Cult Epics: Cheeky (2000) – reviewed

Images courtesy of Cult Epics

Boutique label Cult Epics has shown as much dedication to the oeuvre of Italian erotic filmmaker Tinto Brass in recent months as Arrow Video has continued to work on the work of Greek exploitation director Nico Mastorakis. Love him or hate him, they’re committed to publishing every release under the director’s belt (no pun intended) for better or worse in lavish new 4K restored UHD and Blu-ray Disc editions packed with reprints of lobby cards and reversible cover art and a collectible cover.
Their first release in what appears to be an attempt to publicize Tinto Brass’ still divisive soft/hardcore artistic pornography began with All the ladies do it from 1992 followed by the much better received Frivolous Lola in 1998.

Two years later, Brass has now arrived Tra(sgre)dire or
Violatedalso known as Cheeky starring Ukrainian actress Yuliya Mayarchuk in the latest excuse for the oversized cigar-smoking grab-ass to aim his camera at as many bare female buttocks as humanly possible. It’s a carefree sex comedy, but it wouldn’t be wrong to accuse the now 91-year-old author of making the same movie over and over again. Set in London, Venetian Carlia Burin (Yuliya Mayarchuk) works as an intern at a hotel reception looking for an apartment so her boyfriend Matteo (Jarno Berardi) can stay with her. However, their real estate agent Moira (Francesca Nunzi) is a horny lesbian who offers Carla the loft overlooking the Thames under special conditions, including sex games and favors. Soon her jealous boyfriend Matteo finds out, including the discovery of old letters from her French ex-lover Bernard (Mauro Lorenz), which threatens to shake up their love life.

If you’ve seen one Tinto Brass film by now, you’ve seen them all filled with unsafe-for-work lobby cards, cover art, and uncensored Italian poster art. At one point in the film, Tinto Brass shows up to grope and caress the leading actress in front of the camera, with a cigar in her mouth. Later scenes, including an orgy, give the director reason to move his camera past a parade of bare butts and pubic hair between various sexual situations. In fairness to Brass, his work, however perverse, is bawdy, joyfully life-affirming stuff involving strong female characters with sexual agency, compared to other, more abrasive and misogynistic pornographers who have come and gone. And as always, the quality of the cinematography is generally good, with tight 35mm photography from Massimo Di Venanzo and fellow legend Pino Donaggio’s completely overqualified original score from Brian De Palma.

Of the three Tinto Brass films, I had the, ahem, “pleasure” of seeing them Frivolous Lola was the funniest and most celebratory of the human form that any kinky, tawdry sex comedy has ever come. They’re not necessarily for me, but long-standing fans of the Italian bawdy provocateur will be pleased with this restoration that looks bright and pristine. The sound mixes come with English and original Italian audio in both 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround, although purists tend to go for the 2.0 mix. Among fans Cheeky is considered the sexiest of his films, although these comedic nude romps tend to blend in plot-wise. Anyway, like it or not, the Cult Epics disc release is beautiful and comes with plentiful extras, including an interview with Tinto Brass, a new 2024 interview with cinematographer Massimo Di Venanzo, and an isolated Pino Donaggio score.

–Andrew Kotwicki