The Key: Der Schlüssel

As usual with Brass, this is a very classy sex film, with Hollywood-class production values. (This, I might add, is a rare exception, not the rule, among other sex-film makers. Radley Metzger is the only other director I can think of offhand whose sex films invariably have great production values.). Stefania Sandrelli is an absolutely stunning woman, with a gorgeously filled-out body, unlike the skinny-jinnies that many other directors are fond of. The film is set in Venice in 1940 and the locales are beautiful, while at the same time focusing on a "native's Venice," rather than the few over-photographed canals and churches one generally sees.

But the people who did the U.S. version DVD are incompetents, unfortunately. This is only the second DVD that I have watched where the brightness/contrast were so badly mangled in making the transfer that the film is unwatchable until one moves his controls way off their ISF-calibrated positions. To be precise, it is the second-worst. The worst has been the total butchering of Antonioni's "La Notte", where even moving the controls to their limit cannot produce a decent picture.

A main female character sums up this pile of narrative nonsense at the conclusion of the film saying something like, "I was faithful by being unfaithful." Meaning she was compliant in her husband's wishes for her to link up with their son-in-law so her horny husband could become sexually excited by watching her, thus sparking their marriage alive again. Set against Mussolini's rise to power in 1940s Italy, I suppose auteur Tinto Brass is trying to make some haughty comment on how the Italian populace of the time, repressed by Catholic guilt, succumbed to Il Duce's desire for them to fall faithfully in line with Italian pride and become unfaithful from the moral direction of the Church. Who knows really, because Brass is more concerned with Stefania Sandrelli's derriere than he is about political/spiritual ambivalence.

Alas, Mr. Brass' focus on lead actress Sandrelli's bottom is the only theme you're bound to come away with after viewing an hour and 50 minutes of this soft-core cornfest. British thesp Frank Finlay takes a leap at a starring role by heading south to Italy and being forced to look every bit the dirty old man under the meticulous kink direction by Brass. As the premature, if you will, hubby in this standard menage a trois, he can only last a matter of seconds in the sack with his much younger wife, played by the suitably stunning Sandrelli. It is only when he becomes jealous over his wife's attentions to his son-in-law, played with robot-amateur woodenness by Franco Branciaroli, that Finlay becomes excited enough to maintain another kind of woodenness. By drugging his wife into a fitful slumber and picture-posing her in various open positions for photo-ops, Frank cements our disgusted feeling that we are somehow watching the actual sad home life of the Italian Pinto, Tinto.

While nowhere near as decadent as "Caligula," "La Chiave" has that movie's ability to make you want to take a cleansing shower afterwards to wash its depressing, sleazy drivel off your conscience. Once we learn the designs of Finlay's ho-hum plan, in the first 20 minutes, all we're left with is countless meandering soft-focus shots of Sandrelli and Branciaroli strolling around Venice, fornicating in their hideaway lair, and Finlay foppishly sniffing after her like a pheremone-obsessed hounddog.

The fast-forward button won't help you on this one. You'll be woefully buzzing through a flick that has no worthwhile stopping point. My rating: 0 out of ****.

Just from the opening scene it's evident that Tinto Brass is in a class of his own as a filmmaker. A beautifully shot period piece in which an ageing husband gets aroused by his wife falling for her daughter's boyfriend (kind of a ménage a quatre), simply because it arouses him to see his wife aroused. I'm not into cuckolding, but it's actually a sweet, romantic film in a way, just with a lot of visual fawning over women's exposed buttocks. Tinto Brass is like that. I've heard about him but not really seen much so far. I'm glad this is beginning to change.

This DVD had been calling out to me from the cult section of my local video store for about two months before I rented it. The cover art of Stefania projects an allure that is only the begining of a very profound experience. Brass manages to create a film that doesn't make some epic statement of love, society and relationships. Instead he presents a rather odd and erotic situation that makes you think and feel (in various ways) the gravity of the characters situations. The film is also not afraid to come accross as a little silly at times.

Don't be mistaken, this is first and foremost and erotic movie, but it manages something masterful in that genre. Tinto Brass has constructed a very nice platform for sensual expression in this film. I wouldn't advise seeing it with your local bible study group, but it isn't frat boy tissue party material either. If you are open to nudity and sensuality this could be just the movie to share with your partner on a night alone together. The sets and the actors are well done, but you still get to see plenty of sex. Tinto's Key is the perfect movie to potentially unlock those who are "one the fence" when it comes to erotic cinema.

