Voyeur aesthete Tinto Brass steps in front of the camera to give audiences a glimpse of his fan mail in P.O. BOX TINTO BRASS, on limited edition Blu-ray from Cult Epics.

A filmmaker who stresses the difference between eroticism and pornography as fellatio to the blowjob, Tinto Brass has cultivated a large female fan base in his transition from French New Wave-influenced erotic-tinged artfilm like HOWL, THE AFTFUL PENETRATION OF BARBARA, and ACTION and big budget provocations like SALON KITTY and CALIGULA to being the premiere practitioner of Italian softcore erotica of the eighties and nineties. P.O. BOX TINTO BRASS is a series of erotic vignettes framed by Brass reading letters from his fans in search of inspiration and continually distracted by secretary Lucia (Cinzia Roccaforte, Joe D'Amato's THE HYENA) whose revealed skin is just as arousing to Brass as the answers she withholds as he attempts to probe her erotic imagination. In the first story, Milena (Laura Gualtieri) is reticent about having sex on the beach with her fiancé until she discovers what a turn-on it is to watch and be watched by another couple seeking privacy among the sand dunes. In the second story, housewife Elena (Erika Savastani, D'Amato's PROVOCATION) is frustrated that her husband Guido (Paolo Lanza, Brass' ALL LADIES DO IT) will not let her get a job for extra spending money so she becomes a "daytime professional" at the villa turned brothel of benefactor Countess Franca where she and other women (including FALLO's Sara Cosmi) live out their own fantasies while servicing men also seeking escape… and guess who Elena's latest client turns out to be…

In the third story, young Betta (Alessandra Antonelli) is studying Etruscan ruins and becomes aroused by the probing telephoto lens of a Japanese tourist so she decides to give him a show (sans underwear). The fourth story comes in the form of a videotape by restaurateurs Renata (Gaia Zucchi) and her husband Piero have solved the issue of their business sapping their love lives with a fetish for photography and video – and collaborating with other "videophiles" in Tinto Brass' homages – leading to the pair producing a sort of audition tape. In the fifth story, Rosella (Gabriella Barbuti, KARATE WARRIOR 6) is angered when her husband cancels date night for work, leaving her surprisingly receptive to an obscene phone caller and his crude advances. In the sixth story, Francesca (Carla Solaro, Brass' PAPRIKA) is shocked when her husband Paolo (Pascal Persiano, PAGANINI HORROR) suggests bringing other people into their sex life until she reluctantly accompanies him to a swinger's club. In the final story, Ivanna (Cristina Rinaldi, KREOLA) realizes that she can kill two birds with one stone, attending to her sexual frustration and getting back at her drunkard husband Filippo when he reveals that he has bet and lost her in a poker game. Brass is not the only one inspired and aroused by the letters, however, as Lucia is moved to reveal her most erotic fantasy in which "hung like an elephant" takes on a new meaning.

During a brief lull between his hit Alberto Moravia adaptation THE VOYEUR (1994) and his period comedy FRIVOLOUS LOLA (1998), Brass experimented with the shorter form, producing and introducing TINTO BRASS PRESENTS EROTIC SHORT STORIES featuring short films by newcomer filmmakers including porn actor turned photographer and adult filmmaker Roy Stuart (NEON NIGHTS), screenwriter Roberto Gandus (Lamberto Bava's MACABRE), Walter Martyn Cabell (GRINDSPLOITATION), actress Silvia Rossi (Brass' CHEEKY), documentary filmmaker Andrea Prandstraller, and Massimiliano Zanin who would co-write Brass' CHEEKY, FALLO, and MON AMOUR as well as helm the recent Brass documentary ISTINTOBRASS. P.O. BOX TINTO BRASS has long had the reputation of being sort of a placeholder in Brass' filmography between projects due to its episodic nature and its primary distribution medium on home video in overseas territories after an Italian domestic theatrical release; however, reassessment reveals the persistence of recurring themes from Brass' filmography as well as shout-outs to his earlier works. While the vignettes are short and thinly scripted, they are not as shallow as they seem, showing the much-exploited cliché of couples trying role-playing and discovering exhibitionistic or voyeuristic impulses as sad, pathetic, sometimes worthy of ridicule but also funny and even liberating. There is even a strain of self-criticism with Brass rejecting outright a letter from a male fan as uninteresting while Lucia tells Brass that she will only tell him her fantasy if she can "star" in it (possibly meaning his screen treatment of it but also acknowledging that the visualization of it will be from his point-of-view). Besides its placeholder nature, the film also shows Brass in transition with his crew and style. The regulars remain including producer Giovanni Bertolucci (cousin of Bernardo), wife/script supervisor Carla Cipriani, and assistant editor Fiorenza Mueller – along with composer Riz Ortolani in the form of tracks recycled from his earlier films including THE VOYEUR – while the cinematography of Steadicam operator Dante Della Torre (BEYOND THE DOOR III) is of the same sort of sharper, crisper photographic style Brass would adapt with cinematographer Massimo de Venanzo (son of Fellini DP Gianni de Venanzo) on his next several films in contrast to the more smoky, backlit, and diffused look he perfected with Silvano Ippoliti in his seventies and early eighties films up through ALL LADIES DO IT. As with the aforementioned short filmmakers, P.O. BOX TINTO BRASS co-screenwriter Aurelio Grimaldi would subsequently also explicitly probe female sexuality and fantasy with such films as THE MANEATER – with Persiano and Loredana Cannata who had appeared in one of the shorts as well as Brass' SENSO '45/BLACK ANGEL – THE BUTCHER, and his ambitious but underwhelming De Sade adaptation THE SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION OF EUGÉNIE.

