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Debora Caprioglio is the heart of the film. She manages a difficult balancing act: she is required to be nude in nearly every scene, yet she retains a sense of agency and wide-eyed wonder. She plays Paprika not as a femme fatale, but as a curious student of life. Her performance is bubbly and infectious, helping the viewer overlook the paper-thin plot.
Is Paprika (1991) Tinto Brass’s best film? No. It is too disjointed, too strange, and occasionally too bleak to sit comfortably next to his comedies. But it is perhaps his most radical. It is a film where the spice (the paprika) burns the tongue rather than tickles it.
