This 1971 cult classic, featuring a standout performance by Vanessa Redgrave
, offers a hallucinatory and subversive look at the blurred lines between sanity and societal expectation. The Vacation (La Vacanza) – A Review Tinto Brass
delivers a surrealist, anti-establishment drama that is far removed from the hyper-eroticized "Cheeky" style he became known for later in his career. Instead, La Vacanza is a biting social critique wrapped in a dreamlike, avant-garde aesthetic. The story follows Immacolata
(Redgrave), a woman "released" from a mental asylum for a brief holiday, only to find that the "sane" world of the Italian aristocracy and bureaucracy is far more deranged and cruel than the institution she left behind. Redgrave is spectacular, capturing a mix of fragile innocence and fierce independence as she navigates a landscape of exploitation. Why it works: Visual Style:
The film is visually inventive, utilizing experimental editing and a vibrant, almost psychedelic color palette typical of early 70s European cinema. Political Edge:
It serves as a sharp condemnation of how society treats outsiders, the poor, and those deemed "mentally unfit," suggesting that the real madness lies in the rigid structures of the state. The Score: The Vacation -La Vacanza- - Tinto Brass 1971 -S...
The haunting soundtrack perfectly complements the film’s transition from whimsical liberation to crushing disillusionment.
While the pacing can feel disjointed—deliberately mirroring the protagonist's fractured state— La Vacanza remains a powerful piece of Italian New Wave
cinema. It is a must-watch for those who appreciate films that challenge the status quo through a lens of surrealism and bold performance.
this film to Tinto Brass's more famous erotic works or help you find where to stream
In the vast, often misunderstood filmography of Tinto Brass, the 1971 film The Vacation (La Vacanza) holds a peculiar place. Sandwiched between his early forays into political satire (Nerosubianco) and his later, more famous forays into softcore erotica (Caligula, The Key), La Vacanza is a film of transitional tension. It captures the director in a moment of stylistic refinement, where his love for the human form begins to collide with a distinctly post-’68 sense of emotional disillusionment. This 1971 cult classic, featuring a standout performance
Far from the campy, cheeky (often literally) spectacle of his 1980s work, The Vacation is a more brooding, sun-drenched meditation on freedom, stagnation, and the transactional nature of modern love.
Upon release, La Vacanza was a critical and commercial disaster. Audiences expecting a steamy Brass melodrama were met with an art-house endurance test. Critics called it pretentious, ugly, and meandering. Brass himself would later distance himself from the film’s bleakness, pivoting toward the comedic eroticism that would define his brand.
But time has been kind to La Vacanza. Viewed today, in an era of political burnout, climate anxiety, and the performative nature of social media activism, the film feels prescient. We are all Osiride now—posting radical slogans between Zoom meetings, vacationing in rented Airbnbs where we feel nothing, waiting for a violence that would feel more authentic than this peace.
Director: Tinto Brass Year: 1971 Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, Leopoldo Trieste
The film follows Glauco (played with weary detachment by Franco Nero, in a role that subverts his usual heroic cool) and his younger, volatile lover, Gigi (a magnetic Florinda Bolkan). Seeking to escape the claustrophobic chaos of a Rome simmering with political protests, the couple retreats to a remote, rustic villa on the Sardinian coast. Their stated goal is a “vacation”—a pause to reconnect. The story follows Immacolata (Redgrave), a woman "released"
However, from the opening frames, Brass makes it clear this is no holiday. The villa is crumbling, isolated, and windswept. There are no cheerful tourists, no bustling piazzas. Instead, the film becomes a two-character chamber piece set against a landscape of immense, indifferent beauty. Glauco wants peace and writing; Gigi wants passion and confrontation. As the days blur into a cycle of lethargic sunbathing, tense meals, and sporadic, frustrated lovemaking, a mysterious drifter (played by Vanessa Redgrave in a brief, haunting cameo) washes ashore, catalyzing the couple’s unspoken resentments.
The plot revolves around the story of a young girl who goes on a vacation. Detailed descriptions of the plot might be scarce due to the niche nature of the film and the director's focus on sensual and erotic elements. Tinto Brass films often prioritize visual aesthetics, eroticism, and sometimes social commentary.
Visually, La Vacanza is a masterpiece of 1971 cinema. Cinematographer Silvano Ippoliti (who would later shoot Brass’s Salon Kitty) bathes the film in a sickly, overexposed light. The Italian summer never looked so oppressive. Walls are white. The sky is bleached. There are no shadows, only flat, merciless clarity.
Brass uses architecture as a weapon. The hotel where the couple stays is a Fascist-era building: cold, symmetrical, inhuman. The couple walks through its corridors like prisoners. The famous “vacation” locales—the beach, the mountains, the piazza—are all framed as traps. In a bravura sequence, Brass films the couple from the bottom of a swimming pool. Their voices are muffled. They wave at each other but cannot hear. It is a perfect metaphor for the film’s theme: communication failed before it began.
The editing, by Franco Arcalli, is jagged and arrhythmic. Arcalli was a master of temporal dislocation (he edited Last Tango in Paris). Here, he creates jump cuts that disorient the viewer. A conversation begins in a car; it ends in a bedroom, with no transition. Time has collapsed. The vacation has become a loop.