Claudia Koll Exposes Herself to Tinto Brass’ Design for Living
DIRECTED BY TINTO BRASS/ITALIAN/1992
4K UHD STREET DATE: APRIL 2, 2024/CULT EPICS
An overriding takeaway from Tinto Brass’ 1992 softcore fantasia All Ladies Do It (Così fan tutte) is that marital relationships should be more like the movies. Specifically, Tinto Brass movies. This being a Tinto Brass movie means that it gets to live up to its point throughout. That is, freewheelingly, open, vibrantly, playfully dirty… this is just a taste of the desired ideal romantic relationship within All Ladies Do It. More aptly, it is the relationship of the film itself with its audience.
Per the famed poster (and now cover) art for this film- and so much more firmly undisputed evidence- one simply can’t have Tinto Brass without “ass”. I’m sure I’m probably the millionth individual to make that quip, but I’m roundly certain that, as stated, it’s a new observation to this outlet. The filmmaker’s reputation as obsessed with the female posterior is not blown out of proportion. All Ladies Do It is made of bare butt shots, smacking of the proudest overt fetishism.
Film historian Troy Howarth considers All Ladies Do It Brass’ eighteenth feature film in a particularly vivacious career. He correctly spots certain specific thematic, stylistic, and frankly, personally indulgent parallels between Brass and fellow famed countryman director, Federico Fellini. Brass, thanks to his earlier depictions of seriously considered aspects of Italian culture, is “The Master of Scandal”. This stems largely from his confrontational work prior to and including 1976’s notorious Ken Adam-designed Nazisploitation Salon Kitty. Even that was something of creative turning point.
Then there was the even more notorious Caligula in 1979- its own well-documented frustrating quagmire…. In the decades following, happily riding the waves of his own well-established stature of previous decades, he opted to deviate into full-on eroticism with a thoroughly lighter touch. By the time All Ladies Do It rolls around, the onetime incendiary maestro seems fully content transitioning into being the big boss of buoyant, bountiful booty. And boy, is he.
Now is as good a time as any to say that the skin comedy All Ladies Do It is very loosely based on the humorous Mozart/da Ponte opera Così fan tutte (an “opera buffa”). The phrase literally means “So do they all”, with a feminine pronoun (tutte) supplying the titular implication that no woman is ever faithful to her husband. It’s then a hop, skip, and a jump into English for it to read, “Women are like that.” True to the premise, Brass’ randy protagonist, the spirited and carefree Diana (the camera-adoring Claudia Koll) begins the film lusting after her own broadly envisioned design for living. Before long, what her dim-witted husband (Paolo Lanza) assumes to be merely her wildly imagined provocative yarns are revealed to be her true way of life.
Vivid primary colors abound in All Ladies Do It, both in, on, and around the actors at all times. It’s an ultra-sleek world evoking both ancient cultural excess and sterile modernity, free of things like dust, clutter, and needy children. Those trapping of us common folk simply do not exist here. Like the free-loving ethos that so casually dominate Diana and the film’s numerous bacchanal extras, it is a carefree world to match. All the while, her very deliberate personal wardrobe philosophy is “less is more.”
Claudia Koll, not at all associated with cinema of this ilk before or since, utterly carries the film, free of self-consciousness or embarrassment. Per her character’s misadventures, her assets are out more often than they’re in, with all the easy confidence of a woman who knows she’s radiant and loves to be wanted. For ninety-three minutes, it’s the same rarified exhibitionistic energy that drives today’s starlets to wear crazily outlandish body-baring outfits to their red-carpet premieres. Fully embodying Brass’ out-in-the-open leerings (he even turns up briefly in the film as a Tex Avery-rendered hornytoad), Koll is laughingly all in as the unobscured object of his camera’s desire. (Cut to years later, we’re told that Koll, having concentrated on theater and television, has found religion, and strictly refuses to discuss this movie).
