Eros IV: Tinto Brass in HD


Although released last year on DVD, Monamour [M] (2006) makes its Blu-ray debut, joined by Kick the Cock (2009), the short film directed by Brass, starring (and written by) model Angelita Franco.

Brass’ work in the short film format goes back to his first film, the rarely-seen Spatiodynamisme (1958), made for the Cinematheque Francaise, with Henri Langlois credited as producer, and one could technically include his segments in the anthology My Wife / La mia signora (1964), and I Miss Sonia Henie (1971), but Kick the Cock is probably the first time he’s returned to the genre, albeit in a blatantly softcore genre with simulated ‘relief’ moments performed by none other than himself and a robust phallus with plenty of spouting ‘canon fodder.’

Cult Epics’ 2-disc set marks Brass’ debut in HD, and hopefully the rest of his catalogue with the label will slowly be re-transferred in HD, as many of them were sourced from older foreign masters, and show their age.

Brass, even when obsessed with the bum-bum, isn’t a novice to new film formats, having used 16mm and 35mm in *****X, played with various widescreen formats, and easily made the transition from film to HD with Kick the Cock.

With 28 works to his credit as director, Brass’ next project is Who Killed Caligula? (2012), which he teased the press in 2010 as “a pornographic production” but is most likely going to be the bawdy, grotesque film he probably wanted to make, with simulated hardcore using the same props (gargantuan, full-pumping phalluses) used in Private (2003) and Kick the Cock.

Featuring music by Paul Clemente, Jr.?

Filming was apparently set to start earlier this year, but after location scouting in Tunisia had affected Brass’ health, the production was put on pause. Apparently it’s still planned for production, as the film’s producer, Roberto Di Girolamo (co-writer of the ’87 spaghetti western Scalps) had planned to supervise two 3D projects – Brass’ revisitation of Caligula, and Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D, which is currently filming.

I don’t doubt Brass can handle 3D (though whether he’ll lard the film with tactile crotch shots is in his creative hands), but there is the issue of Brass working within a much smaller budget he’s been accustomed to, since the late eighties.

For at least 15 years he’s been using almost the same sets for what are essentially erotic bedroom comedy dramas, recreating exteriors using backdrops, but occasionally exploiting extant Roman ruins and attractive architecture if it boosts a scene’s risqué nature, having the actors engage in naughty behaviour surrounded by frescos, paintings, or partygoers in the garden of a manicured estate, or luxury boat.

There’s the question of budget, actors, production values, and of course the story, which sounds a bit wonky, as translated by production company FilmExport group. Then there’s a short teaser on YouTube, where Brass explains his ‘first erotic comedy in 3D’ in a brief Q&A.

As many sexploitation fans are aware, there have been prior 3D sexploitation films, and the first erotic 3D comedy is still A Silliman Jr.’s The Stewardesses (1969), so a good portion of the p.r. material is pure spin, meant to aggrandize Brass and his ‘revolutionary’ new project.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
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