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      The Key

      R 1985 1h 50m Drama List
      Reviews 38% Audience Score 100+ Ratings An art historian (Frank Finlay) and his younger wife (Stefania Sandrelli) read each other's erotic diaries in 1940 Venice. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

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      Eddie Harrison film-authority.com ...probably doesn’t offer enough flesh to satisfy the likely audience, but it’s remarkably cerebral for a story intended to get the pulses racing... Rated: 3/5 Jan 23, 2024 Full Review Diego Galán El Pais (Spain) A boring and terribly shot erotic movie. [Full Review in Spanish] Feb 20, 2020 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 3/5 Sep 25, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Federico T Adapted from the Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's novel, this is the first Tinto Brass directed movie we can call strictly erotic, from which the italian maestro decides to abandon his previous primarily historical genre (where sexuality was only a telling tool and not the subject) to shift towards the direct analysis of sexual relations in and of themselves. Set in Brass' home city of Venice at the end of fascism 'age of mass consent' (just prior to the italian declaration of war of 10 june 1940), it's a movie that treats about irrevocable irremediable decisions that break the tie marking a dramatic shift with its unavoidable load of fatal consequences. So we have the plan of this erudite aesthete who, become disillusioned with the possibilities of contentment through academic confered culture and sensing the approach of his own life's curtain call, chooses, as a sort of euthanasia, to turn his back to a barbarized bleak society blindly and mutely subservient to the fascist regime, searching a final life reason appeasing his sexual libido and, for the pursuit of that, he deliberately kicks off his wife's disinhibition. In that context, the woman's transformation (or liberation) takes the connotations of an uncontrollable deadly weapon that, finding her own independent dimension of self-satisfaction, ends with going beyond the husband's plan, escaping that by causing, with a feeble egoistic cruelty (in the pursuit of her own masterplan), his ridicule and his death, but also the precocious failure of her daughter's engagement with the sly Laszlo. The parallel between the two women, mother and daughter, is an interesting movie sub-theme, as the emancipated voluptuous mother wins over the frigid fascist-vulgarised daughter because that coincides in what is ideal in Brass' philosophy: to the daughter will be neglected satisfaction till her own sexual self awareness and liberation from morality. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 05/23/23 Full Review william d I'm a fan of Tinto Brass' movies, but I thought this one was kind of boring. Stefania Sandrelli is nice to look at though. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Awful and unwatchable. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member This was a pretty good erotic drama from Tinto Brass. I liked Caligula and Salon Kitty better, but this has some good points. Like the beautiful Stefania Sandrelli. Some of Frank Finlay's jealous outbursts are kind of funny and over the top. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Not the best from Tinto Brass, but still semi-enjoyable due to ample doses of the Brass special nudity. A woman starts to cheat on her husband because he can't fulfill her so she starts to make it with everyone. The World War II setting is a nice touch to a pretty mundane sex flick. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Very good photography in grey scale. I loved the way she was dressed more than she was undressed. Intriguing. The metaphore on resistance against fascism was very interesting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Key

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis An art historian (Frank Finlay) and his younger wife (Stefania Sandrelli) read each other's erotic diaries in 1940 Venice.
      Director
      Tinto Brass
      Screenwriter
      Tinto Brass
      Production Co
      Selenia Cinematografica, San Francisco Film, International Video Service
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      Italian
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jul 18, 2019
      Runtime
      1h 50m