: Yankee (Yankee)
• 1967: I am what I am (Col cuore in gola)
• 1968: Attraction (Nero su bianco)
• 1970: The Scream (L'urlo)
• 1970: dropout
• 1971: La Vacanza
• 1976: Salon Kitty
• 1979: Caligula
• 1980: Sodom 2000 ( Action )
• 1983: The Key ( La chiave ); indexed until 2009
• 1985: Miranda
• 1987: The Italian Affair ( Capriccio ); indexed
• 1988: Snack Bar Budapest ( Snack Bar Budapest )
• 1991: Paprika - A Life for Love ( Paprika ); indexed
• 1992: An Immoral Woman - Cosi fan tutte ( Così fan tutte ); indexed
• 1994: Voyeur ( L'uomo che guarda ); indexed
• 1995: PO Box Tinto Brass ( Fermo posta Tinto Brass ); indexed
• 1998: Frivolous Lola ( Monella )
• 2000: Playboys ( Trasgredire )
• 2002: Black Angel - Senso '45 ( Senso '45 )
• 2003: Do It! ( Fallo! )
• 2005: Monamour

Web links

Commons : Tinto Brass  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tinto Brass in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• “The last of the old school” - a brass portrait with an interview
• "An ass never lies!" Brass interview by Thomas Gaschler

Individual evidence

1. ^ A definite new talent . Gene Moskowitz, “Few 'Quality' at Venice: Emphasis on Art via Austerity”. In: Variety, September 11, 1963, p. 5. Scan on: [1]
2. ↑ Sally K. Brass (not related): “Director's Quest for Reality”. In: The Los Angeles Times, Sep 2, 1970, p. 13.
3. ↑ [2] Website for the two films for the Triennale di Milano.
4. ↑ [3] Website for the film with numerous newspaper clippings from the time it was published.
5. ↑ Tinto Brass: Audio commentary on Cult Epics DVD of "Deadly Sweet" ("Col Cuore in Gola") DVD075
6. ↑ Tinto Brass: Audio commentary on Cult Epics DVD from "The Howl" ("L'Urlo") DVD072
7. ↑ [4] List of the prizes that were awarded in 1971 at the festival.
8. ^ [5] Official website of the Berlinale with a list of the jury members.
9. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Caligula production history website, with numerous articles / sources. 
10. ↑ [6] Website for "Action", with numerous articles / sources.
11. ^ Roberto Poppi: Dizionario del cinema italiano, i registi; Gremese 2003, p. 71
12. ↑ [7] Tinto Brass 2008 in an interview with the online magazine Evolver
13. ↑ Tinto Brass in an interview on the DVD edition of "Miranda", Arrow Films FCD097
14. ↑ [8] Brief biographical information on IMDB
15. ↑ [9] List of Carla Cipriani's film credits on the IMDB.
16. ↑ [10] Obituary for Carla Cipriani, with quotations from Tinto Brass about their coexistence (Italian)