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This box set details the erotic adventures of women such as
Diane, who cheats on her husband to keep their relationship
alive; Mimma, who discovers she has a knack for prostitution;
Miranda, who runs a tavern and juggles an array of lovers;
Lola, whose loyalties are divided between her fiancé and her
mother's partner; Carla, who deceives her lover about her
lesbian affair; Teresa, a wife who becomes attracted to her
daughter's fiancé; and Livia, who embarks upon a dangerous
liaison with an SS officer...
This
great value collection contains eight movies - All Ladies
Do It, Paprika, Miranda, Frivolous Lola,
Cheeky, The Key, Black Angel and Private
- directed by the "King of Erotica", Tinto Brass.
While
his films contain plenty of common themes and preoccupations,
this box set also demonstrates that they are not all the same.
Each movie touches in some way upon the theme of women having
affairs and being expert liars when it comes to deceiving
their partners. The director's fascination with ample female
posteriors also keeps cropping up, and most of the films also
contain a scene in which the main character attends a party
and/or becomes intoxicated.
However,
the presentation of such themes ranges in tone from the extremely
shallow (wall-to-wall nudity but very little in the way of
story in Cheeky) to the really quite arty (partial
black-and-white photography in the wartime-set Black Angel).
In fact, the sexual content of Black Angel is relatively
low by Tinto Brass standards, so much so that an orgy scene
seems as though it has wandered in from another movie.
One
aspect that is guaranteed, though, no matter which disc you
decide to watch first, is an intimate exploration of beautiful
women of all shapes and sizes. They range from the slender
(Claudia Koll in All Ladies Do It) to the voluptuously
plump (Deborah Caprioglio in Paprika) and from the
youthful (Yuliya Mayarchuk in Cheeky) to the mature
(Anna Galiena in Black Angel). Throughout his movies,
the director has chosen real-looking women, not the bikini-waxed,
silicon-implanted fakes of the type to be found in American
erotica.
In terms of eroticism, Frivolous Lola offers the sexiest
actress (in my humble opinion) in the shape of the vivacious
Anna Ammirati as Lola. Meanwhile Cheeky, as I indicated
earlier, offers by far the highest nudity quotient, boasting
naked lesbians a-plenty! On the other hand, All Ladies
Do It features a supporting actress with rather bad teeth,
which is a bit of a passion killer.
You won't find any political correctness in these movies,
with some decidedly dodgy antics taking place, including actual
and potential incest in Paprika and Frivolous Lola
respectively. Paprika also contains a uncomfortable
"rape" scene, which seems to imply that a women who says no
might change her mind if the man continues to force himself
on her.
There is also a rich vein of humour in many of these films.
Cheeky in particular exhibits a playful Carry On-style
atmosphere. Brass's works are inhabited by memorably eccentric
characters, such as the dominatrix Frau Bertha (Virginia Barrett)
and her submissive husband (Leo Mantovani) in the anthology
Private, and Renzo Rinaldi's rampantly horny characters
Silvio, in All Ladies Do It, and Conte Bastiano, in
Paprika. The director himself often makes Hitchcockian
cameo appearances, though, unlike Hitchcock, he often speaks
some lines as well, invariably playing lechers (no acting
required!).
There is more fun to be had spotting the occasional British
actor who turns up, including Frank Finlay in The Key
and Patrick Mower in Frivolous Lola.
The
various discs differ dramatically in terms of presentation
as well as tone. Paprika and Black Angel are
subtitled, whereas the rest have been dubbed into English,
with varying degrees of success. The dubbing is particularly
atrocious on Cheeky, which is also blighted by poor,
hollow sound and - incredibly - a main menu that doesn't work!
I had to navigate this particular disc using the Search button
on my remote. Worse still, several scenes of The Key
remain in their original Italian but without subtitles, which
means English speakers miss out on some of the political subtext.
By contrast, the sound and picture quality on Frivolous
Lola are both crisp and clear.
Special
features include photo galleries, trailers, an eight-minute
interview with the director (the same interview appears on
nearly all the discs), a 24-minute behind-the-scenes documentary
on Black Angel and a 17-minute one on Private.
While the presentation of certain discs leaves much to be
desired, the same cannot be said of this generous collection's
erotic content. With a price that works out at about £6 per
disc, this box set - like the ample bottoms of Tinto's heroines
- is well worth getting your hands on.
Chris
Clarkson
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£49.99
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