La Chiave (1983) is Brass' only masterpiece,Mrs. Sandrelli's most interesting role,and a peak of the European "trash films" of the '80s.I have seen this flick 4 times,and I found it excellent.Here,Brass is how he knows to be:shameless, shocking,clandestine, lascivious, tasty, scandalous, voluptuary,lustful,Nothingarian,misogynist at the basest level,lubricious;yes,indeed,quite a lot of things to enjoy.Brass is extremely skilled in exploiting his actresses' physical endowments.

"La Chiave" is an anecdote of bourgeois sexuality during WW2,and a study in Animality;in fact,Brass' coldness and detachment shows no trace of sympathy for his characters,hence the movie's naturalism.("Miranda" brings on screen a rustic debauchery during the same WW2,while "L'Uomo ..." is again a bourgeois adventure,but set in nowadays).WW2 is only an epic convention,because it gives a certain sense of exciting and violent trepidation and brutality and decrepitude,an epic device of the nihilist aestheticism (Pasolini,Bertolucci,Brass).Brass used WW2 as a narrative background in his Teresa Ann Savoy show,Salon Kitty (1976);in his Stefania Sandrelli show,La Chiave (1983) ;in his Serena Grandi show,Miranda (1985);in his Anna Galiena show,Senso '45 (2002).Under the pretext of unmasking this Fascist epoch,it is obvious that these directors pretty much indulged in the world they described.(The same device,of a shattering and totalitarian epoch,was exploited the same way in some Romanian films of the '90s,using the Bolshevick era of the '50s as a background for sexual frolics).

Stefania Sandrelli was 37 years in this movie,and lucent,slick,slightly adipose,of a very concrete and lusty beauty,luscious,soft-spoken,lurid,but also somehow lubberly.The passionless display of flesh expresses Brass' proclivity for an almost clinical and documentary examination of the nakedness.With this movie,Mrs. Sandrelli became one of the "Brass women".No director was ashamed to undress Mrs. Sandrelli (Bernardo Bertolucci in Il Conformista,1970; Bigas Luna in Jamón, Jamón,1992;Lina Wertmüller in Ninfa Plebea,1996).She posed nude even as an adolescent,I know a piquant picture with the naked teen-ager Sandrelli.

Barbara Cupisti is a suave and distinguished beauty.

There is a particular density of the naked flesh,and of the settings also.Brass displays much gusto;his style's plastic quality is extraordinary ."La Chiave" is written by Brass more like a chapter of ethology,and of sexual behaviors.

There are also other exciting Brass movies.Miranda (1985) (with Serena Grandi) is almost as good as La Chiave (1983),though in a different register,and L'Uomo Che Guarda (1994) (with Katarina Vasilissa,Cristina Garavaglia )is also a fine,thrilling show."Miranda" is a little more cheerful then "La Chiave",and more picturesque as narration,its sexual content is also more erratic (though to see Mrs. Sandrelli asleep being taken advantage of,is no cheap fun either).All these 3 movies are frank and straight.Brass' choice of the actresses is always exquisite.I have seen a photo representing Mrs. Sandrelli while her breast is fondled,or rather felt by Brass;the actress laughs wildly and she seems to be much older than in "La Chiave"; this gallant scene looks like taking place in a very public space.

While "La Chiave",Miranda (1985),L' Uomo Che Guarda (1994) show derisively woman's depravity,and warm it up, with malice and irony,Senso '45 (2002) marks a decline;it tries to depict woman's love,and fails.Brass' shamelessness lost all its charm and became the sheer Prosaism of Senso '45 (2002) (a banal and conventional,tasteless adultery,moreover inverting Brass' opinion about women;this man was libidinous,base, trenchant and lascivious,and turned sentimental and emotional).The only good thing about "Senso" is Mrs. Erika Savastani 's supporting role as "Emilietta" .

"La Chiave" is one in a series of medallions of beautiful women,astounding studies of women,on a par with Miranda (1985),Andrea Barzini's Desiderando Giulia (1985),Andrea Bianchi's Dolce Pelle Di Angela (1987),Spiando Marina (1992),L'Uomo Che Guarda (1994),Malèna (2000) ,etc..In the unconventional erotica,Brass' equals are the far less famous Andrea Barzini (the author of the best Serena Grandi show,made when she was 27 years),Andrea Bianchi,the author of the underrated Dolce Pelle Di Angela (1987).These masterpieces,signed by Bianchi and Barzini,and other wonderful Deborah Caprioglio and Serena Grandi shows could be seen in Romanian movie theaters 13 years ago.

Many are too preoccupied with the film's sexual content,to may be able to notice the exceptional visual beauty.

If you have reasons to like Mrs. Sandrelli others than this movie,then "La Chiave" will be a treat.