Monamour Blu-ray - Tinto Brass

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Tinto Brass
Italy 2005

Tinto Brass' Monamour, is the love-story of a Venetian girl and a Frenchman in the beautiful city of Mantua. Dario, her husband is too busy to notice his wife's sexual drifting, when her adultery "born out of neglect and frustration" starts on the day she meets a tall dark stranger in a museum. An intoxicating mix of lies, betrayal and fantasy follows Marta into her personal diary where every emotion and passion is recorded.

Starring Anna Jimskaia and Max Parodi (Cheeky!), along with a line of stars of Tinto's previous erotic films.

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Another high-living and uninhibited but dissatisfied bodacious beauty Marta (Anna Jimskaya) meets another one of Tinto Brass' ass-loving aesthetes (Riccardo Marino) and keeps record of all of their adventures in her diary for her publisher husband Dario (Max Parodi, Brass' FRIVOLOUS LOLA) to discover. As usual, being cuckolded proves arousing and true love wins out in the end. A cigar-puffing director Brass turns in another cameo espousing his erotic aesthetic philosophy. Though visually pleasing (featuring attractive cinematography - his first work in HD - and lighting as well as stunning set design) and explicit, this feels more like a place-holder film in between hopefully better projects. As with TRA(SGRE)DIRE/CHEEKY, Brass references elements of his superior ALL LADIES DO IT (scripted by Fellini scenarist Bernardino Zapponi). The sex scenes seem considerably more explicit (although still technically softcore) than in his earlier works. Brass makes effective and humorous use of Bo Didley's song "Mona" in two of the film's setpieces (the word "mona" is Venetian slang for a woman's genitalia; as such, the title of the film is a play on words).

Eric Cotenas

Poster

Theatrical Release: 18 May 2006

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Comparison:

Cult Epics - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Mondo Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL vs. Cult Epics (2-disc) - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for all the DVD Screen Caps!

1) Cult Epics - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT

2) Mondo Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL - MIDDLE

3) Cult Epics - Region FREE - Blu-ray - RIGHT

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Cult Epics Region 0 - NTSC	Mondo Home Entertainment Region 2 - PAL	Cult Epics Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:38:12	1:36:42 (4% PAL speedup)	1:38:19.894
Video	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 7.19 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 6.15 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 23,348,450,761 bytes Feature: 19,691,538,432 bytes Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Total Video Bitrate: 24.57 Mbps
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Cult Epics
Bitrate: Mondo Home Entertainment
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	Italian Dolby Digital 5.1; Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo; English DolbyDigital 2.0 stereo	Italian Dolby Digital 5.1	Dolby Digital Audio Italian 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps Dolby Digital Audio Italian 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English, none	none	English, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Cult Epics Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • The Making of MONAMOUR (4:3; 15:53) • Theatrical Trailer (16:9; 1:30) • KICK THE COCK Trailer (16:9; 1:02) • SCORE Trailer (16:9; 3:37) DVD Release Date: August 31, 2010 Amaray Chapters 12	Release Information: Studio: Mondo Home Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • Backstage (4:3; 26:06) • Theatrical Trailer (4:3; 1:30) DVD Release Date: Amaray Chapters 12	Release Information: Studio: Cult Epics 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 23,348,450,761 bytes Feature: 19,691,538,432 bytes Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Total Video Bitrate: 24.57 Mbps Edition Details: • The Making of MONAMOUR (15:54 in 1080P) • Theatrical Trailer (1:36 in 1080P) • Disc 2 includes the bonus film, Kick the Cock (16:05 in 1080P) • The Making of "Kick the Cock" (12:58 in 1080i) • Comic strip by Franco Saudelli (3:01 in 1080i) • Venice Film Festival Premiere with Tinto Brass (Circuito Off 2008, Media Group TV - 2:47 in 1080P) • Spanish Dance by Angelita Franco (2:33 in 1080i) • Teaser (1:03 in 1080i) Blu-ray Release Date: July 26th, 2011 Standard Blu-ray case Chapters 12

Comments

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Cult Epics - Region FREE - Blu-ray - July 11': Cult Epic have come up with a 2 Blu-ray package of Tinto Brass' Monamour. It is not the most perfect transfer but looks to be a significant improvement over the SD-DVDs. Despite some glossiness and noise the film is now represented with depth and a greater level of detail. The colors don't vary much from the previous digital representations but are now tighter in the 1080P rendition. Although single-layered it is easy to see it is HD and has some impressive visuals (not just skin). The most production values become a shade more transparent but overall it looks better than I was anticipating.

