THE WORKS OF TINTO BRASS
Boudoir
(1981)
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:
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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....
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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!
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