All Ladies Do It Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

All Ladies Do It Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 18, 2013

Tinto Brass' "Cosi fan tutte" a.k.a. "All Ladies Do It" (1992) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video. The only supplemental feature on this release is an original trailer for the film. Also included is a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly illustrated artwork by The Red Dress and collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic David Flint, illustrated with rare production stills. In English or Italian, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Are you coming?

Diana's (Claudia Koll, Cucciolo) fantasies are so intense that her husband Paolo (Paolo Lanza, P.O. Box Tinto Brass) can't get enough of them. He routinely asks her to describe to him the men she meets in her dreams, the places they visit, and how they make love. Occasionally, Diana also mentions her dreams to the other girls in the lingerie shop where she works.

During a lavish party, Diana meets Alphonse (Franco Branciaroli, Senso '45), a poet and collector, who promises to spice up her life. She flirts with him and even allows him to touch her, but remains faithful to her husband. Soon after, Paolo realizes that some of Diana's descriptions are too detailed to be only the product of her imagination. When he confronts her, Diana decides that it is time to begin enjoying life to the fullest. Eventually, they part ways, and she heads to Venice, the city of love.

Like most of Tinto Brass' erotic films, All Ladies Do It has an episodic structure. Typically, each episode culminates either with a lovemaking scene or some sort of outrageous party where people take off their clothes.

All Ladies Do It is very light and very elegant. At times, it reminds of Marshall Herskovitz's Dangerous Beauty, but its plot isn't as good as that of the American film. Diana's fantasies and experiments are used primarily as a pretext to show her wearing beautiful dresses and sexy lingerie, making love to different men. In a film like All Ladies Do It, however, this is anything but a weakness.

It has been said that the Italian title of the film was inspired by Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. This is the official information that one would typically find if one reads reviews of the film written in English. The real intent behind the title, however, is not to pay homage to the famous opera. It is a smart joke that pokes fun at conservative Italian values.

Koll, a stunningly beautiful actress, is quite impressive as Diana. As someone who had never before had a major role in a feature film, she looks remarkably relaxed and confident in front of the camera. During the second half, when she travels to Venice, she is absolutely stunning. On the other hand, Lanza, who plays her suspicious husband, is disappointingly stiff and occasionally even looks flat-out awkward.

All Ladies Do It was lensed by two different cinematographers. The majority of the footage was shot by the great cinematographer Silvano Ippoliti, who collaborated with Brass on many of his early films, including the psychedelic Attraction, the lavish Salon Kitty, the legendary Caligula, and arguably the Italian director's best film, Paprika. Brass was also assisted by Massimo Di Venanzo, who worked as a camera operator for many of the greatest post-war Italian directors, including Federico Fellini (Amarcord), Lina Wertmuller (All Screwed Up), Vittorio De Sica (Sunflower), and Michelangelo Antonioni (Identification of a Woman).

Music has a very important role in the majority of Brass' films. All Ladies Do It benefits from a terrific selection of light and appropriately playful tunes that were assembled by Pino Donaggio (Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill, Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now).

All Ladies Do It Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tinto Brass' All Ladies Do It arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video.

The high-definition transfer appears to have been struck from a dated master with several serious issues. The most problematic aspect of the presentation is the fact that the entire film is framed incorrectly. It appears that the image has been zoomed in and then recut. As a result, it is often easy to see that there is crucial information missing from the top of the image frame (see screencaptures #5 and 11). Similar reframing was done on Cult Epics' R1 DVD releases of Tinto Brass' Deadly Sweet and Attraction. Furthermore, there are traces of moderate filtering throughout the entire film (see screencapture #2). Various artifacts are also present. Shadow definition and especially clarity during the nighttime footage are also very problematic (see screencapture #15). Lastly, color reproduction is very disappointing - there is a wide range of prominent colors that have essentially collapsed. All in all, I have to admit that this is indeed a very disappointing presentation that will not impress fans of All Ladies Do It. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

All Ladies Do It Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0 and Italian LPCM 2.0. For the record, Arrow Video have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the English version of the film and optional English subtitles for the Italian version of the film.

The English track serves the film rather well. Even during the outdoor party sequence from the second half dynamic movement is fairly modest, but there is pleasing depth. The dialog is clean and easy to follow, but because of the original overdubbing that was done for the film, it is at times slightly uneven. Indeed, the lossless track is not responsible for it. There are no problematic audio dropouts, clicks, or distortions to report in this review. The Italian lossless track is fairly similar. Dynamic movement is modest, but clarity and depth are indeed quite pleasing.

All Ladies Do It Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for All Ladies Do It. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

• Cover Art - reversible sleeve featuring original and newly illustrated artwork by The Red Dress.

• Booklet - collector's booklet featuring new writing on All Ladies Do It by critic David Flint, illustrated with rare production stills.

All Ladies Do It Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There isn't a lot of respect for the work of Italian director Tinto Brass on this side of the Atlantic, but I think that he sees and films women a lot like the great Federico Fellini did. His films are treated and labeled differently because they show more of what Fellini only suggested. All Ladies Do It, one of Brass' best films, is now available on Blu-ray, but the technical presentation is far from impressive. This is very unfortunate because if there is a label that can treat Brass and his work with the proper respect it is certainly Arrow Video. If this is the best All Ladies Do It can look at the moment, then I have to speculate that there are no suitable elements for a Blu-ray release.