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The Key
La chiave
1983 110 min Italy R 18+
★5.9
Drama, Romance
Director: Tinto Brass
🎭 Based on
«The Key»
byJun'ichirō Tanizaki
Trailers
Description
In 1940s Venice, after twenty years' marriage, retired art critic Nino Rolfe and his younger wife Teresa feel their passion waning. To help her shed her inhibitions and rekindle their relationship, the professor records his sexual fantasies in a diary.
Starring
Frank Finlay
Actor
Stefania Sandrelli
Actor
Franco Branciaroli
Actor
Key opinion
Tinto Brass's 1983 film is an intellectually ambitious but uneven exploration of eroticism set against the backdrop of 1930s Fascist Italy. While the film attempts to weave psychological complexity and political tension into its central sexual narrative, critics remain divided on whether these disparate elements successfully coalesce.
| Acting | Stefania Sandrelli delivers a strong and compelling performance that anchors the central narrative. | |
| Theme | The narrative effectively juxtaposes an intimate sexual power game with the macro-level rise of Fascism in 1930s Italy. | |
| Direction | The director struggles to balance the psychological subtext with the erotic narrative, resulting in a tone that feels occasionally contrived or pompous. | |
| Originality | Opinions on the film's artistic success are divided; some praise its esoteric style and intellectual demand, while others find the attempt at serious drama clunky and unsuccessful. |