In this day and age, it’s prudent to query, as far as such high-end cinematic titillation goes, how inclusive is this film? One need to look no further than the write-up on the packaging of the new lovingly restored Cult Epics 4K UHD/Blu-ray limited edition for a prominent statement claiming All Ladies Do It (and its sister release, Brass’ Frivolous Lola) to be ideal couples erotica. Suffice to say, your milage will greatly vary. (My wife took one dismissive look at the cover and said, “Have fun!”).
On one hand, one can imagine that at the height of #MeToo, had anyone decided to pipe up about Brass’ grab-assy milieu, the filmmaker would’ve been canceled in about four seconds. Yet Helen Mirren and many other Brass actresses love to gush about the man. Perhaps he’s gotten away with everything in part to his semi-empowering (although fully male gazey) concentrations on his leading ladies (all of whom are number one with a bullet on the call sheet). Co-commentator (paired nicely with Troy Howarth) Eugenio Ercolani discusses how Brass’ women always have a power over men, who, by pronounced contrast, are merely ever weak, one-dimensional “human dildos”. (A metaphor prompted by the film’s reoccurring use of obviously manufactured members).
While Brass’ contemporary characters within All Ladies Do It don’t veer into hardcore sexual activity, they keep erotically busy throughout the film. We are, however, exposed to quick explicit activity on a small TV monitor as the central married couple watch porn of the past. (It gets murkier, however, as Ercolani points out that the in-world porn film footage was also shot by Brass). Later, Diana attends a dark and freaky stylized outdoor dance party that effortlessly slides into being a spread-out orgy. There are several surprisingly explicit shots in this sequence that were only included in a ten-minute “deleted scenes” reel on a previous DVD of All Ladies Do It (the reel is also included here on the Blu-ray disc’s bonus features) but are now seamlessly integrated into the film proper.
In bringing All Ladies Do It to high-definition home video, Cult Epics has wagered its own equivalent of the 100 sequins on the line in the Mozart source material. The 4K disc is a visual and sonic marvel, replete with a 2160p transfer from the original negative, and restored with color-popping HDR. Both of the film’s English and Italian dialogue tracks are available via DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo. Both sound excellent, showcasing Pino Donaggio’s wonderful score. For initial viewing, I recommend the Italian track with English subtitles.
Tucked inside the case is a twenty-page illustrated booklet with liner notes by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti. (Those who snap up the 4K Ultra HD’s first pressing get four exclusive repro Italian Lobby Card prints). This booklet of original writing is fully devoted to the career of the film’s star, Claudia Koll. Every facet of her work is lovingly covered with no trace of judgment regarding her decision to leave her Brass-fueled sex goddess persona behind in favor of a life in service to God. While it is a bummer that, unlike Bettie Page, Koll cites her born-again conversion as a hardline disownment of her sexy past, to each their own. Let’s hope that she is genuinely happy doing whatever she’s doing today.
With fleeting moments of proctological explicitness among the otherwise softcore whole of it all, this uncompromised director’s cut may not be to everyone’s sensibilities. With his fantastic settings and beyond-freeing costumes, Brass makes it quite clear that Diana’s fantasy existence, as realized, is just that- fantasy. One needn’t long for such an eye-opening and chafe-happy lifestyle in order to have one’s skirt blown up by All Ladies Do It. Goodness knows that that happens plenty in the film.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
4K SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New 4K (2160p) Transfer (from the original negative) and Restoration with HDR
- New DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo English and Italian
- New Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth
- Theatrical Trailers
BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New 4K Transfer (from the original negative) and Restoration, presented in 1080p HD
- New DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo English and Italian
- New Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth
- Theatrical Trailers
- Interview with director Tinto Brass (2001)
- Outtakes All Ladies Do It
- Photo Gallery
- Double-sided sleeve with original uncensored Italian poster art
- 20-Page illustrated booklet with liner notes by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti
- Slipcase
- ***4K Ultra HD First pressing Exclusive: 4 Repro Italian Lobby Card prints