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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. *** 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). |
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 - LEFT2) Mondo Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL - MIDDLE3) Cult Epics - Region FREE - Blu-ray - RIGHT
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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 |
1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio
16X9 enhanced |
1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 23,348,450,761 bytesFeature: 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. |
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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:
Edition Details: Chapters 12 |
Release Information: Studio: Mondo Home Entertainment Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details:
DVD Release Date: Chapters 12 |
Release Information: Studio: Cult Epics
1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 23,348,450,761 bytesFeature: 19,691,538,432 bytes Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Total Video Bitrate: 24.57 Mbps
Edition Details: • 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) • Teaser (1:03 in 1080i)
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. *** 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.
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Cult Epics - Region FREE - Blu-ray
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Second Blu-ray Disc
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1) Cult Epics - Region 0 - NTSC - TOP2) Mondo Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL - MIDDLE3) Cult Epics - Region FREE - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Cult Epics - Region 0 - NTSC - TOP2) Mondo Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL - MIDDLE3) Cult Epics - Region FREE - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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