“The two sides of love”
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--THE PLOT
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In this early work by famed European director Tinto Brass We are
reminded that it wasn’t just America that was experiencing the
Summer Of Love. Billed by many as a trashy softcore Italian sex romp,
this is nothing like that at all. I’m assuming those narrow minded
reviewers/trash talkers have seen the name Tinto Brass, noted the
nudity and just thrown out the words softcore without even watching
this film. What we have here is a docu-drama slash psychedelic pop
art fantasy as Brass attacks the hypocrisy of middle class suburbia, the
war on Vietnam, complacency, marriage, domesticity and racial
prejudice.
All wrapped around the simple story line (such as it is) of a married but
unsatisfied woman (Anita Sanders) whose mind is opened up by
swinging London and all the possibilities the sexual revolution
presents to her. As she wanders through the city she is
followed/stalked/admired by a man (Terry Carter) who figures in her
daydreams and fantasies but who she doesn’t have the courage to
approach. The fact that the man is a negro and she is white confronts
the audience with a prejudice that is still relevant. Forget Guess
Who’s Coming To Dinner or To Sir With Love, here Brass is forcing the
audience to confront that one major fear that still holds true for so
many shallow minded folk – a black man lusting after a white woman
purely for sexual gratification!! The drugs, the loud music, the free
love – none of that matters when there’s a goddamn nigger after a
white girl!!
While our housewife wanders the streets, backed by the band
Freedom who keep popping up in trees, saunas and on buses, she
thinks about her frustration with her life, about her husband, their
sex life (or lack there of) and slowly peels away her prejudices, her
fears. All this in a freeform, improvised, cut, pasted, sliced and diced
film that confronts us with naked women (hence the softporn tag),
hippie culture, slogans, cartoons and a scathing attack on the church
and war. The most shocking and confrontational scenes in this film
aren’t sexual, instead they are of war victims, of death and hate –
stock footage of Vietnam and Germany, of police violence, race hate,
KKK cross burning cowards… In fact a lot of this film still seem familiar,
only the fashion has changed, the ‘story’ still rings true with a
relevance that we probably wish we couldn’t see.
Brass shows us the hypocrisy of modern culture – of the sex behind
closed doors , the peeping tom world of private “gentleman’s” clubs
and sex shows, safe domesticity and keeping the status quo while
underneath the pot is boiling, the lid failing to stay on. When our
housewife finally has the chance though to live out her fantasy, she
ultimately chooses safety. We’ve come the full circle even ending in
the same park with the same people as when the film began.
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--VIDEO
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Widescreen 16:9 enhanced and considering this is forty years old and
taken from a 16mm print it is surprisingly good, very few scratches or
glitches, Cult Epics have come through with the goods again.
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--AUDIO
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Sound is important here with the band Freedom providing a
psych/pop classic soundtrack and the noises, voices, sounds, all
adding to the film. At times the voice overs can get lost but still it
held up well.
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--EXTRAS
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Trailers for Tinto’s other Cult Epic releases. Lobby Card Gallery –
nothing to write home about but they are there at least.
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--FINAL THOUGHTS
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Beautifully filmed and constructed, this film has so much going on that
you will have to watch it more than once to catch all the subtle
wordplay, absurdities, flashes of madness. An obvious influence on so
many films and on the whole MTV culture itself, Brass has created a
film that at the time no one knew how to market. They probably still
don’t. And it’s a film that is still relevant. There’s an unpopular war,
sexual repression (gay marriage? Shocking!), 50s conservative values
becoming stronger and stronger, racism on the rise again… as relevant
now as it was then.
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