For viewers who know Tinto Brass only from his later erotic films, La Vacanza comes as a revelation. Gone are the abundant nudity, the fetishistic rear-end shots, and the softcore tableaux. Instead, what remains is a director working at the height of his formal powers, channeling a dizzying array of influences into a style that is at once experimental, political, and deeply humane.
Rather than returning to a welcoming home, Immacolata is rejected by her ignorant family, leading her to find refuge among society's marginal figures: gypsies, a poacher (played by Franco Nero), and a traveling salesman of ladies' underwear.
The film is a study of female hysteria within a patriarchal structure. Immacolata is "mad" because she refuses to conform to her role as a silent trophy wife. Vanessa Redgrave portrays this with a terrifying fragility—she is not crazy because she is broken, but because she sees the absurdity of the world too clearly.
The most critically respected element of the film is its unusual and haunting soundtrack. While Fiorenzo Carpi composed the score, the lyrics for several songs were written by real patients from a mental hospital. The resulting tracks, including "Se io non ci sarò" and "La voglia di scannarli tutti quanti", are performed by Gigi Proietti and Vanessa Redgrave. They offer a raw, unsettling, and deeply human glimpse into the minds of those society had locked away, making the music a powerful complement to the film's theme of institutional control. The Vacation -La Vacanza- - Tinto Brass 1971 -S...
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: While less frenetic than Brass’s earlier works, The Vacation still features experimental editing and surreal imagery. It has been described as a "surrealist fairy tale" with echoes of Luis Buñuel’s work.
: She eventually flees, encountering a series of bizarre characters, including a sympathetic poacher named Osiride (Franco Nero), leading to a free-flowing and unpredictable journey. Critical Review & Analysis Tinto Brass For viewers who know Tinto Brass only from
: Known for its unconventional, non-linear editing and "visual economy," where complex ideas are expressed through absurd exaggerations (e.g., using midgets to represent Immacolata’s family to emphasize her being a "misfit"). Production Details La vacanza - Cinecittà
Despite its provocative nature, the film was critically acclaimed and won the Pasinetti Award for Best Italian Film at the 1971 Venice Film Festival.
Style & tone
Redgrave saw La Vacanza as a vehicle for her politics. She wrote several of her own lines, including a monologue where Immacolata compares a lover’s touch to “the hand of a factory owner counting coins.” Brass, to his credit, allowed her the freedom. The resulting tension—Redgrave’s sincere, Brechtian anger versus Brass’s cynical, erotic lens—creates the film’s electric charge.
: Rather than welcoming her, her impoverished and ignorant relatives reject her, seeing her only as a financial burden. At one point, her own parents even attempt to sell her off to a creditor.
Quick, disorienting cuts that mirror the psychological state of the protagonist. Rather than returning to a welcoming home, Immacolata
The Vacation is essential viewing for anyone interested in:
: The film is a sharp satire of societal institutions, including the family, the church, and psychiatric care. Brass presents the "outside" world as just as irrational and cruel as the asylum from which Immacolata escaped.