Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass, best known for directing the controversial cult film Caligula, has died at 93. His family announced his death to the Ansa news agency on Wednesday, November 4. No cause was given.

Brass became known internationally for films combining eroticism, humor and libertarian themes. His work made him a prominent figure in European erotic cinema and prompted cultural debate, including disputes over censorship.

Caligula, which follows the rise and fall of the young Roman emperor, became his most notorious film. Malcolm McDowell played the ruler, whose corruption is traced as he gains power. The production was also marked by conflict between Brass, screenwriter Gore Vidal and producer Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse. After the official shoot ended, Guccione took control of the edit and added explicit sexual scenes filmed without Brass and Vidal’s knowledge, against their wishes.

When the film was released in 1984, Brass and Vidal sought to have their names removed. The movie was censored in several countries, and copies were seized in the United Kingdom, the United States and Italy, as well as by Brazil’s military dictatorship. A restored version reflecting Brass and Vidal’s original conception, Caligula: The Final Cut, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. It is scheduled to arrive on the Filmelier+ streaming service on November 5.

Born in Milan in March 1933, Brass adopted his artistic name as a child, inspired by the painter Tintoretto. His interest in film grew while he worked as an archivist at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris during the French New Wave. He later worked as an assistant director for Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini and Brazilian filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti.

Brass moved into erotic cinema in the mid-1970s, directing Salon Kitty, a 1976 drama about a brothel turned into a Nazi operations center during World War II, and Caligula, filmed in 1979. His later films increasingly centered on female characters and sexual liberation. They included Miranda, starring Serena Grandi as the owner of a rural inn, and the 1998 film Monella, about a woman determined to lose her virginity before marriage.

Helen Mirren and Vanessa Redgrave were among the established actors who appeared in his films. Mirren described her experience on Caligula as “extraordinary” and said she loved Brass, recalling the film’s “chaos” and “radical anarchy” at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival. Brass’s erotic comedies went on to attract a large following and achieve considerable success in Italy.

Brass was honored at the Venice Film Festival in September but did not attend for health reasons. In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he said he made erotic films because he saw eroticism as central to human expression and as a way to portray women. He said he believed his films had helped change how some viewers understood eros.

He is survived by his wife, actress and lawyer Caterina Varzi, and his children Beatriz and Bonifacio, from his first marriage to screenwriter Clara Cipriani.

Sources: Folha Ilustrada.