Paprika - Ein Leben für die Liebe

Those of us who know who Tinto Brass is, and what he stands for, will appreciate this movie. What I didn't know was, the movie. I never heard of it untill recently (2023)

It was it's usual quirky, naked women , who cares, and couldn't give a damn what you think, which I love about this movie.. Typical of Tinto Brass.

How he got away with what he did, how he got so many women to appear naked in a movie, I'll never know. How the women said yes, is. Amazing.

I've seen many of his movies and the best part is, they were great, and never at any stage, made the actresses appear vulnerable. From what I see, all the actresses were supported and made feel safe, unlike what has and continues to happen., in a country, I cannot understand (America) people wish to still go to.

This movie was of it's era yet, it was done tastefully. Cudos to Tinto, the cast, and everyone envolved in the production.

Some will see it as a sex film, their loss. They will never understand what this movie means.

One of the best he ever made.

The plot is very simple. In late '50s a young lady starts working as a prostitute in a brothel in order to help his boyfriend. She thinks that is the easiest way to make money. I do agree. Mr. Tinto Brass centered the view in Debora Caprioglio, who plays the roll of Paprika. Hell, she is very hot, sensual... but as nothing is perfect in her life she will go from one place to another and this is a kind of repetitive. She is filmed from every angle you can imagine. You can imagine that with the view centered on Caprioglio the other ladies are not seen in plenitude. Doesn't matter Caprioglio is the hottest woman in the movie and is a well chosen actress for the leading actress. Her performance is very good. Finally I would like to say that this movie is far from pornography. Brass actual is close to porno. But this one has a simple plot, is funny, long but could be seen. 6/10 Andrés.

Loosely based on John Cleland's 1748 classic novel Fanny Hill this Italian adaptation celebrates lead actress Debora Caprioglio at her peak. Set in the 50s, Debora.plays Mimma a lovestruck girl who takes up escorting to support her backstabbing fiance. Over time she learns the truth and begins her journey as a courtesan and companion.

Most people watch Paprika for the softcore erotica or Tinto Brass's signature visual flair, but there's more going on under the surface. If you listen closely, Mimma says she's from Pola/Pula, in Istria (Yugoslavia, now Croatia). That's not a throwaway detail. By the 1950s, that area was no longer part of Italy, and most Italians had already left. So Mimma might not even be ethnically Italian.

Then she's given the nickname "Paprika." Not an Italian word. It's Slavic-coded, tied to a Central European / Hungarian dish. Together, these details frame her as not just a naïve girl from the countryside, but as someone even more foreign. Rural, backward, sexually uninhibited. It plays into racialized and exoticized stereotypes that are easy to miss unless you know the region's history.

Mimma's transformation into Paprika isn't just about becoming a sex worker. It's about becoming the other. Visually and narratively. Whether Tinto Brass meant this as a critique or simply leaned into the trope is unclear. But the trope is there, and it's worth thinking about.

That said, what's powerful about Paprika is that it doesn't just show off the morals of the 1950s. Watching it more than 30 years after it was made, you also see the 1990s all over it. The film critiques postwar sexual repression, but it does it through a 90s lens that often romanticized and objectified women from "the East." You can read it as a double mirror. One looking at how women's sexuality was policed, the other reflecting how "foreignness" was framed as either a threat or a fetish.

My review was written in May 1991 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screenng.

Tinto Brass' "Paprika" is a failed attempt at Italian sex comedy. The maestro's patented "Caligula" brand of gross-out is here in abundance, but where are the laughs?

Fim introduces yet another zaftig Italian actress, Debra Caprioglio. As he did five years ago with Serena Grandi in the erotic hit "Miranda", Brass the talent scout has given Capriolglio an awesome undraped showcase that should win her repeat appearances in similar roles.

Caprioglio plays Mimma, an 18-year-old beauty from Pola who goes to work for 15 days in a brothel to earn money for her boyfriend. He turns out to be two-timing her, so she stays on in Madame Colette's establishment with a new name, Paprika.

Episodic feature set in the 1950s, way too long at nearly two hours, presents in amoral fashon the cheerful lass' misadventures as she's initiated into a world of libertines, much like the heroine of a Victorian porn novel. She takes up with a violent pimp, moves to brothels in Rome and Milan, and occasionally gets gigs at private parties.

Vulgar and sexist, "Paprika" hits its low pint when hammy guest star John Steiner (as an aristocrat) invites the heroine and another prostitute to his mansion for some water sports. Brass had a similar scene in "Miranda", but here he outdoes that one for tastelessness.

Ulitmately, Paprika marries a rich count, making for a happy ending that rings false. Brass' attempt to add social significance, pinning the story's climax to a law banning brothels in Italy, is lame.

Capriglio's infectons smile an laugh bely the indigniteis she's put through here. While not hardcore pornongrapy, Brass' highly explicit closeups and the Steiner episode make "Paprika" strictly NC-17 material.

Longtime Brass collaborator Silvano Ippoliti has attractively lit colorful art deco sets, but Brass' editing is atrocious. Riz Ortolani's period score is jaunty no matter how violent the action gets, and Brass has the gall to include classic songs by Edditgh P:iaf and Leo Ferre during sex scenes.