All Ladies Do It

Great cinema is a matter of many elements drawn from a vocabulary, formed into a great weave.

From time to time, it is enough for me to dive into a tone poem on just one element of the vocabulary. Eroticism is inherently cinematic and the other way around as well. But it seems that as much as sex is used, it rarely seems to be simply erotic. By "simple," I mean something that may not exist in the real world, that is noninvasive and nonexploitive. That has the same purity that romance has in the date movie.

...which means it has to be shaped and conveyed with cinematic quality. Some of Brass's later films do this, I think. I like "Paprika" but that's largely because of the surrounding story, I think. Brass found a woman in a pizza shop and built the movie around her. But this may be his best in terms of cinematic values.

Its not for everyone. Female fantasies of this type are connected to bodies and for mysterious reasons we're all over the place on that. But you might look at this simply for overall effect, especially how the camera is not casual, but the woman at the center is. Tat difference is part of the engineering, and notable.

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

All Ladies Do It (1992)

** (out of 4)

Italian erotic film from the director of Caligula tells the story of Diana (Claudia Koll), a woman happily married to her husband (Paolo Lanza) for five years. Even though she loves him more than anything that doesn't take away her sexual desires for other men. The husband can't stand not being the only one but perhaps after time he'll learn that "all ladies do it". This is only my second film from Brass and his visual style is certainly on full display here even though his story telling skills aren't the greatest. I was shocked at how well the screenplay actually was because a lot of softcore efforts place the story second behind the sex but that really wasn't the case here. The message of a woman having the right to be "sexual" without being labeled "sluts" was taken very serious by the film. Brass does a very good job with the look of the film with some great cinematography and some wonderful set designs. The biggest issue I had with his direction is that the entire film comes off as a butt fetish video as Brass is constantly zooming in on women's behinds. I like a good butt as much as the next person but after a while it grows quite tiresome but the scene where the women decide to go skinny dipping is priceless. The performances aren't really anything special but they do the job and in the end God knows there's a lot worse out there than this.

(1992) All Ladies Do It/ Così fan tutte DUBBED EROTIC COMEDY

Edited, co-written and directed by Tinto Brass that has a young wife, Diana (Claudia Koll) flirting with some French guy, Alphonse (Franco Branciaroli) on the dance floor while her husband, Paolo (Paolo Lanza) was sitting nearby watching naked women exhibition. And as soon as she goes into the bathroom, it is during then Alphonse follows her always complimenting her rump. And just when he is about to make a move on her, is when her husband knocks on the door, shouting her name to come out. As soon as Diana acknowledges her husband's presence calling her behind the door, she pretends to finish using the toilet, only to drag Alphonse behind the door, only so her husband would be unable to see him. Paolo tells her he is bored and wants to leave, and while he was driving she then tells him, she was about to make out with a French guy had he not knock onto the door, and she tries to motivate him to reenact that moment. It was at that point, he believes she was only making it up only to get an arouse out of him. And when she does succeed getting that from him, they then make out during an area where prostitutes happened to be hanging out. They would then make out some more at their place of residence as she is feeding him more stories he believes she is making it all up. We then see Diana go to her place of work, as she takes transit with two different guys standing opposite side of her, only so each of them can grope her whenever the bus makes a disruption. When Diana realizes this was happening, she would then make adjustments that ended up one passenger unintentionally groping the other male passenger by moving herself to a different aisle, and this time on front of a priest. By the time she gets off, then viewers get to witness what kind of work she does and it happens to be a clothing store. And of course, her boss also appears to be in on groping his female co-workers. One of them eventually makes out with him, until she receives a telegram about her aunt passing away. By the time she goes to seek what her aunt's will consisted about, she then makes out with a former flame, Marco (Marco Marciani) before she decides to go and see the French guy, Alphonse again. And upon taking her upstairs to his main bedroom, we then find out he is clearly a fan of woman's rump kind of guy, as he has plenty pictures and statuettes plenty of women's behind. After this was done, Diane and her husband make out some more after watching some of her aunt's provocative black and white news reels as she filmed herself on her affairs with other people. And as soon as her husband, Paolo spots a hickey on her, he then did not want anything to do with her accusing her of cheating at the same time. And this is when those nuances end is when she sends over her best friend, Nadia (Ornella Marcucci) to convince him to take her back in a pretentious kind of way. And when she does come over to help her friend, she becomes offended when he does not comply to her advances. If Nadia believes about her having an affair, why not offer a threesome. The movie does not say.

Anyways there is a ton of nudity, some of the scenes are just as ridiculous as the others that kind of suggests the writer/ director Tinto Brass must have receive a ton of letters or read many to come up with so many unlikely nuances. And all of the silliness was amusing up to a specific point when she does not mind cheating on her husband Paolo, but the movie does not address whether she would not mind if her husband was cheating on her with other women. Diana obviously prefers to be married to someone who wants an open marriage when her husband wants to be with only one person, and that person is happens to be his wife.

I've seen most of Tinto's films and this one follows the same mold..... Wife cheating, but the husband should be understanding because she loves him. It's interesting that Tinto never has the husband respond with affairs of his own. If Pollo had told Diana it's fine we'll have an open marriage.... There are some sexy ladies at work who want my body... Would she be understanding? Claudia Koll handled her part well, but Pollo could have been better cast. Tinto's films are a step up from most soft-core.

I believe that this film is the best from all Tinto Brass' movies. It is funny and interesting, and, the most important, Claudia Coll is very good in that role. It is surprising to me that maestro Brass had never done anything better than this film. Most of his movies are boring, and even sex sceens don't help.