Italian director Tinto Brass has died aged 93. His wife, Caterina Varzi, and children, Bonifacio and Beatrice Brass, announced his death to Italian news agency ANSA on Wednesday.
Born in Milan and raised in Venice, Brass entered the film industry in Paris, working as an editor and archivist at the Cinémathèque. After returning to Italy, he worked as an editor and assistant director for Roberto Rossellini. His experimental approach later earned him a reputation as a filmmaker, and in 1964 he made two short films exploring visual language for the Triennale di Milano at the request of Umberto Eco.
Brass turned to erotic cinema in the 1970s, exploring the links between sex, power and money. He said he saw eroticism as central to human expression and to portraying women. His films included Salon Kitty, released in 1976, and Caligula, the controversial 1979 production starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O’Toole and John Gielgud.
Brass rewrote Gore Vidal’s screenplay for Caligula to include explicit material. He later disowned the film after producer Bob Guccione added unsimulated sex scenes without his permission. Released in the UK and US in 1980, it credited Brass only for “principal photography”. A new edit appeared in 2023, but Brass was not involved and did not approve it.
Brass lived in Isola Farnese, outside Rome, in recent years. He married Varzi in 2017; she also curated his archive. In an interview for his 90th birthday, he said he wanted his ashes scattered in the Venice lagoon.
Sources: The Guardian Film.