Cheeky! (4K UHD Review)
- Review Date: Apr 30, 2025
- Format: 4K Ultra HD
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Director
Tinto BrassRelease Date(s)
2000 (October 22, 2024)Studio(s)
Lion Pictures (Cult Epics)- Film/Program Grade: N/A
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A+
- Extras Grade: B+
Review
In 2000, erotic comedy extraordinaire Tinto Brass entered the new millennium with one of the final projects during his latter day filmmaking period: Tra(sgre)dire, released elsewhere in the world as Cheeky! The original Italian title is a mix of trasgredire (transgress) and tradire (cheat), which this film’s leading lady and her boyfriend must deal with. Matteo (Jarno Berardi) has to learn to accept that even though his beloved Carla (Yuliya Mayarchuk) can occasionally be unfaithful to him, their love is stronger and unbreakable because of it. Not only that, but he gradually begins to enjoy the idea of seeing her being who she is, a beautiful woman desired by many. Carla loves Matteo and will do anything to please him, but she must also learn to be herself. Both must accept these things or they’re doomed. If that sounds complicated, it is, but so is sexuality, which Tinto Brass understood only too well, exploring these types of sexual ideals from film to film.
Carla leaves her college world in Venice to pursue a life in London, heading there to find work and an apartment with her boyfriend Matteo, who’s back home and still in school. She finds a spacious flat with a great view, but it comes with the caveat that she pay extra special attention to the real estate agent, Moira (Francesca Nunzi), a lesbian who immediately falls for Carla’s charms. Meanwhile, Matteo is wrestling with the idea that Carla might be cheating on him, and after discovering a hidden stack of letters and a nude photo of Carla in her old bedroom, both of them keepsakes from her former lover Bernard, it threatens their relationship and Carla must choose whether or not to be subservient to Matteo, all while the men and women of London discover her and want to be with her, or Matteo must learn to accept Carla for who she is.
For Cheeky!, Tinto Brass wanted to explore the hedonistic idea that men and women can be in a loving relationship and still be able to be with whomever they want, with total freedom to do so. In other words, having their cake and eating it, too. It’s definitely a message that many are not going to identify with, especially since it comes surrounded by heaping amounts of nudity and sex, albeit simulated (though it’s worth pointing out that Yuliya Mayarchuk has admitted that she did insert a fake penis during some of the sex scenes), but Tinto Brass was and still is very open-minded when it comes to carnal pleasures and believes it to be natural and not to be stigmatized.
In the story, Matteo is maddeningly jealous at the thought of Carla being with anyone else, so much so that the main set piece is their confrontation after his discovery of the letters and the nude photo. Their relationship happily blossoms in the aftermath, particularly after Matteo inadvertently witnesses a man enjoying himself while watching his wife make love on a parked bench to someone else. The man even questions Matteo once he notices him: “Do you like my wife?” It feels like an invitation, but it’s a realization for Matteo as he suddenly sees Carla with her former lover in that moment, and that he enjoys the idea of it. And they live happily ever after.
Cheeky! also takes place in a modern world as opposed to Brass’s previous films which took place in the past, or were designed to appear as such. It’s just as idealistically over-the-top in terms of nudity and sex, but it continues the tradition of gorgeous cinematography, courtesy of Massimo Di Venanzo; numerous beautiful naked men and women, especially women; and lovely European locations. One thing you certainly cannot fault a Tinto Brass film for is being unpleasant to look at, all nudity and sexual activity aside. There’s also the added benefit of a score from the great Pino Donaggio (Carrie, Don’t Look Now, The Howling, Dressed to Kill), which adds an extra layer of strength to an already potent aural and visual palette.
It’s also the fastest film that Tinto Brass made during this period in terms of pacing. Barely hitting the 90-minute mark, it flies by at a quite a clip, which in some ways is a detriment as the Matteo and Carla relationship isn’t given nearly enough time to rationally reach its blissful conclusion. But with Tinto Brass at the helm, I suppose anything is possible. Yuliya Mayarchuk is stunning and magnetic, as well as a great actress. She’s very well cast as a sultry innocent let loose on a world that immediately becomes smitten with her. Performances are solid all around, including those from Jarno Berardi and Francesca Nunzi, and the film is gorgeous to look at, successfully selling Tinto Brass’ brand of softcore erotica (or mediumcore, as I like to think of it). The hypersexualized nature of his work can be a difficult wavelength to ride on an initial viewing if you’re not in the right frame of mind, but if you are, you’ll find more here than just gorgeously-lensed flesh.
