Published: : November 5, 2026, 11:39 AM
Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass, best known for directing Caligula and Salon Kitty, has died on November 5, 2026, at the age of 93. Once described as the “Antonioni of the 70s”, Brass became one of the most recognisable figures in European erotic cinema.
His wife, Caterina Varzi, and children, Bonifacio and Beatrice Brass, confirmed his death to Italian news agency ANSA.
Born in Milan and raised in Venice, Brass began his career in cinema after moving to Paris, where he worked as an editor and archivist at the Cinémathèque. Upon returning to Italy, he joined filmmaker Roberto Rossellini as an editor and assistant director.
Brass soon developed a reputation for his experimental style and unconventional approach to filmmaking. In 1964, philosopher and writer Umberto Eco commissioned him to make two short films exploring visual language for the Milan Triennale. He was also reportedly approached by Warner Bros to direct A Clockwork Orange, but scheduling conflicts eventually led the studio to offer the project to Stanley Kubrick.
During the 1970s, Brass turned his attention towards erotic cinema. Although his films were often controversial for their explicit sexual content, many explored the connections between sexuality, power and money.
“I made so many erotic films because I believed eroticism to be a fundamental key to human expression and, above all, the key to portraying women,” he once told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
His 1976 film Salon Kitty explored the true story of a Berlin brothel taken over by the Nazis and used as a centre for spying on foreign diplomats and German officers. The film attracted the attention of producer Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse, who subsequently hired Brass to direct Caligula in 1979.
Featuring Malcolm McDowell in the title role, alongside Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole and John Gielgud, Caligula sought to combine a historical epic with explicit sexual content. The screenplay was originally written by Gore Vidal, but Brass substantially revised it, incorporating orgies, sexual imagery and extensive nudity.
However, the production became controversial when Guccione independently filmed additional unsimulated sex scenes and inserted them into the film without Brass's consent. Both Vidal and Brass subsequently distanced themselves from the released version. When Caligula premiered in the UK and US in 1980, Brass received credit only for principal photography. A recut version, titled Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, appeared in 2023 without Guccione's additional footage, although Brass neither participated in nor approved the new version.
In his later years, Brass lived in Isola Farnese, on the outskirts of Rome. He married Caterina Varzi in 2017, and she also took responsibility for preserving and curating his archive.
In an interview marking his 90th birthday, the filmmaker expressed his wish for his ashes to be scattered in the lagoon of Venice.
