How sad is this?

Absolutely Fantastic

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

My first thought on viewing this was that this is an incredibly, absurdly, intensely silly film. Yes, it's exploitation, and sure, it arguably trivialises a really awful period in European history. Absolutely, you can see this entire sub-genre as something loathsome and reprehensible, and it's possible to argue taht some films within this category are just that. But this? Come on. This is wall-to-wall silliness, and totally harmless. The worst crime this movie commits, possibly, is being naieve. I know that's a weird thing to say about a Nazi exploitation picture, but I think the people who made this intended it largely as a comic farce, and I think on that level, it succeeds rather well. My girlfriend and I had a great time with this movie and there were moments when neither of us could stop laughing.Now that I've had a chance to calm down, though, I realise that the film-makers did something kind of genius here. Actually, there's a huge frisson of sadness around everything here, but it only really comes to the surface later, when you find you have a lot of sympathy for some of the characters here and not only what they are forced to do, but how it makes them question their very ideology. I'm referring, specifically, mostly to the girls, including Kitty, erstwhile owner of the salon, trainer of prostitutes and so on. You might just be surprised that this film tries to inject some class into proceedings. Granted it's not subtle, but would you want this kind of film to be? The scene in the aquarium, where the fish bear witness to a little national socialist girl stepping on some poor jewish kid's toy, is a strange mix of poignant and heavy-handed, and the fact that the film stops its crazy antics for a moment to dwell lingeringly on this carefully constructed scene should tell you a few things about the makers' intentions. I say again, this is a really interesting mixture of the crass, the downright hilarious and the tragic.Another facet of the production that i thought was worth commenting on was that although it's wall-to-wall nudity almost right from the start (and just as much male as female, I might add), you'd be hard-pressed to find much eroticism here because the situations are just so absurd. The idea is that these people treat sexuality as a military exercise. All the tests, rigors, mingling; its' all a kind of official gymnasium activity. It's only later, once you sort of spend time with some of the girls and their situations, does something approaching pathos start to sneak in. Maybe there's actually a bit of subtlety going on here, after all, because I can't think of any other movie of this type that tries to engender its characters with sympathy.As i said, i watched this with my girlfriend, and therefore I can vouch for the fact that there's always something interesting to look at. Lots of crazy costumes, bizarre scenarios, wild antics. And the songs! How could I forget? During the first half of this movie they com at you pretty fast, making you feel like you're experiencing some insane Nazi cabaret musical film. The music ranges from pretty-damn-catchy to bloody awful, basically at the film-maker's whim. Some of it is certainly rather good, which underscores my idea that everything garishly absurd in this film is intentionally done to make you groan or laugh. The songs mostly seem like the sort of thing that would be popular in Nazi Germany at the time, and are often both traditional and boisterous. Things settle down later on. In fact, the whole tone of the movie starts to shift beyond the second half into something much more dramatic. I must admit that, as this is quite a bit longer than your average exploitation film, probably because the creators tried to imbue it with a real sense of artistry (!), I did find my attention beginning to wander a bit. But make no mistake, as far as these Nazi flicks go, you're not going to get any classier or more interesting than this. I guess you could say this is the "Caligula" of nazixploitation, considering how much is visually on display here. This film probably has more extras in it than the rest of the genre combined.I recommend this film if you are in the mood for this kind of thing. it has a bit of ambition that might surprise you, and if you can relax about this sort of thing, it's actually really funny in parts. And while I can't say that "good" really triumphs in the end, there's nothing here glorifying national socialism -- you'll find quite the reverse to be true, and on a basic level, I'd say this film works as a particularly bawdy form of satire.

In WW2 Germany, Gestapo officers spy on their own soldiers at a brothel to make sure they don't turn against the Fuhrer. Thulin and Berger are reunited after playing mother and son in "The Damned," cementing their places in the Decadence Hall of Shame. Thulin vamps through three songs, which is at least three too many. As one would expect from Brass, there is ample display of flesh. Savoy is an idealistic young woman with naked ambitions (well, naked anyway). The film is trashy fun as long as it is focusing on the salacious activities of those naughty Nazis. However, Brass decides to throw in some messages about love and war, making the film drag somewhat and go on too long.

Sometimes when a film relaxes and you relax into it, you can really feel that you are touching the filmmaker. That he is slightly drunk and comfortable and you are experiencing him (or her).That's one place you want to be in your life in films, and it is the basis for many of the film experiences I rate as "must have."But it has all sorts of dangers. The filmmaker must be more than skilled enough to connect, he must be actually interesting, worthwhile, engaged in life in ways that impregnate. There are few films that are well enough sculpted to be entered. And of those, there are few that reward your investing wet parts of your soul to it. You know who the good ones are.Even then, often you'll get what you have here, equal parts of fine wine and flat cola. I suppose it is impossible to be otherwise with Nazi-centered soft porn, but Jess Franco (when not drunk) can do pretty well.The good here is that once in a while, you'll encounter some staging with some stark, clear composition and elements that are every bit in the class with Lang or Greenaway. These have ordinary camera positions: non-human in character but human in position. Its the creation of a staged imagination, of dramatic nuance not placed in the actor but in the cinematic frame. (The actors aren't bad, by the way; its just that the weight of the thing isn't on their shoulders — or other body parts.)Some day, commentors like me will be able to provide bookmarks to these scenes so you can experience them without wading through the rotted soup in between. Oh, and that is a ghastly experience, a walk in the dark through greasy fog from one brilliant view through a window to the next.Hey, there's a story, but never mind. Its as irrelevant, stupid and disposable as its sisters, like "Schindler's List," which this resembles in a few ways. And there's some nudity, though in most cases one wonders why. The chief actress is pretty and very German, different from Brasses usual big-bottomed Italian tigresses.I'd really like you to see some of the good stuff here. But like much of Bertolucci, you would curse me for sending you there.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Salon Kitty is a rather disturbing film. It shows what can happen to a country when filth take over. There are many facets to this film especially the Nazi German notion of the pure aryan master race vs. the Jewish question. One of the most powerful sections of this film is where a terrified Jewish family come into contact with a group of revolting League of German Girls group. The little innocent child has accidentally dropped his toy. The League of German Girls leader rather than helping the child sees the terror in its eyes and with one foul stomp of her foot destroys the toy with her shoe, obtaining pleasure in the process, and the smugly walks on. This is a metaphor for what the Nazi German criminal regime has in store for the Jewish people of not only their own country but the rest of Europe. Ingrid Thulin is absolutely brilliant in this film as Madam Kitty, operator of the brothel, Salon Kitty. Helmut Berger is also very good in his role as the SS Officer who is charged with taking over Salon Kitty and turning it into a state run spying agency where specially trained aryan prostitutes submit reports after being with their clients on any betrayal of the Nazi regime. Downstairs in the cellars all conversations are being recorded. Madam Kitty is forced under pain of death to convert her brothel into an arm of the SS. The full horror of the lack of humanity of the SS is shown in the audition process the potential prostitutes go through where they are group tested with young SS officers. This is not a film for the light hearted. It treats human life as something not worth very much in the hands of a criminal regime.