Giovanni Brass was born on Sunday, 26 March 1933 into the family of a famous artist, Italico Brass, who was his grandfather. Italico gave his grandson a nickname "Tintoretto," which Giovanni later adapted into his cinematic name, Tinto Brass.Tinto inherited his grandfather's artistic skills, but he applied them to film instead of canvas. When he joined the Italian film industry, he worked with such famous directors as Federico Fellini (his idol) and Roberto Rossellini.In 1963 he directed his first film, "Chi lavora è perduto (1963)." Afterwards, he went on to make such avante garde art films as "Nerosubianco" and "L'Urlo."He was approached in 1976 to directed a sexploitation quicky "Salon Kitty," but Tinto wisely chose to have the script rewritten, turning it into a dark, political satire.The success of "Salon Kitty" lead the Penthouse owner Bob Guccione to choose Tinto Brass to helm the big budget adaption of Gore Vidal's "Caligula." Tinto finished the shooting the film, but when he refused to convert it into a pointless flesh flick and include Bob Guccione's re-shoots consisting of Penthouse centre-folds making out and romping, he was fired and locked out of the editing room. Tinto later disowned the film when he saw the botched editing (the film was spliced together amauterly from outtakes and rehearsal footage) and Bob Guccione's scenes spliced in with his work. Ironically, "Caligula" remains Tinto's most famous film.After "Caligula" became a huge international box office hit, Tinto was hired to shoot a spy thriller "Snack Bar Budapest."Afterwards, he decided that he should focus on erotica, in a way to rebel against the hypcracy of censors, explaining that sex is a normal part of life and we should just deal with it.With his latest films "Senso '45" (an update of the classic novella "Senso") and an erotic comedy "Fallo!," Tinto cemented his reputation of an undisputed master of erotica and avante-garde art films.