The sister company of Britain’s Shameless, Cult Films is preparing a 50th anniversary Blu-ray edition of Tinto Brass’ masterpiece Salon Kitty (1976). One of the most copied and notorious films of the seventies, the uncut Salon Kitty looks great on this new Blu-ray edition, which also contains an archival interview, poster, postcard and slipcover. Order now from Cult Films or stateside from MVD.
Salon Kitty is one of my favorite films and I think it is one of the best films of the seventies. Bold, colorful, lavish, provocative, and highly sexual, this gloriously confrontaional film is pretty much all I want the movies to be. This is a BIG WORK, ambitious and volcanic.
Offensive?
Hopefully so.
And why is that a bad thing in art?
Based on a true story, Salon Kitty represents Tinto Brass’ version of the past, or at least the past he desired to reinvent. Salon Kitty is the work of a leftist admiring and celebrating the style of monsters while demolishing the version of the past they’d created.
Tinto Brass was finsihed with cinema by the early seventies. Depressed and disappointed that his brilliant early films, filled with absurdism, anarchy and rage, failed to connect at large critically or with the public, Brass walked away in 1971. Salon Kitty marks his return to the world of film after a five year absence and, of my goodness, does the Maestro make the most of the opportunity.
Based on a nonfiction book, about a real life madam during the Third Reich’s Reign, by Peter Norden, Salon Kitty pretty much abandones any sense of authentic ‘history’ for sheer extravagance. Brass isn’t interested at all in historical authenticity here. Salon Kitty is a study of eroticism and how power corrupts it. Simply put in Brass view, power corrupts all. The screenplay by Ennio De Concini and Maria Pia Fusco has been critized for being confusing or nonsensical but this is a very deliberate film of dreams and nightmares.
How else should great art represent the memory of collective trauma?
In his early forties while creating Salon Kitty, Brass was at his most ambitious in 1976 and that ambition flows through every frame of Salon Kitty. A distinctly composed work, Salon Kitty is electrifying and frightening. Few films have ever managed to be as revolting and seductive. By ignoring history, Brass makes a more honest portrayal of how a mass group people could become so entranced by evil.
Like its setting, Salon Kitty is a wicked film and it revels it that wickedness. There are few European Art Films that are as exploitative as this one is. Brass revels in combining the highest cinematic art here with the lowest junk. It’s a breathtaking work of uncompromising freedom. Brass absolutely destroys the myth of the Third Reich while creating his own. Salon Kitty is a wildly liberating film, a dazzling work of art from a lost era.
Much like the film, the cast of Salon Kitty is massive. One of the most remarkable things about the film is this incredible ensemble. The film ‘stars’ Helmut Berger and Bergman muse Ingrid Thulin, but it is young Teresa Ann Savoy who controls the film in one of the most compelling and bravely naked performances of the mid-seventies. Savoy, a massively underrated figure, is an astonishing sight in Salon Kitty. The cast goes incredibly deep with legendary figures like Tina Aumont and Paola Senatore showing up for the madness.
Heaven was probably the Salon Kitty set. I joke but for someone absolutely obsessed with the Seventies European Art House, I want to go back in time and just hang with Production Designer Ken Adam, just to marvel at what he’s doing. The man who helped give life to both James Bond and some of Kubrick’s great films goes absolutely mad on the set of Salon Kitty, designing one of the most audacious looking films ever. Fifty years later, Salon Kitty is an absolutely insane visual experience. It is one of the few films I’ve seen that makes me feel high and that’s true of every rewatch.
Salon Kitty played all over the world, including here in America. Along with The Night Porter, it is the most influential Naziploitation film. Critics hated it, typically focusing on film’s disregarding of history, completely missing just how truly leftist this is. Few films have ever destroyed the ideals behind nazism better than this. Brass’s camera is absolutely delighted by the sight of these freaks’ demise. He literally blows them up in the film’s final haunting moments of pure audacity.
Funny, horrific and incredibly sexy, the uncut Salon Kitty premiered in HD years ago courtesy of Blue Underground and has had a few international editions as well. This new Cult Films release essentially keeps an important film in print in a nice looking package. Thankfully, the restored print of Salon Kitty used here does not suffer from the same issues as Cult Films recent Miranda. Salon Kitty looks very nice on this new Blu-ray edition, although needless to say I’d buy a 4K of this is a heartbeat.
Considering the film’s brilliance and importance, it is a bummer that Salon Kitty has never been given any sort of proper fully-loaded special edition. I know a lot of film historians who’d love to discuss this. We do get a nice 20 minute archival interview with Tinto and some trailers. While I’ll dream of a Criterion style edition eventually, this new Cult Films Blu-ray is very nice and highly recommended.
Oh, and someone should write a book about
Teresa Ann Savoy.
Perhaps someday,
someone will.
-Jeremy Richey, October 2026-
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