Netflix-Backed 'Deadly Sweet' Restoration to Pre-Open
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- Venice Film Festival set the world premiere of the restored 1967 Tinto Brass thriller "Deadly Sweet" — which originally screened out-of-competition at Venice in 1967 — as its Sept. 1 pre-opening event on the Lido.
- Netflix supported the new digital 4K restoration, carried out by Rome's Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia film archives; the restored print will also feature in the Venice Classics sidebar.
- "Deadly Sweet" stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as a man who, upon discovering his business contact has been murdered, protects Ewa Aulin's character instead of calling police and pursues the real killers into the London underworld.
- The film was loosely inspired by Sergio Donati's novel "Il sepolcro di carta"; producers were Ermanno Donati and Luigi Carpentieri, with a screenplay by Brass, Francesco Longo and Pierre Lévy-Corti, cinematography by Silvano Ippoliti and music by Armando Trovajoli.
- Brass is best known internationally for "Salon Kitty" (1976) and "Caligula" — the latter wrested from Brass and screenwriter Gore Vidal by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, who added explicit footage featuring Helen Mirren, Malcolm McDowell, John Gielgud and Peter O'Toole, prompting both creators to sue to have their names removed.
- The 84th Venice Film Festival runs Sept. 2–12, with the official competition lineup set to be announced July 23.
Why it matters: Netflix funding the restoration of a 1967 cult erotic thriller — and Venice giving it a pre-opening slot on the Lido, where the film originally screened out-of-competition in 1967 — signals that streaming-backed archival restoration has reached one of cinema's most prestigious showcases, giving Brass a long-overdue international platform just weeks before the festival's competition lineup is unveiled on July 23.
