Some may call director Tinto Brass the Italian reply to Russ Meyer and indeed I really loved his trash-epic "Caligula". And even though this one is produced with an almost same expenditure, it´s pretty dull and not that spectacular at all! While Russ Meyer´s provoking with cheeky satires, his Italian colleague puts lots of nudity on a show without being really entertaining or fresh in any way! The best sequence in this film is the dinner-scene, which has got some great situational comic, the rest lies somewhere between camp and smuddle. Actually a pity in view of some quite competent persons involved in this flick: Klaus Kinski´s former darling Debora Caprioglio is giving an okay-performance, John Steiner from Ruggero Deodato´s "Cut and Run" as well as Tinto´s "Caligula" is in and Riz Ortolani, who did a great job with the outstanding "Cannibal Holocaust"-score composed some good music suited to the brothel-mood. However, they all couldn´t save the film! Thoroughly, "Paprika" is better than all those American direct-to-video-shots, but true fans of sleaze-cinema should check out Russ Meyer´s "Fanny Hill" once more!
Review of Paprika
