Lucca, at Villa Bottini exhibition on Tinto Brass recounts the director of eros

One hundred and twenty photographs chronicling Tinto Brass’s cinematic journey, as well as previously unpublished documents, such as scripts, set and costume sketches, polaroids of auditions, posters, and letters, all from his personal archive. They are the focus of the exhibition Brass mon amour, staged at Villa Bottini in Lucca, from May 21 to June 12, 2022.

The exhibition is one of the events of the new edition of Photolux Festival - International Biennial of Photography of Lucca - You can call it love, this year dedicated to the theme of love. The brainchild of Fabio Macaluso, curated by Caterina Varzi, Enrico Stefanelli, Chiara Ruberti, Francesco Colombelli, and Rica Cerbarano, Brass mon amour, whose title plays with that of Tinto Brass’ latest feature film, Monamour, and thetopic that binds the initiatives of Photolux Festival, traces the career of the Venetian director, one of the most original figures in Italian cinema, especially for the obstinacy with which, against all external conditioning or censorship, he remained faithful to two constants of expressive research: visual experiment and immersion in the labyrinths of eros.

Through the photographs and all the other material from Tinto Brass’ private archive, the exhibition aims to lead the visitor to discover the most curious aspects of the making of the films, the episodes that characterized his relationship with actors and memories about his private life. The photographs tell the story of Brass’ journey in his early expressive season, from Chi lavora è perduto (1963) to Action (1980). Here the Maestro is portrayed with some of his favorite actors, such as Alberto Sordi, Jean Louis Trintignant, Ewa Aulin, Anita Sanders, Tina Aumont, Gigi Proietti, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero. The time of the liberation of the senses, from The Key (1983) to Hotel Courbet (2009), the central moment of the exhibition, is illustrated with shots by set photographer Gianfranco Salis, an expression of a 40-year artistic association with the Maestro.

A particular section of the exhibition, reserved for adults, is devoted to the most forbidden images. Alongside them, the film Istintobrass by Massimiliano Zanin will be screened , which Photolux Festival proposes as a testimony to the way of making cinema of a director who grew up in the wake of the experience accumulated by Roberto Rossellini and Joris Ivens, as well as by the French New Wave, but also by the passion of creating a narrative through images. It is on the extreme cult of style that Brass’ cinema is based, in the conviction that only form, meaning, can give meaning and content to the grotesque aspects of reality.

“An exhibition that adds a further moment of reflection on love,” as the festival’s artistic direction committee declares , “If the taboos related to eros and its representation seem to have finally been overcome today, why does the filmography of Tinto Brass continue to represent an insidious anomaly in the panorama of Italian cinema?”

The event will be an opportunity to present the director’s autobiography written together with Caterina Varzi, Tinto Brass. A Free Passion (Marsilio Editore, 2021).

The new edition of Photolux Festival - International Biennial of Photography of Lucca, titled You can call it Love, has an artistic direction committee composed of Rica Cerbarano, Francesco Colombelli, Chiara Ruberti and Enrico Stefanelli, and consists of more than 20 exhibitions, hosted in some of the most prestigious venues in the center of the Tuscan city, and a series of collateral initiatives such as conferences, workshops, portfolio readings, and meetings with the protagonists of international photography.

Lucca, at Villa Bottini exhibition on Tinto Brass recounts the director of eros

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