Italian filmmaker and screenwriter Tinto Brass died on Wednesday, November 4, at the age of 93. He was best known for “Caligula,” a cult film, and for a provocative body of work marked by explicit eroticism and an emphasis on pleasure and sexual freedom.
Brass’s films challenged moral conventions and censorship in Italian society, which the article describes as having long been dominated by Christian Democracy. His later films were no longer distributed in France.
Born Giovanni Brass in Milan on March 26, 1933, he was nicknamed “Tintoretto” as a child by his uncle, painter and art collector Italico Brass, reportedly because of his interest in drawing. The name was later shortened to Tinto. His family soon moved to Venice, a city whose history and spirit would have a lasting influence on his work.
Sources: Le Monde Culture.