Giovanni Tinto Brass was born in Milan, Italy, on March 26th 1933. The first film he worked on was 1959's "India", a documentary. He was the 1st Asst. Director. The first film that Tinto wrote, edited and directed was "In Capo al Mondo" in 1963.
In 1975, Tinto wrote, directed and edited the movie "Salon Kitty". This film also featured John Steiner and Teresa Ann Savoy, and was the resume that Bob Guccione used to hire Tinto for Caligula.
Bob has blamed Tinto for not using enough of the sets in the film, but as it turns out, he may have used what he could, as Franco Rossellini had him shooting film while Danilo Donati was still completing sets. But, Tinto still had a wild style of running the camera, and apparently he didn't think much of the Pets. Maybe he thought they should hire more Italian girls?
Apparently, as soon as Gore Vidal got wind of Tinto Brass, he quit the production, but I'm not sure how true that was. It may not have been until Tinto was fired the shit hit the fan.
According to Piernico's Solinas book, "The Ultimate Porno", Tinto was sacked from the production on April 19th 1977. It had been said in other articles that Tinto was fired from Caligula while he was editing for it. The Producers said that Tinto was altering and distorting the film without thier consent. Bob must have had that in mind back in January, since he shot the extra footage without Tinto's knowledge. It's possible that Tinto was fired when he began to question the new footage.
When the movie was shown on British TV in September 1999, they removed all of Bob's footage to restore the film to Tinto's vision. Except that some of the stuff that Tinto shot was pretty hardcore too! Why do people like making Bob a scapegoat all the time! For many people in England, this was the first time they had ever seen the movie!
Tinto has been a director, writer, editor, actor, asst. director, cinematographer, and producer. His most recent movie was "Transgression" in 2000. |
