MIRANDA
Color, 1985, 94 mins. / Directed by Tinto Brass / Starring Serena Grandi, Andrea Occhipinti, Franco Interlanghi, Andy J. Forrest / Cult Epics (US R0 NTSC) / WS (1.78:1) (16:9), Arrow (UK PAL R0)

Following the scandalous release of Caligula, Italian erotica auteur Tinto Brass has been completely ignored in the United States, presumably due to his increasingly personal cinematic odes to the female derriere. Hard to believe, but Brass was at one time held in relatively high esteem as a pioneering director thanks to such stylish fare as Nerosubianco and L'Urlo. However, all that began to change in 1975 with the release of the opulent and shocking Salon Kitty, an explicit riff on Luchino Visconti's The Damned starring Helmut Berger as a Nazi entangled in all manner of sexual depravity. His notorious Caligula assignment led to a string of saucy European romps continuing to this day, in which the director himself often makes at least a lecherous cameo appearance as he turns his camera to a seemingly endless parade of European beauties.

Miranda, Brass' 1985 follow-up to his comeback film The Key, pushed his boundaries just up to the verge of hardcore without losing any of the director's trademark compositions. Top-heavy Serena Grandi (The Grim Reaper, Lambero Bava's Delirium) stars in the title role as a lusty tavern owner carrying on an affair with the local village stud (Andrea Occhipinti of New York Ripper / A Blade in the Dark fame), all the while scouting around for a suitable lifetime mate. Among her conquests are a middle aged politician, Norman (Andy J. Forrest), and a visiting American soldier with peculiar outdoor bathroom habits. Meanwhile she uses her wiles to torment her sexually frustrated waiter/bartender, Carlo (Franco Branciaroli), and must eventually decide with whom she will spend the rest of her life. One of Brass' wittiest films, Miranda benefits from a sharp, pun-laden script lifted from a farcical Carlo Collodi play. Meanwhile, Grandi lets loose with a completely uninhibited performance, her look changing from one sequence to the next in an amazing succession of glamorous, sexy set pieces. The cropped, full frame British DVD from Arrow is plagued by distracting compression artifacts and pale contrast; however, the film is completely intact (including some shots that must have flickered by when the BBFC wasn't looking) and includes both the trailer and the aforementioned Brass interview. However, the same extras can be found on the U.S. disc in not one but two 16:9 transfers, which restore important peripheral information and generally look much crisper. All contain the English dubbed version. Both 16:9 versions bear the same catalog number from Cult Epics, but the second one contained in the Tinto Brass Collection box set is a significant improvement with far fewer compression issues and better black levels.