Despite the push in the United States to regulate it in order to promote a very specific agenda tied to faith, sex is not a bad thing. It can be awkward, messy, and silly, but when it’s between consenting adults, it’s not a bad thing. The key here is “consent.” Without that, without an agreement of participation and how, sex can turn into something sour and distasteful. We don’t need government regulation to address this, only participants with enough education and self-awareness to advocate for themselves. In their latest restoration, Cult Epics brings forth a world premiere 4K UHD Blu-ray with HDR restoration and North American premiere 4K Blu-ray restoration of Caligula director Tinto Brass’s All Ladies Do It (Così fan tutte), an erotic comedy that seeks to explore one woman’s sexual awakening within the confines of a traditional marriage. While there are several aspects of the film which come off as distasteful in a modern context, fans of Brass’s All Ladies Do It will not doubt be delighted by the physical materials and on-disc presentation of the famed director’s works.
L-R: Paolo Lanza as Paolo and Claudia Koll as Diana in ALL LADIES DO IT. Photo Courtesy of Cult Epics.
Five years into her marriage, Diana (Claudia Koll) develops an itch to explore the touch of men other than her husband Paolo (Paolo Lanza) after an incident with a very forward man during a poetry event nearly led to Diana blowing past the line of fidelity. Learning from her co-workers and one of her clients that not all married woman are monogamous, Diana slowly shifts her own perspective, shifting how she engages with the men she meets from sultry teasing into actual infidelity, something which causes fundamental changes in her married life that neither she nor Paolo are necessarily ready to face.
ALL LADIES DO IT 4K UHD edition. Photo courtesy of Cult Epics/MVD Entertainment Group.
There’s a common hypocrisy in most cultures that men are basically allowed to do anything and women are meant to be virginal until marriage and, then, solely for the pleasure of their partner. This implies that women have zero agency beyond being an object for another to control. For a film which follows a woman and her experience dipping her toe into foreign sexual waters, the whole of All Ladies Do It still centers the male experience. The camerawork lingers and leers on Koll’s body, taking moments that should be every day, like coming home and sitting upon a piece of furniture, and making several points to shift from Diana as a person to zero in on her bare buttocks or the visible curls of her pubic region. She’s in her home and is well-within her rights to exist in that space as is comfortable for her, but there’s a way to present her as a powerful figure within her sexuality without framing her in her individual parts. And that’s basically how Diana and all other women are presented, by their parts. Most of the other female characters in the film are depicted as less sexually inhibited/more experienced than she, imparting their philosophy to her as she dares to experience other men within her marriage, but nearly all of them are also engaging in intimacy that feels more akin to the Free Use ideology as far as men are concerned than anything more. It’s not that sex must always include emotion or is “wrong” if just based on attraction or financial benefit, but when all of the women are treated as objects that men are allowed, without consequence or objection, to poke and prod, and the camerawork ensures that we see as much of Diana’s soft and vulnerable pieces, a sense conjures that All Ladies Do It isn’t so much a provocative, progressive tale of exploration, but very much an entertainment about what men want from women. This ends up leaving quite a sour taste rather than relishing in what otherwise is, a light and silly romp from co-writers Brass (Frivolous Lola), Francesco Costa (In the Highest of Skies), and Bernardino Zapponi (Deep Red).
Regarding the restoration, there’s no information provided regarding *how* it was completed: the materials used beyond the original negative, who oversaw, or how it was treated. This home release does provide access to either the original mono audio track in Italian or English dub or a new DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with the same language options. Watching the 4K UHD edition, the audio is clean and clear, with the dialogue coming through without issue. There’s no real need for a 5.1 track, even with the party sequence, so the 2.0 offers just a little extra dynamism over the mono track. The video element is a different matter altogether, which isn’t to say that it’s inherently bad, but that certain expectations should be managed. There’s plenty of visible grain and noticeable wear in each frame. It’s not distractingly so, but it’s enough that viewers are even more grounded in the age of the film while watching. Additionally, All Ladies isn’t exactly a vibrant film, the colors leaning into primary colors with the clothes with Diana even wearing a blue shirt with a red dress in one scene and the next it’s the same outfit with swapped colors. High dynamic range may be the expectation with HDR, but it’s more subtle in nature here. Instead, through the grain and wear, we get more natural skin tones (important for the various sex scenes), a little more vibrancy in the clothing, and clarity in the nighttime party sequence. If you’re expecting something richer or warmer, however, you’re not likely to find it here.
L-R: Jean René Lemoine as Seminarista and Claudia Koll as Diana in ALL LADIES DO IT. Photo Courtesy of Cult Epics.
Cult Epics is releasing three versions of All Ladies Do It, each with their own respective materials: a Blu-ray edition, 4K UHD & Blu-ray combo edition, and a 4K UHD & Blu-ray exclusive edition. Courtesy of MVD Entertainment Group, this review is based on the combo edition that includes all of the materials of the exclusive edition minus the limited edition slipcover and poster. This means the edition includes four postcard-sized reproduced lobby card prints and a 20-page booklet with an essay from Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti titled “from Demon to Saint: The Career of Claudia Koll” exploring Koll’s filmography and shift away from erotic cinema. Most of the on-disc bonus materials are included on the Blu-ray with an archived 2001 interview with Brass, trailers, outtakes from the film, and a photo gallery. On both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs is a brand-new audio commentary track from Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth. Considering the niche Cult Epics explores, though few in number, that there are any materials included at all will likely delight fans of this film and its subgenre.
L-R: Franco Branciaroli as Alphonse and Claudia Koll as Diana in ALL LADIES DO IT. Photo Courtesy of Cult Epics.
There’s absolutely a space for films in which sexual exploration is a key component of the narrative. There’s absolutely a space where sexual exploration *is* the only component of the narrative, especially when the primary intent is the sex and nothing else. All Ladies Do It attempts to create a reason for the nudity and softcore pornography by weaving together a narrative that utilizes female sexual expression as a catalyst for everything else. The issue here is that the narrative isn’t particularly investigative and Diana doesn’t actually seem to learn anything about herself either, just not fighting the salacious advances of leering men who grope her with abandon. Though these moments do fall in line with the desire of the film to make nudity more commonplace and nothing to be feared, reducing the sense of lewdness that some come to perceive nudity to be on the whole, they do not come together to support, defend, or detract from any kind of thoughtful ideology or philosophical concept. Instead, everything just seems to occur to create opportunities to see Koll and the rest of the female cast nude and in a manner that keeps the women subjugated as property/objects and the men as dominating forces who take what they want. To this end, All Ladies Do It achieves a goal of presenting nudity and sexuality as a positive thing to investigate, but it fails in its effort to be a cohesive narrative.
All Ladies Do It 4K UHD & Blu-ray Exclusive Special Features:
4K UHD
- New 4K Transfer (from the original negative) & Restoration with HDR
- New DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo English & Italian
- New Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth
- Theatrical Trailer
Blu-ray
- New 4K Transfer (from the original negative) & Restoration
- New DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo English & Italian
- New Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth
- Theatrical Trailers
- Interview with director Tinto Brass (2001)
- Outtakes All Ladies Do It
- Photo Gallery
- Double-sided sleeve with original Italian uncensored poster art
- First printing includes 20-page illustrated booklet with liner notes by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti
- Exclusive: 4 Repro Italian Lobby Card prints
- Slipcover
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray April 2nd, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Cult Epics All Ladies Do It webpage.
To purchase, head to the official MVD Entertainment Group All Ladies Do It webpage.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews
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