|
When Caligula became a surprise hit at the few cinemas that could show it, Brass’s four-year dry spell ended, as producers were clamoring for his attention. Giovanni Bertolucci hired him to direct the Marquis de Sade’s scandalous sex epic, La philosophie dans la boudoir.
You can try to trace the story from these terse references:
|
Variety (5 October 1977): Franco Brocani will direct “Boudoir”—from the Marquis De Sade book—for Italo banner Sword Film in coproduction with Spain next month. Case includes Pierre Clementi, Tomas Milian and Rada Rassimov. |
Variety (19 October 1977), p 43: Sword PHILOSOPHY OF THE BOUDOIR (Nov. start) Producer: W/Alta Mira of Spain Director: Franco Brocani Cast: Pierre Clementi, Fernando Rey, Rada Rassimov Distrib: Vis |
Variety, 25 January 1978, p 42: Sword PHILOSOPHY IN THE BOUDOIR (Feb. start) Producer: w/Alta Mira of Spain Director: Franco Brocani Cast: Pierre Clementi, Stanko Molnar, and w/Fernando Rey |
Variety, 22 March 1978, p 40: ...Solaris, a new company headed by Lello Monteverdi and Adriano Arie for film, legit and TV production, has taken over “Philosophy of the Boudoir” to adapt the Marquis de Sade neurotic erotic tome to cinema, with Fernando Rey, Tomas Milian and Viva under the direction of Franco Brocano. Victim of de Sade’s sado fantasies will be Paola Morra, a Playboy Italian cover girl last year. |
|
Variety, 25 March 1981: Giovanni Tinto Brass, unemployed since he directed “Caligula,” is reactivating with his Napoleonic-era adaptation of the Marquis De Sade’s “Boudoir.” |
|
Variety, 6 May 1981: G.B. Milesi set up a new company, Babylon I, to produce the next Giovanni Tinto Brass picture “Boudoir” from the erotica classic by the Marquis de Sade. Milesi has closed three production deals for some of the major markets and has appointments set up at the Cannes Festival for the remainder. Brass directed “Caligula” until he took his name off the credits in a deal with Penthouse giving Bob Guccione free rein to bring in the version in release. |
|
Variety, 13 May 1981: BABYLON I Producer G.B. Milesi has completed marketing of all his past production—film and tv—and is now back in the harness to produce the next Giovanni Tinto Brass film “Boudoir”—in an adaptation from the erotic novel by D.A.F. Marquis de Sade. “Boudoir” script is finished and preparation is in full swing. Milesi has apparently made some far-reaching pre-production sales while Brass—who directed “Caligula” but lost his credit in a deal with Bob Guccione—said “Boudoir” should be more erotic than the Penthouse production. |
|
Variety, 2 September 1981, p 34: Sets are going up at Dear Studios where Tinto Brass will begin his big-budgeted adaptation of Marquis de Sade’s “Boudoir” Oct. 19 for producer G.B. Milesi of Babylon Film. |
|
Variety, 28 October 1981, p 34: Babylon One BOUDOIR (Oct. 15 start at Dear Studios) Producer: G.B. Milesi Director: Tinto Brass Cast: International cast |
|
Variety, 30 June 1982, p 34: G.B. Milesi has temporarily scratched the Tinto Brass version of “Boudoir” from his program and is teaming with producer Pino Buricchi on a new untitled project.... |
Amazingly, a sex mag entitled Aldo Blitz (vol 51 no 7, 16 February 1985), has a two-page pictorial (pp 8–9) entitled “Toh, son calate le mutande!” with a subtitle: “TINTO BRASS scatena l’«offensiva a luce rossa» anche in teatro.” It contains five color publicity photos from a stage production of this same work, here entitled Boudoir del Marchese De Sade. The players were Antonio Salines as the Divine Marquis, Patrick Rossi Gastaldi, Svetlana Starkova, Elena Ursitti, and “Igmar Veithen,” which I’d be willing to bet is a typo for Irma Veithen. The photos, which I dare not reproduce here, are remarkably surreal, similar to the publicity photos for Pranzo di famiglia, which I also dare not reproduce on this site. The script was by Tinto Brass and his playwright friend Roberto Lerici, and the production was performed at the Teatro Belli di Roma. If you have any more info on this, please write to me. Thanks!