Cheeky! was shot by cinematographer Massimo Di Venanzo on 35mm film using Arriflex and Moviecam cameras and spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Cult Epics brings the film to Ultra HD for the first time in its “Uncut and Uncensored Director’s Cut” from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative, graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10, and presented on a dual-layered BD-66 disc. Once again, Cult Epics has delivered another high quality presentation of a Tinto Brass film with outstanding clarity and bitrates that mostly sit between the 80 and 100Mbps range, almost always hovering around the uppermost registers. The whole of the presentation is organic to its source with medium refined grain and abundant levels of fine detail in every inch of the frame, with only the mildest of speckling. It also features a lovely color palette that’s fully enriched by the HDR grade, with perfect contrast and deep blacks.
Audio is included on four tracks: English and Italian 2.0 stereo and 5.1 in DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional subtitles in English SDH. The dubbing for the English tracks is not that great, but the rest of the elements on the other tracks are similar to each other. All are clean with good support for dialogue and Pino Dinaggio’s score. The Italian stereo track is my preferred listening experience, though the 5.1 does push score and sound effects out and around the listening space, but your mileage may vary depending upon your setup and personal preferences.
Cheeky! on 4K Ultra HD sits in a black Amaray case alongside a 1080p Blu-ray containing the film and additional extras. Also included are four lobby card reproductions and a 20-page booklet containing the essay The Cheeks of Controversy: Yuliya Mayarchuk and Tinto Brass by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti. The double-sided insert features the Italian home video poster artwork with the title Cheeky! on the front, and the original Italian theatrical artwork with the title Tra(sgre)dire on the rear. Everything is housed in a slipcover featuring new artwork. The following extras are included on each disc:
DISC ONE: UHD
- Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Nathaniel Thompson
- Tinto Brass Trailers:
- Cheeky! (Transgressing) Trailer (4K w/HDR – 3:24)
- Frivolous Lola (Monella) Italian Trailer (4K w/HDR – 2:17)
- All Ladies Do It English Language Trailer (4K – 3:21)
DISC TWO: BD
- Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Nathaniel Thompson
- Dal set di Tra(sgre)dire di Tinto Brass (SD – 8:18)
- Brassgressions and Other Diversions: An Interview with Massimo Di Venanzo (HD – 37:49)
- Isolated Score by Pino Donaggio
- Still Photo Gallery (HD – 41:17)
- Tinto Brass Trailers:
- Cheeky! (Transgressing) Trailer (HD – 3:24)
- Cheeky! (Tra(sgre)dire) Teaser (HD – 1:20)
- Frivolous Lola (Monella) Italian Trailer (HD – 2:17)
- All Ladies Do It English Language Trailer (HD – 3:21)
- Paprika Italian Trailer (HD – 1:11)
- P.O. Box Tinto Brass (Fermo posta Tinto Brass) Italian Trailer (HD – 1:05)
- Istintobrrass Italian Trailer (HD – 4:13)
In the audio commentary with filmmaker and documentarian Eugenio Ercolani and film historian Nathaniel Thompson, they discuss Tinto Brass’ career up to this point and compare the film to other films of this period, while also highlighting many of its key players, and its use of eroticism. Dal set di Tra(sgre)dire di Tinto Brass aka From the Set of Tra(sgre)dire with Tinto Brass (titled Backstage with Tinto Brass on the main menu) is a vintage featurette on the film during its production, showing the lensing of several scenes in progress. Brassgressions and Other Diversions is a new interview with cinematographer Massimo Di Venanzo in which he discusses the breadth of his impressive career leading up to and including working with Tinto Brass. Next is 18 tracks of Isolated Score by Pino Donnagio, played over a single production still. Speaking of which, the Still Photo Gallery contains 21 production stills from the film. Last is a set of trailers for this and other Tinto Brass films.
Cult Epics has been doing wonderful work on 4K Ultra HD with Tinto Brass’ catalogue of films, Cheeky! included. Here’s hoping that they get to more of them because all of these releases (including All Ladies Do It and Frivolous Lola) are well worth adding to your film library.
- Tim Salmons
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