Giovanni “Tinto” Brass started out as a promising avant garde filmmaker in the 1960s, memorably making two short films, Tempo Libero and Tempo Lavorativo, alongside author Umberto Eco. Following forays in spaghetti Westerns (1966’s Yankee) and crime films (1967’s Col Cuore In Gola, featuring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Ewa Aulin), Brass was vaulted into movie infamy when he took on the task of directing the big-budget independent historical epic Caligula from Penthouse founder Bob Guccione in 1979.
Renowned for the truly astounding cast of respected actors (Malcom McDowell, John Gielgud, Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren) and screenwriters (Gore Vidal was paid $200,000 to write the original script) lured to such a sexually charged and controversial project, Caligula has gone down as one of the most notorious productions in film history. Both Gore and Brass demanded their names be removed after Guccione inserted hardcore scenes and re-edited the film, and Roger Ebert notoriously condemned the film as “sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash,” noting it was one of the only films he ever walked out of. In recent years, a “restored” cut claiming to be more in line with Brass and Vidal’s original intentions made the Drafthouse rounds, even though Brass stated at the time that he still wasn’t involved in the re-edit and that it did not reflect his vision.
Brass nonetheless capitalized on Caligula‘s notoriety to become a prolific purveyor of Italian soft-core erotic dramas through the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s, with video store shelves featuring his titles such as 1976’s Nazisploitation brothel drama Salon Kitty, Cheeky, Paprika, Monella, and Senso ’45, most of which prominently highlighted its semi-clad female stars on their box art. Brass’ last films were the erotic shorts Kick The Cock and Hotel Courbet in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
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