Les Nuits chaudes de Berlin

Outrageous, unsettling, exploitative and courageous, it is also slightly overlong. The current running time at well over two hours is due to the more contentious material being put back in but maybe some other scenes might have been cut to compensate. I love the film, the scenes of debauchery and nudity, male and female, the decadent singing and dancing and the glorious sets by Ken Adam but it is a slight story and as the end draws near it begins to stumble and repeat itself. Always preferable to the much lauded Cabaret there is a real sense of foreboding, of a major calamity and despite the roars and champagne popping at news of the invasion of Poland and later the fall of Paris, we can't help waiting for the biggest crash when the nasty, ugly men in the wonderful costumes get their comeuppance.

Of all the sordid, exploitative Nazi-era cash-ins that came out of the 1970s, "Salon Kitty" is one of the most regularly-mentioned titles. Director Tinto Brass (who, like Joe D'Amato, is more renowned for his porno epics) spends a great deal of time--arguably 3/4 of the film--garnishing the screen with images of decadent excess, including bizarre sex acts, deformed dwarfs, and copious nudity. Unfortunately, that's really all this shallow, 2-hours-plus venture has to offer. The story line--consisting of a young Nazi commandant (the underused Helmut Berger)'s attempt to seize power by eavesdropping on the SS patrons of the titular character's high-class brothel--would take up all of 30 minutes' screen time (and even that is a stretch) had the exploitation elements been removed. What we're left with, then, is a slickly-made trash pic with high production values, a good cast, and an insufferably drawn-out story (I challenge anyone to still give a damn by the time the film reaches its 'revelatory' crescendo); Brass's attempts at prurient titillation, an underdeveloped (and ultimately pointless) romantic subplot, and the fearless courage of icily unlikable prostitute Margherita (Teresa Ann Savoy) fall completely flat, much to the film's detriment. While not as luridly exploitative as the "Ilsa" trilogy, nor as lethargically dull as Luchino Visconti's "The Damned," "Salon Kitty" never really manages the suspense, pathos, and passion that marked Liliana Cavani's superior 1974 post-Holocaust romance, "The Night Porter." It's a film that should have been much more than just a ponderously average pile of celluloid.

Sometimes when a film relaxes and you relax into it, you can really feel that you are touching the filmmaker. That he is slightly drunk and comfortable and you are experiencing him (or her).

That's one place you want to be in your life in films, and it is the basis for many of the film experiences I rate as "must have."

But it has all sorts of dangers. The filmmaker must be more than skilled enough to connect, he must be actually interesting, worthwhile, engaged in life in ways that impregnate. There are few films that are well enough sculpted to be entered. And of those, there are few that reward your investing wet parts of your soul to it. You know who the good ones are.

Even then, often you'll get what you have here, equal parts of fine wine and flat cola. I suppose it is impossible to be otherwise with Nazi-centered soft porn, but Jess Franco (when not drunk) can do pretty well.

The good here is that once in a while, you'll encounter some staging with some stark, clear composition and elements that are every bit in the class with Lang or Greenaway. These have ordinary camera positions: non-human in character but human in position. Its the creation of a staged imagination, of dramatic nuance not placed in the actor but in the cinematic frame. (The actors aren't bad, by the way; its just that the weight of the thing isn't on their shoulders — or other body parts.)

Some day, commentors like me will be able to provide bookmarks to these scenes so you can experience them without wading through the rotted soup in between. Oh, and that is a ghastly experience, a walk in the dark through greasy fog from one brilliant view through a window to the next.

Hey, there's a story, but never mind. Its as irrelevant, stupid and disposable as its sisters, like "Schindler's List," which this resembles in a few ways. And there's some nudity, though in most cases one wonders why. The chief actress is pretty and very German, different from Brasses usual big-bottomed Italian tigresses.

I'd really like you to see some of the good stuff here. But like much of Bertolucci, you would curse me for sending you there.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

"Salon Kitty" is a cinematic journey into the seedy goings-on at Madame Kitty's Berlin brothel, where the prostitutes are SS-trained, patriotic beauties. While this premise may sound intriguing, the actual delivery is drawn-out and, it must be said, a tad boring. 20 minutes cut have been cut out of this movie and it would have been more effective as a result.

Scenes of debauchery are limited but interesting. The scene where the SS girls are viewed with a variety of sexual partners as a test to see how they react is deliciously dark and unsettling. I'm not easily shocked but this particular sequence really pushes barriers of taste and censorship (and should be applauded as a result).

The film is atmospheric and the sets (by Ken Adam, famous for his Bond creations) are excellent. However, there are too many musical interludes for my taste. It's like "Cabaret" on acid.

A hesitant recommendation, "Salon Kitty" won't be to everybody's tastes. It's a flawed film but it has its moments. Not a film to avoid controversy, animal lovers will be appalled that scenes of real pig-killing are contained. This put me off my hot dog, as did the many scenes of male genitalia. Tinto Brass seems to be obsessed with all things dangly. Trust me, by the end of the film, you'll be wishing that the cast put some clothes on. (An exception to this may be the delightful Teresa Ann Savoy, but I digress.) 6 out of 10 - could have been leaner and meaner.

"Salon Kitty" is an exploitation and a serious study of Nazi atrocities...

Kitty Kellermann runs a brothel that provides entertainment to the German elite… Unknown to her, it has been annoyed by a top SS officer to gain incriminating evidence against some of Germany's top general… One of the girls, Margherita, falls in love with a German officer who wants to defect to the Allies… The plot is discovered, and Margherita is used as an informer, but when she tells Madam Kitty about the goings-on in her house, she is outraged and plots revenge…

The film indulges in many of the perversions and sexual humiliations the Germans inflicted on the whores of Salon Kitty...

Tinto Brass directs the film with a heavy hand, focusing continually during the ending sequence to create a hypnotic effect… He doesn't shy away from the atrocities, and often takes intense pleasure in them... The characterizations are very firm and realistic, but the movie's harsh portrayal of much of the sexual activity has kept it out of the mainstream