''The Key'' ( it, La chiave) is an Italian

erotic film Sex in film, the presentation of aspects of sexuality in film, specially human sexuality, has been controversial since the development of the medium. Films which display or suggest sexual behavior have been criticized by religious groups or hav ...

directed by

Tinto Brass Giovanni "Tinto" Brass (born 26 March 1933) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In the 1960s and 1970s, he directed many critically acclaimed avant-garde films of various genres. Today, he is mainly known for his later work in the er ...

. Set in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

under the

fascist regime Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...

in the early months of 1940, it recounts a tale of a voluptuous woman in her forties who is unable to respond to her husband but undergoes a belated sexual awakening with her daughter's fiancé, which enables her to please her husband at last. The film caused scandal in some quarters because it contains several explicit shots of nudity (characterised by certain critics as "gynecological") and sex scenes involving the well-known actress

Stefania Sandrelli Stefania Sandrelli (born 5 June 1946) is an Italian actress, famous for her many roles in the ''commedia all'Italiana'', starting from the 1960s. She was 14 years old when she starred in '' Divorce Italian Style'' as Angela, the cousin and love i ...

. However, the film ultimately obtained a decent level of commercial success.

Plot

Desperate after 20 years of marriage at his inability to arouse his beautiful but inhibited wife Teresa, retired art teacher Nino Rolfe records his love for her and his frustration in a diary that he locks in his desk, leaving the key for her to find. When she passes out after a party, he undresses her and their daughter's fiancé Laszlo administers an injection. Laszlo, who surreptitiously fondled her exposed buttock during the injection, is also seized with desire for Teresa. Nino starts taking secret photographs of Teresa asleep but the only person he can find to develop them is Laszlo, who starts a steamy affair with Teresa. His fiancée Lisa reproaches her mother but remains complicit by not breaking off with Laszlo, who also begins taking provocative pictures of Teresa. In addition, Teresa starts keeping a diary of her feelings, which she makes sure Nino can find. So a web of guilty relationships is formed, recorded in supposedly secret diaries and photographs. It ends when Teresa, liberated by her wild cavortings with Laszlo, feels able to give pleasure to Nino as well. The effort gives him a stroke, and the story ends with his funeral, held on the day Italy enters the war.

Production

''The Key'' is based on '' Kagi'' by Tanizaki Junichiro. The book had been previously adapted to film by

Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary '' Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won ...

in ''

Odd Obsession is a 1959 Japanese drama film directed by Kon Ichikawa. It was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize. It was based on the novel '' The Key'', by Japanese novelist Junichirō Tanizaki. Plot A man who suspects ...

''. Brass' film relocates the story to Mussolini's time and changes the setting to Venice.

Cast

: Teresa Rolfe * Frank Finlay: Nino Rolfe *

Barbara Cupisti Barbara Cupisti is an Italian award-winning documentary director with a long career as film actress. As an actress, she is well known outside of her native country by horror fans, who will most likely recognize her from her films with director ...

: Lisa Rolfe *

Franco Branciaroli Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when re ...

: Laszlo Apony *

Ricky Tognazzi Ricky Tognazzi (born Riccardo Tognazzi; ; 1 May 1955) is an Italian actor and film director. He has appeared in 50 films and television shows since 1963. His film '' The Escort'' was entered into the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 1991, he won ...

: a student *

Ugo Tognazzi Ugo Tognazzi (23 March 1922 – 27 October 1990) was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter. Early life Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a travelling clerk fo ...

: a drunk

Reception

From a contemporary review, the ''

Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with ...

'' found that "Despite its solid production values, ''The Key'' has a reassuringly uninflated approach to its material" and that the film "is a much more creative use of genre than many more 'respectable' commercial attempts." In a retrospective review, ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' stated that "Brass makes no apology for underlining a personal preference (common to the pornography enjoyed by his generation) for frequent displays of stockings and suspenders, wispy pubic hair and above all the female posterior" while stating that "visually the film plays rewarding games with reflections and colours. But the political ambience is weakly conveyed in comparison with Bertolucci's '' The Conformist'' (1970), with which ''The Key'' shares its period, Sandrelli and producer Giovanni Bertolucci."

References

External links