Erotic director plans film on Berlusconi 'babes'

Italian soft porn director Tinto Brass, the subject of a documentary screening at Venice film festival Saturday, told reporters he wants to make a film about ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's escorts. "I want to make a film about Berlusconi. I had in mind the title 'Thank you, Daddy'", Brass said, referring to the nickname given to Berlusconi by the girls who attended the famously bawdy parties in his villa. Brass -- best known for his erotic film "All Ladies Do It", a raunchy take on Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte, and the brutal cult movie "Caligula" -- is in Venice to mark the screening of "Istintobrass", a documentary about his life. Kicking back on the terrace of the luxury Excelsior hotel with his busty partner, Caterina Varzi, whom he describes as his "muse", the 80-year-old lamented "the preference today for senseless Internet porn over crafted erotic films." "It's television's fault that there is a lot of violence against women," he said. "For me on the other hand, women are fundamental because they determine the conditions in which man develops." His would-be subject matter, the 76-year-old Berlusconi -- who denies frequenting escorts or hosting lascivious parties -- was found guilty in June of buying sex from a then 17-year-old prostitute nicknamed "Ruby the Heart Stealer". Berlusconi features in a separate fictional film showing in Venice, Portuguese director Miguel Gomes's ironic "Redemption" which imagines a fictional monologue by the self-proclaimed playboy. Berlusconi has been married twice. His second wife, Veronica Lario, filed for divorce in 2009, describing Berlusconi as "a dragon to whom young virgins offer themselves" and saying she could not stay with a man "who frequents minors".