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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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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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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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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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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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