Audio offers the same options as Cult Epics 2010 DVD with the English DUB and stereo and Surround Italian tracks. Cult Epics haven't taken advantage of lossless audio here where a linear PCM or DTS-HD Master might have sharpened up the dialogue and lilting score but it sounds okay. There are optional English subtitles on the region FREE Blu-ray disc.

Two separate BD discs were unnecessary as they are both single-layered and the entire content of the package could have fit on one dual-layered Blu-ray. As well as the 'Making of Monamour' (now in HD) and trailers found on the previous DVD - we also get - as advertised: "Disc 2 includes the bonus film, Kick the Cock. "Kick the Cock" is an old Dutch saying; meaning "Peek in the Kitchen," or something shocking and extreme, exactly what we can expect of Tinto Brass; the director and co-star, along with newcomer Angelita Franco. Kick the Cock premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2008, and won "Best short film" at a Fetish Film Festival in Germany in 2009 and is now presented for the first time as a worldwide premiere on DVD and Blu-ray."

It's a 15-minute titillating sequence from Brass. "Best short film" at a Fetish Film Festival - yes , well - high praise indeed. The bonus features on this second disc include the 13-minute Making of "Kick the Cock" in 1080i, a 3-minute HD Bondage Comic strip by Franco Saudelli moved to life-action, 2.5 minutes of the Venice Film Festival Premiere with director Brass and a similar length 'Spanish Dance' sequence by Angelita Franco, plus an aptly named 'Teaser' trailer for about 1 minute.

While Brass always hints at the more graphic and shows plenty of female skin - it is certainly not to be labeled hardcore. In his own way the director seems to offer an unapologetic celebration of the sexuality of women - or more superficially their bodies. As Eric informs us about the one word title; "It is not French for 'my love.' It is actually a play on words. The "Mona" portion of the title is Venetian slang for women's genitals." So be it. Fans of the director's erotica may wish to indulge for the included short and extensively improved main feature - now in 1080P glory.

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ON THE DVDs: Cult Epics' transfer of MONAMOUR is anamorphic and progressive but the running time of the disc doesn't seem to reflect a 24fps running time compared to the running time of the PAL disc (although the framerate of the NTSC disc is 23.976 with pulldown). The film was shot in HD and Cult Epics' cover announces that it comes from an HD master and the two dual-layer transfers look very similar.

Unlike the R2 release, both the film and opening credits are letterboxed at 1.85:1 (as per end credits specification; the Italian disc opened the credits up to 1.78:1). So far, the Cult Epics disc is the only release to feature the English dub (the non-anamorphic UK disc features the Italian track downmixed to stereo). Music-wise, the pitch of the English stereo track is lower than Italian 5.1 and 2.0 stereo tracks. The English track is also rather hissy for such a recent production but the Italian tracks sound nice and are the better options with subtitles (the English dub is really bad).

Extras on the Cult Epics disc include a behind-the-scenes featurette which runs about 10 minutes shorter than the near 26 minute one on the R2 disc and seems to have been shorn of some of the behind the scenes footage in favor of the Brass talking head footage (with English subtitles). There is also trailer for the film (in 16:9, the R2 disc's trailer is 4:3 letterbox), a trailer for Radley Metzger's SCORE (forthcoming from Cult Epics on BluRay and DVD in its uncensored version), and a promo for Brass' short KICK THE COCK (which is labeled in the menu as a trailer). Apparently, two Russian DVDs exist. The one I have seen featured 5.1 Italian audio and made use of less explicit takes.

- Eric Cotenas

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(Cult Epics - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Mondo Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)