The upcoming Venice Film Festival has set the world premiere of the restored version of 1967 cult movie “Deadly Sweet,” directed by Italian softcore erotic movies maestro Tinto Brass, as its pre-opening event.
The new digital 4k version of “Deadly Sweet,” which stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and Sweden’s Ewa Aulin, has been restored by Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia film archives with support from Netflix. It will screen on the Lido on Sept. 1 and also be included in the Venice Classics program.
The erotic pop thriller, which Brass shot in London, stars Trintignant as young man who discovers that his business contact has been murdered. Instead of calling the police, he decides to protect a young woman, played by Aulin, at the crime scene and pursue the real killers‚ which puts him on a collision course with the London underworld.
“Deadly Sweet” was presented out-of-competition at the 1967 Venice International Film Festival. The film, produced by Ermanno Donati and Luigi Carpentieri, was losely inspired by the novel “Il sepolcro di carta” by Sergio Donati. The screenplay is by Tinto Brass, Francesco Longo and Pierre Lévy-Corti. The cinematography by Silvano Ippoliti, the production design by Carmelo Patrono and the music by Armando Trovajoli.
“Deadly Sweet” is one of several films shot by the director in the British capital. It was followed by “Attraction” (“Nerosubianco,” 1969) and “Dropout” (1970).
Brass is best-known to international critics for his two historic erotic epics, “Salon Kitty” (1976) and “Caligula” which was made in 1979 and released in 1984 in a different cut from that intended by Brass. The contentious film was self-financed in 1980 by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione who after fighting with Brass and screenwriter Gore Vidal wrested control of the project ad tossed out the script, adding adult content that he shot after the actors – who included Helen Mirren, Malcolm McDowell, John Gielgud, and Peter O’Toole – had finished their shoots. The addition of porn prompted Brass and Vidal to sue to have their names removed from the picture.
The 84th edition of Venice will run Sept. 2-12, with the festival’s lineup being announced July 23.
