Paprika (1991)

A young country girl comes to town and works in a brothel in order to help her fiance get the money to start his own business. "Paprika" is the name given to her by the madam.

Director:

Tinto Brass

Writers:

Tinto Brass, Bernardino Zapponi

Stars:

Debora Caprioglio, Stéphane Ferrara, Martine Brochard

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Debora Caprioglio	...	Paprika
Stéphane Ferrara	...	Rocco
Martine Brochard	...	Madame Collette
Stéphane Bonnet	...	Franco
Rossana Gavinel	...	Gina
Renzo Rinaldi	...	Conte Bastiano
Nina Soldano	...	Giornalista
Clara Algranti	...	Sciura Angelina
Luciana Cirenei	...	Donna Olimpia
John Steiner	...	Principe Ascanio
Valentine Demy	...	Beba
Luigi Laezza	...	Nino
Riccardo Garrone	...	Zio
Paul Muller	...	Milvio
Clarita Gatto

Storyline

In 1950s Italy, just before the ban of brothels, Mimma, an inexperienced country girl, reluctantly accepts to work as a prostitute. And, just like that, the once-innocent woman becomes Paprika, in high hopes of raising enough money to finance her good-for-nothing boyfriend. Before long, Paprika will learn to enjoy her disreputable still very profitable occupation, working her way up, one client at a time, as she journeys from one brothel to another in the bustling city of Rome. However, despite Paprika's stormy but prosperous voyage of self-discovery, experience, and sexual liberation, there is still one thing missing in her seemingly full life: unearthing the great mystery of true love. Is Paprika meant to experience a passionate romance?

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Plot Keywords:

anal sex | female full frontal nudity | brothel | nipples | sex scene | 

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Taglines:

Tinto Brass re-opens the closed houses!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tinto Brass originally planned this film as a straightforward adaptation of John Cleland's "Fanny Hill", but after a number of years in development hell, he rewrote the screenplay and updated the setting to 1950s Italy. Still, the film manages to stay more faithful to Cleland's novel than most 'official' adaptations.

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Quotes

Paprika: Life is short, but pussy is eternal!

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Alternate Versions

When submitted to the BBFC for a UK video certificate in 2002, 1 minute 56 seconds of cuts were required for an 18 certificate - these were to a scene of incest and a scene of urolagnia. Due to a production error the 2002 Arrow Films DVD is in fact the uncut version.

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Connections

Version of A Comedy Tale of Fanny Hill (1964)

User Reviews

Performing

Tinto Brass has made some things worth watching in my mind. He chooses to make erotic films, which is fine by me.

I'm interested in erotic films. Naturally, they are enjoyable, the good ones that avoid the damages associated with porn. But they are something deep in us too, something having to do with performance.

In a real erotic film, you'll have an actress (at the very least an actress) who is performing as a character who is performing for us. In porn, there is no difference; in erotic art, there is. Tinto in his better works understands this, and plays with it — sometimes — in effective ways.

This film is worse in the way it works, and is better in how the story bends to the purpose. The story is about another layer of performing. Our heroine not only performs for our pleasure, but for also (as a prostitute) for a seemingly endless series of men.

So the setup is fine.

Making something that is erotic requires that the artist in charge decide what is erotic. Now that's a matter purely of style and not art. The choices he's made this time are different than the ones he's known for, though they seem superficially similar. But this woman is genuinely fat, thickwaisted. She has bad teeth and (the only thing that really matters) she carries herself gracelessly.

You'll want to pass on this one, I think.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

13 February 1991 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Paprika

Filming Locations:

Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

San Francisco Film, Scena Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min 116 min (Blu-ray)

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color (Telecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1