Senso '45 (2002)

Director:

Tinto Brass

Writers:

Tinto Brass
Camillo Boito (novella "Senso")

Release Date:

12 April 2002 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Soredemo hoshii [Japan]

Plot:

Trapped in an unhappy marriage, the wife of a high ranking Fascist official starts a dangerous, self-destructive relationship with a duplicitous S.S. Officer.

Plot Keywords:

Unhappy Marriage | Italy | Pubic Hair | Film Within A Film | Adulterous Wife

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Anna Galiena	...	Livia Mazzoni
Gabriel Garko	...	Helmut Schultz
Franco Branciaroli	...	Ugo Oggiano
Antonio Salines	...	Carlo
Simona Borioni	...	Elsa
Loredana Cannata	...	Ninetta
Erika Savastani	...	Emilietta
Sabrina Colle
Agostino Nani
Giulia De Gresy
Franco Barbero
Eleonora Mazzoni
Ciro Scalera
Maria Pia Colonnello
Hermann Weisskopf
Alessia Siniscalchi
Maurizio Prudenzi
Conchita Manfroi
Lele Masiol
Giorgia Reberschack
Max Parodi
Marina Pegoraro
Giuseppe Rossetto
Susanna Bugatti
Gianluca Magni
Francesca Tosetti
Mario Francini
Lucrezia Andreotti
Gianni Demartiis		(as Gianni De Martiis)
Martina Andreotti
Lorenzo Vitturi
Isabel Vitturi
Alberto Garbizza
Jasmine
Osiride Pevarello
Carla Solaro
Claudio Bernabei
Madame X
Roberto Malone
Monica Del Pup
Claudio Castana
Michela Fruet
Carlo De Marino
Maria Grazia Morelli
Tony Leone
Silvana Archiapatti
Massimo Sangalli
Ivana Fontanabona
Filippo Belletti
Francesca Piovesan
Massimo Vanni
Emanuela Del Zampo
Milko D'Angelo
Silvia Demili
Paolo Signora
Camilla Ahluvist
Jacopo Molina
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lorenzo Branchetti	...	Soldato
Danilo Maria Valli
Tinto Brass	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Tinto Brass

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Camillo Boito		novella "Senso"
Tinto Brass

Produced by
Giuseppe Colombo	....	producer
Maurizio Mattei	....	line producer

Original Music by
Ennio Morricone

Cinematography by
Massimo Di Venanzo
Daniele Nannuzzi

Film Editing by
Tinto Brass
Fiorenza Muller

Art Direction by
Carlo De Marino

Set Decoration by
Ettore Guerrieri

Costume Design by
Alessandro Lai
Alberto Moretti

Makeup Department
Joan Giacomin	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Simona Batistelli	....	unit manager
Mauro Sangiorgi	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Claudio Bernabei	....	first assistant director
Silvia Rossi	....	assistant director

Art Department
Luca Servino	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Fernando Caso	....	sound effects editor
Marco Di Biase	....	sound
Alberto Doni	....	sound mixer
Alvaro Gramigna	....	foley artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Andrea Quaglio	....	assistant camera
Massimiliano Zenga	....	clapper loader

Music Department
Angelo Giovagnoli	....	orchestra coordinator
Fabio Venturi	....	music scoring engineer

Other crew
Daniela Berardi	....	production accountant

Production Companies

• Cine 2000

Distributors

• Eagle Pictures (2002) (Italy) (theatrical)
• GAGA (2003) (Japan) (theatrical) (subtitled) (censored)
• Imagem Filmes (Brazil) (DVD)
• Imagem Filmes (Brazil) (VHS)
• Starmedia Home Entertainment (Germany)
• Video Search of Miami (2009) (USA) (DVD) (subtitled)

Other Companies

• Cine Audio Effects  sound effects and foley design

Also Known As:

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Italy:VM14 (re-rating) (2004) | South Korea:18 | UK:18 | Mexico:C (re-rating) | Mexico:D | New Zealand:R18 | Italy:VM18 (DVD rating) | Japan:R-18 | Germany:18 | Italy:VM18 (original rating)

Company:

Cine 2000

Trivia:

The Italian ministry of the arts and culture deemed the production culturally significant and donated 1.6 million Euros to the film's overall budget.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Christmas Eve '45 (2011)

BLACK ANGEL (Tinto Brass, 2002) **1/2

This is my fifth excursion in Tinto Brass territory but only the third from his (mostly) softcore entries for which he became notorious. Having seen the man in the flesh at the midnight screening of his rare pop-art thriller DEADLY SWEET (1967) during the 61st Venice Film Festival in 2004, he seemed more like a reasonably literate and genuinely larger-than-life character perennially chomping on his cigar than a dirty old man who occasionally realizes his erotic fantasies on film.

Although the majority of his later films were modest exploitation stuff at best, sometimes he did seek to be taken more seriously by breaking into the mainstream and even art-house circles. The Nazisploitation epic SALON KITTY (1975) was the first of such attempts, the misconceived debacle CALIGULA (1979) was the most infamous with THE KEY (1983) being perhaps the most successful of the lot. Unfortunately, Blue Underground's 2-Disc Set of SALON KITTY has been out-of-print for some time but I do have THE KEY on VHS recorded off Italian TV.

BLACK ANGEL, then, is Tinto Brass' latest bid for respectability. Based on the same source novel from which Luchino Visconti made an acclaimed movie in 1954, Brass transposes the action to the last days of WWII and, true to his nature, has the promiscuous characters indulge wholeheartedly (and explicitly, including some hardcore footage) in every sin of the flesh he can point his camera at for two hours. The major set-piece of the film is a marathon 10-minute orgy sequence which includes most of the offending footage but also quaint, risible stuff like a group of revelers marching in tow through the rooms of a château led by a naked woman proudly holding onto a huge, gold-plated phallus!

For what it's worth, the plot deals with a young, blond, womanizing Nazi officer (Gabriel Garko) who sets his sights on a much older Italian aristocrat (Anna Galiena) who is only to keen to satisfy his every whim. Naturally, he is reluctant to cut down on his vices (which also include gambling) and far from happy with her overly jealous demeanor; after surprising him in bed with a much younger girl, the Italian woman eventually takes belated revenge by betraying him to his commanding officers regarding his plans for desertion.

While the film as a whole is not too badly done in itself and features an Ennio Morricone score to boot, nothing especially memorable happens in it and one is hard pressed to feel sympathy for these lewd, unlikable and opportunistic characters and, consequently, the viewer's interest in the proceedings rises and sags accordingly.