Private (2003) – AKA Fallo!
Six lusty tales of wives, lovers, cheats and voyeurs, served with Tinto Brass’s cheerful belief that desire is healthier when nobody pretends it isn’t there.
Private is an erotic anthology rather than one continuous story, with six couples discovering that jealousy, marriage and sexual curiosity make strange but willing bedfellows. In “Alibi,” Cinzia celebrates her anniversary with Gianni in Casablanca, where her husband arranges a very intimate present involving Ali, a handsome hotel waiter; her hesitation soon gives way to a playful ménage à trois in which Gianni is participant as much as spectator. “Alternate Montage” follows Stefania, the elegant wife of a television anchorman, who learns that he is sleeping with ambitious showgirl Erika and answers his betrayal by seducing Erika’s husband, Bruno, a television director with ambitions of his own. The game becomes a sexual duel conducted through beds, dressing rooms and private revenge. In “Two Hearts and a Hut,” Tyrolean maid...
Katarina and her Neapolitan chef boyfriend Ciro need money to open a restaurant, so she accepts a profitable invitation from Bertha, a German dominatrix travelling with her obedient, collared husband. “Barrel of Joy” turns adultery into marital foreplay: Raffaella tells possessive Ugo that her lovers are merely fantasies, until truth and imagination become tangled and he discovers that jealousy can excite him more than fidelity. At libertine Cap d’Agde, Anna escapes her smug boyfriend and surrenders to the permissive atmosphere surrounding Helen and her Scottish husband Noel. Finally, Venetian newlywed Rosy accepts a London dare involving sex in public, unaware—or perhaps perfectly aware—that a determined English voyeur is enjoying the show. None of these episodes is deep, but together they form a cheeky parade of cuckolds, unfaithful wives, threesomes, domination and exhibitionism.
Tinto Brass treats sex as comedy, spectacle and a weapon against respectable hypocrisy. His restless camera prowls around beds, mirrors and open legs, favouring bright colours, elaborate framing and his famous devotion to the female backside. Burlesque jazz, comic sound effects and even absurd yodelling keep the mood light. The stories and performances are thin, but the visual confidence is unmistakably his.
Made at the start of the 2000s, the film belongs to that last pre-streaming moment when European erotic cinema could still reach ordinary theatres without disguising itself as a solemn art-house statement. Production used locations credited across Casablanca, Rome, South Tyrol, Rimini, Málaga, Cap d’Agde and London, though many interiors have the knowingly artificial flavour of redressed sets. The vibe is less romantic than Brass’s best work: sunny, gaudy, naughty and proudly unserious, like a continental sex comedy that has wandered very close to soft porn.
The women are the real attraction, even when the title jokingly gives the penis top billing. Sara Cosmi is a petite, voluptuous Cinzia, mixing coy resistance with obvious appetite; Silvia Rossi brings sleek, mature confidence to Stefania’s revenge; and Raffaella Ponzo gives Katarina a softer, sweeter sensuality before the dominatrix games begin. Angela Ferlaino, Maruska Albertazzi and Federica Palmer add generous curves, bare skin and different shades of feminine mischief, from adulterous boldness to uninhibited exhibitionism. The acting is broad and hardly subtle, but Brass chose women comfortable with being watched, desired and photographed from every intimate angle. Breasts, buttocks, pubic hair, full-frontal nudity, oral sex, simulated penetration and phallic props fill the screen, pushing the uncut version into near-hardcore territory without quite becoming outright pornography. It is explicit, shameless and built for the male gaze—though, as usual with Brass, the women appear to understand the power of that gaze better than the men holding it.
Sign in to comment
The same account you use to watch films.