By Salma El-Sakka
Italian film director Tinto Brass, known for bringing erotic cinema to mainstream audiences with films such as "Caligula" and "Salon Kitty," died on Wednesday at the age of 93. His wife Caterina Varzi and children Bonifacio and Beatrice Brass announced the death to the Italian press agency Ansa.
Early career and experimental films
Born in Milan and raised in Venice, Brass began his cinema career in Paris as an editor and archivist at the Cinémathèque. After returning to Italy, he worked as an assistant director to Roberto Rossellini. His experimental approach earned him a commission from Umberto Eco to create short films for the 1964 Triennale di Milano. Warner Bros reportedly considered him for "A Clockwork Orange" before the project went to Stanley Kubrick.
Shift to erotic cinema
In the 1970s, Brass moved into erotic filmmaking, describing eroticism as "a fundamental key to human expression." His 1976 film "Salon Kitty," based on a Nazi-operated Berlin brothel, attracted the attention of Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, who hired Brass to direct "Caligula" in 1979.
Caligula and controversy
The star-studded production featured Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, and John Gielgud, with a screenplay by Gore Vidal that Brass rewrote to include explicit content. Both Vidal and Brass later disavowed the film after Guccione inserted unsimulated hardcore scenes without the director's permission. Released in 1980, Brass received only a "principal photography" credit. A recut version without Guccione's additions appeared in 2023, though Brass was not involved.
Later years
Brass lived in Isola Farnese near Rome in recent years. He married Varzi in 2017, and she curated his archive. On his 90th birthday, he expressed a wish for his ashes to be scattered in the Venice lagoon.
