IsTintoBrass - Lilith Likes to Watch Documentary December 2025

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Title: IsTintoBrass
Year: 2013

Starring: Tinto Brass, Helen Mirren

Director: Massimiliano Zanin

Synopsis: One of the most controversial, original and loved figures of Italian cinema. The most censored director of all time. An anarchist of the film, a gifted experimenter, an inventor of dreams. A truly great artist. - Via Letterboxd.com

Lilith's Notes: Imagine a world where Tinto Brass directed A Clockwork Orange

Watch Now: PinkLabel.tv

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"Every artist must feel free to express his ideas, in a new and different way, according to his own sensitivity."

Welcome once again to one of, if not the most wonderful time of the year here at Lilith Likes to Watch. It’s December, and you know what that means. Kage and I are here to shelter you from the cold, from the jingles, from the crowds and commercials. Leave the holidays at the door and spend a few minutes with us for Documentary December.

This year, we begin by examining a notorious pioneer in the name of film. The one, the only Tinto Brass.

Tinto Brass is an Italian auteur who honed his creative lens through cinemas and brothels, which is a tried and true combination. He tells us, with great amusement, that in his youth he would spend his days going to a theatre to watch a movie, then to a brothel to spend his time and get some jollies, then back to another theatre for another movie, before ending the night at a different brothel. Oh, to be young and carefree.

Mr. Brass was fortunate enough to attend a prestigious film school in France, where he learned the art and history of cinema and further developed his curious and provocative eye. We learn all this through talking heads in very dry interviews. Opinions, stories and insights are shared by co-stars and critics alike. The entire production is a celebration of a film maker as if he was Kubrick, which he very nearly was. Early on, Brass was influential in a Kubrickian way, to the point where he was initially tapped to direct A Clockwork Orange, but instead, he followed his heart and proclivities, and found his voice through porn.

Some might find some of these interviews to be pretentious, what with critiques and analysts pontificating about how, to Brass, Life and Death are always present in his films, are always the point and, sure, that’s one possible interpretation, I suppose.

The thing is, even Tinto Brass himself doesn’t think about it too deeply. He straight up states that he believes the soul is stored in the beauty of the ass. So it sounds awkward with all these people painting him as someone with high-art sensibilities, without knowing his background, and being able to divorce his filmography from the truly bad porno that floats around in the world.

And after saying all that, I think it’s possible the directors made the wrong documentary by mistake.

You see, eventually the film wanders into the fiasco that was Caligula, the world’s most expensive porno at the time. The entire experience was a war between screenwriter Gore Vidal, Brass, and Bob Guiccioni, who was playing producer and also owned Penthouse Magazine. There were re-edits, entirely different scenes added or removed, lawsuits, war of words and it would have been a fascinating road to travel down, but comes and goes, and no one dwells on it for too long.

After watching Is Tinto Brass, I’m unsure how I feel. He’s obviously contributed massively to modern and historical erotic cinema, but it’s equally obvious that he is a product of a different time, and place, one that by today’s standards feels very Couch Casting. More Weinstein than Sarno.

There is one thing I do know for certain, however, and that is I wished I liked anything as much as Tinto Brass likes flicks and ass.

Highlight: Learning that Tinto Brass was so close to directing A Clockwork Orange was legitimately mindblowing. Imagine that timeline.

Lowlight: The documentary just sort of stops abruptly. No closing thoughts, just, we're done now I guess.

LILITH'S SCORE: 3.5/5

Until next time, my voracious voyeurs. I’m Lilith, and I’m always watching.