THE WORKS OF TINTO BRASS
Tinto Brass’ “Fanny Hill”
(1982)
and
Lord Byron
(1982)
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Cover of the script by
Roberto Lerici and Tinto Brass,
circa February 1981 |
Ad in weekly Variety,
Wednesday, 25 November 1981, p 21 |
Two more scandalous sex epics.
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Variety, 25 November 1981, p. 5:
Brass Set To Helm Erotic
‘Fanny Hill’
Frankly out to capitalize on the
notoriety and commercial windfall of
“Caligula,” producer Harry Alan
Towers and a triumvirate of Italian
counterparts are mounting an “erotic
but not pornographic” feature version
of John Cleland’s 18th-Century novel
“Fanny Hill” to be directed by
“Caligula” lenser Giovanni Tinto
Brass.
With even its tentative budget
vague (“less than $10,000,000 but more
than $5,000,000,” per Towers), firm
elements at this point include only Brass,
Towers and Italian coproducers Federico
Aicardi and Giovanni Bertolucci, latter pair
in association with Fulvio Lucisano.
Though Towers has a script on
hand, he won’t divulge the
scribe’s name “because Tinto and I
are revising it now and someone else may be
brought in. Why embarrass anyone?”
Nonetheless, exec producer
Towers says he expects the film to begin a
12-week shooting schedule in March at the
Cinecittà Studios in Rome (principal
cast will be Anglo-Saxon, he stresses) with
later locationing in Britain and a tentative
September, 1982 release target.
As to casting, Brass arrives in
New York Sunday (29) “to start looking
for girls.” Title role is geared
“for a looker, though she’ll have
to have some acting ability,” Towers
said, adding he hopes to have “a good
windowdressing of class names” in
supporting cameos.
Though the budget’s in the
air, Towers insists that the U.S. and
Canadian half of the 50-50 financing deal
“is already secure through bank credit
lines backed by guarantees,” with the
other half due from the Italian partners.
He also says “offers have
already been made from several major foreign
territories,” though nothing is signed
anywhere. He expects Italian International
will launch the pic in Italy, with company
topper Lucisano likely to gain a coproducer
credit.
Disposition of all
English-speaking territories remains in the hands of
the stateside packagers, with foreign deals
being handled by Helen Sarlui. Whatever
peddling is done ahead of time, Towers said
a promo reel would be assembled for the
Cannes film market in May.
Towers admits “I zeroed in
on this when I saw the ‘Caligula’
grosses and getting Brass makes it that much
easier to sell.” However, he made it
clear that “this will be erotic, not
hardcore, and humorous, rather than
brutal.” Pic will nonetheless be
assembled into hotter and cooler versions,
he said.
Towers was involved most
recently in Ken Russell’s aborted
“Beethoven’s Secret” project,
which fell out of bed earlier this year when
interim financing collapsed.
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Variety, 10 February 1982, p. 46:
Aicardi, Bertolucci, Annibaldi Set To Film
‘Fanny Hill’ With Brass
Rome, Feb. 9
Three Italian producers have
united in a new production company, Fanny
Film, for what one of the associates,
Federico Aicardi, anticipated as “the
biggest European production of 1982.”
With Aicardi in the triumvirate are
(2) Giovanni Bertolucci (who has two
companies on his own — Fiction Film with
filmmaker cousin Bernardo Bertolucci and his
own San Francisco company) and
(3) producer-investor Vittorio
Annibaldi.
Project now in active
preparation for a mid-April start on a
$6,000,000 budget is “Fanny
Hill” — substantially based on the
notorious 18th-century novel by John
Cleland, “Memoirs of Fanny Hill.”
Prominently a part of the production as
writer, director and editor is Giovanni
Tinto Brass, whose recent two
films — “Caligula” and
“Salon Kitty” — were both
dispute-inviting erotic moneymakers.
During the collective interview
with Brass, Aicardi and Bertolucci, emphasis
remained on the adjective
“erotic.” The word
“pornographic” was never
mentioned. Brass, an advocate and pioneer of
sexual liberation from way back, said he
will respect the essence of the original
novel and the spirit of the times and
characters. “Degree of erotica will
depend on the atmosphere of each scene as it
is being filmed,” Brass told
Variety. He sees “Fanny Hill”
as expressing the “joy of sex” in
contrast to the “violence of sex”
in “Caligula.” Brass is now
testing for an actress to play the British
orphan from the age of 16–20. He
comments: “There are only two
established actresses who could play the
role — Brooke Shields and Nastassia
Kinski — but the marked personalities of
both might overshadow the character in the
book and screenplay.”
“Fanny Hill” will be
filmed on exteriors and some natural
interiors in England. Most interiors will be
filmed at Dear Studios in Rome. An attempt
will be made to get the climate and
background quality of “Tom Jones,”
the filmmaker said, and felt this would be
achieved by Mario Garbuglia, one of
Italy’s top art directors. Silvano
Ippoliti, who lensed almost all of the Tinto
Brass’s pics [sic], is in as
cinematographer.
Aicardi, an astute international
market vet, reports that he has been
negotiating various offers for financial
partiicpation and theatrical acquisition of
“Fanny Hill” from the major
markets. “Tobis of Germany will release
in that territory but also wants a piece of
the action: in Italy, we have received many
offers, including the American companies.
One major in the U.S. has asked to read the
script. Reyzabal of Izaro Film in Madrid
wants to distribute and four French
companies have asked to participate in the
production.”
Fanny Film is not a one-project
banner, Aicardi and Bertolucci stated.