Unreleased stateside on home video, P.O. BOX TINTO BRASS was easiest to see in English in fullscreen Dutch or British imports; however, these English versions were in keeping with the practice of Brass from the eighties onwards in that the export version ran shorter than the Italian original, censoring frontal male and female nudity as well as rubber phalluses used in place of erections, with the export version running roughly three minutes shorter than the Italian version which was available uncut in Italian on DVD without English audio or subtitles. The film made its uncut HD debut in Germany as a mediabook but with only German and Italian lossy Dolby Digital audio options. Cult Epics' limited edition Blu-ray features a 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen presentation from a new 4K restoration. The aspect ratio is wrong since it was intended to be screened theatrically at 1.66:1 and designed with home video in mind. Colors are boldly saturated and body hair defined, revealing some vibrancy out of a film that looked bland in earlier versions; enough to frustrate Brass fans that this film and his HD-lensed MON AMOUR look so much better than the Blu-ray presentations of his better films like THE KEY, PAPRIKA, THE VOYEUR, and ALL LADIES DO IT. The back cover promises DTS-HD Master Audio and LPCM audio options. The Italian track is in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono but the English dub and a secondary Italian track are lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. The Italian track is the way to go since it is complete, cleaner, and crisper. English subtitles are forced on both Italian tracks. The English track, on the other hand, is sourced from a DVD with the Italian track inserted during undubbed passages (mainly those where dialogue overlaps with explicit shots of genitalia, dildos, or urination in a nod to THE KEY), and the track is inferior in quality with some muddy passages of dialogue and some sibilance issues that are distracting. English subtitles are also forced during the portions where the English track reverts to Italian.

Extras are rather sparse, porting over a 2003 interview with Brass (16:01) from the Italian DVD edition. The subjects covered are more general with little reference to the film, starting with his childhood in Venice where the cinema was as important as the brothels to daily life, and his twin discoveries as a teenager that film and sex were things that could be done rather than just watched, networking at the Venice Film Festival where he met Lotte Eisner – author of the German expressionist film tome "The Haunted Screen" – and traveling to Paris and the Cinémathèque Française where he took dictation from programmer Henri Langlois and was exposed to a variety of film (including banned and censored content). He also discusses his philosophy of the erotic versus the pornographic, and his beliefs about why critics turn their noses down at his films. The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (1:06) and still gallery (1:25).

Limited to the first 2,000 Blu-ray and DVD copies is a second disc featuring the feature-length documentary ISTINTOBRASS by Massimiliano Zanin. In the disc's included interview "DisTintoZanin: My Life with Tinto" (18:25), Zanin reveals that Brass suffered a stroke while they were writing the proposed 3D film WHO KILLED CALIGULA? and that the documentary came about from the director's efforts in rehabilitation to piece together his memories with the help of psychoanalyst Caterina Varzi (who he married in 2017). The documentary initially featured him providing commentary on film, photographs, production sketches, and storyboard materials from his archive but started to change shape during the ups and downs of his recovery to incorporate the memories of people with whom he had worked. The first part of the documentary covers his beginnings with the participation of critics Gianni Canova, Marco Giusti, and Manlio Gomarasca as well as Cinématèque Française Programming Director Jean-François Rauger, General Director of Arte France Cinéma Olivier Père, and festival director Marco Mueller discussing his cinematic education under the Cinématèque Française's Henri Langlois and cutting for Roberto Rossellini, recognizing Brass not as a New Wave filmmaker but as a contemporary of the movement drawing on some of the same background including the Russian school of editing as well as noting that the influence of it as well as an understanding of and reaction against Italian Neorealism in his Pop Art films of the sixties. Their discussion of his early works including NEROSUBIANCO (released stateside as THE ARTFUL PENETRATION OF BARBARA) – so noteworthy that it lead Paramount to ask Brass to direct their planned adaptation of "A Clockwork Orange" – his controversial improvised HOWL (the shooting of which actor Gigi Proietti describes as "two months of pure joy and love of life"), the unreleased DROPOUT with Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave (Nero appears and discusses the experience of working with Brass) as well as his move to the big budget of SALON KITTY and CALIGULA. In one of his last interviews, Bond series production designer Ken Adam recalls how Brass' own excesses encouraged his own in designing the sets for the film – Adam regrets not keeping any sketches from the production but they are present and accounted for in Brass' archive – while CALIGULA's Helen Mirren not only recalls her own fond memories of working with Brass and his wife/muse Carla Cipriani (aka "Tinta") but also expresses her sympathy for the position he was put in between Penthouse producer Bob Guccione and screenwriter Gore Vidal (who described Brass simply as "my cameraman" who was to film his work as it was written), while the critics come back to describe the legal fallout over the film's post-production. The transition of Brass from "political rapture" – SALON KITTY and CALIGULA are grouped in with the earlier experimental films as being critical of the "anarchy of power" (even Guccione pretentiously cites CALIGULA as an allegory for the Nixon administration) – to "erotic rapture" is interpreted here as a direction rather than a departure (oddly the post-CALIGULA, low-budget, independently-made ACTION is not mentioned). Actors Franco Branciaroli (THE KEY), Serena Grandi (MIRANDA), and Yuliya Mayarchuk (TRASGREDIRE) discuss his better-known erotic works with some funny asides regarding the rubber phallus illustrated by behind the scenes video material from his last feature MONAMOUR. Brass' legacy here is also as much as a filmmaker as a icon in the overall Italian social perspectives on sexuality.