Second project already in preparation if
“The Key,” a film adaptation of
the novel by Junichiro Tanizaki, Nobel Prize
winner in 1966. Brass acquired film rights
to the book and has moved the setting from
Japan to Venice of the 1940s, while the
characters are now Middle European.
Book previously was filmed in
1960 by Kon Ichikawa as “Kagi”
(Odd Obsession).
A third project, this one
limited for the time being to Aicardi and
Brass, on the latter’s proposal, is
“Lord Byron.”
While acting as producer for
Fanny Film’s “Fanny Hill,”
Giovanni Bertolucci will keep his own San
Francisco Film active. That banner is now
filming “Vieni Avanti Cretino”
(Step Up, Stupid) with Lino Banfi starring
under Liciano Salce’s
direction — with plans to send
“Happy End” before cameras this
summer, directed by Gianni Amico.
Brass will film “Fanny
Hill” in an original English version.
The Fanny Film trio of associates is eyeing
a worldwide release break of “Fanny
Hill” next Christmas.
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Variety, 2 June 1982:
Famous Films Gets ‘Fanny Hill’ Rights
Cannes, June 1.
Famous Films BV of Amsterdam has
taken over the “Fanny Hill”
project from coproducers Giovanni Bertolucci
and Federico Aicardi. Giovanni Tinto Brass,
a partner in the project since early days of
packaging at Mifed last October, will direct
from his own screenplay adaptation of the
18th-century brothel novel by John
Cleland.
“Fanny Hill,” as
recently as the American Film Market in Los
Angeles, was the most prominent picture in
Helen Sarlui’s distribution lineup. The
Sarlui banner had committed for world sales
with a hefty investment. Complicating
matters are acquisitions from foreign
distribs before, during and after AFM in the
area of $1,500,000.
Another complication is the
sharp disappointment of Vittorio
Annibaldi — a behind-the-scenes financial
investor and also one of the original
partners with Bertolucci and Aicardi.
A preliminary guess would
indicate a possibility of one or more
lawsuits for damages and contract
violations, though the situation on the
Croisette was still too opaque to identify
either the plaintiffs or defendants.
An influence was the fast
packaging of “Moll Flanders” by
Harry Alan Towers. Towers was in on the
origin of “Fanny Hill,” but was
moved to the sidelines by the other
subscribers after the original Mifed
packaging sessions.
“‘Moll
Flanders’,” Towers told
Variety, “will have two
versions — one X-rated, the other
R-rated. It will be a more explicit version
than the one starring Richard Johnson and
Kim Novak.”
“Moll” was whipped
together at Cannes in much the same way
“Fanny” was tied in ribbons at
Mifed — i.e., it will enter production
late this month or as soon as all the
“creative” elements are assigned.
Helen Sarlui is very much a part
of the project, having acquired world sales
for her various distrib companies. The film
will be shot in England and, if all goes
according to plan, will be available for
Christmas release.
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Variety, 9 June 1982, pp. 7, 32:
One period sexploiter that
should have been already filming is
“Fanny Hill” from every
schoolboy’s novel by John Cleland, but
the original packagers, Giovanni Bertolucci
and Federico Aicardi, dawdled in lining up
the big finances required by filmmaker
Giovanni Tinto Brass to get
“Fanny” cracking. At Cannes,
Aicardi and Bertolucci sold their interest
to Famous Films of Amsterdam — once or
still a financial-administrative home base
for Dino De Laurentiis.
In revealing the takeover,
Famous Films mentioned only the names of
Tinto Brass as director and Famous Films
exec Marcello Vignola and changed final
title to “Tinto Brass’ ‘Fanny
Hill’” in much the same way as
filmmaker-title matching for films by
Federico Fellini.
Other principals originally
connected with “Fanny
Hill” — the Helen Sarlui
organization and Harry Alan Towers — are
now off and running to start production as
soon as possible on a remake of the equally
celebrated “Moll Flanders.”
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Variety, 28 July 1982, p. 7:
Filmauro
TINTO BRASS FANNY HILL
(August 2 start in London)
Producer: Luigi & Aurelio De Laurentiis
Director: Giovanni Tinto Brass
Distrib: Famous Films, Amsterdam
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Variety, 28 July 1982, p. 33:
Brass ‘Fanny’ Casts As Towers
Shoots
London, July 24.
Two productions of the classic
erotic novel “Fanny Hill” are in
prospect. Auditions are being held in London
currently to find a lead actress for a
version by “Caligula” director
Tinto Brass while Harry Alan Towers claims
to have first footage in the can.
For the Towers project Fanny
Hill is played by 19-year-old Lisa Raines.
Helming is Gerry O’Hara whose credits
include the Joan Collins starrer “The
Bitch” and several crime series for tv.
Screenplay was written by Towers under his
Peter Welbeck alias.
The Towers project has an
eight-week schedule on locations in Britain and
Europe. Foreign sales are being handled by
Helen Sarlui for Continental Motion
Pictures, a Panama-based company also
associated with raising the finance.
The Brass project, being
produced by Aurelio de Laurentiis, is
due to start shooting in September on U.K.
locations followed by a Rome studio. No
casting details.
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Variety, 2 March 1983:
BRASS MOVES ON ‘KEY’
IN LIEU OF HIS AXED ‘FANNY HILL’
Rome.
Giovanni Tinto Brass had his
problems last year when he had “Fanny
Hill” shot out from under him after
getting close to a London start for Luigi
and Aurelio De Laurentiis. When Brent
Walker took the erotic story into production
first, Brass was left high and dry and his
version was cancelled.
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