Flavia The Heretic (1974)

Either the movie, or I, can’t decide whether it’s art with a political/feminist agenda, or sleazy eurotrash. It has artistic bits (some of the imagery, especially one very distinctive scene of a naked woman climbing inside a cow’s carcass, and definitely the music). Sometiimes is succeeds as art and trash at the same time (the horrible scene of a woman being raped in a pigsty while the pigs excitedly stamp around her – it’s a poorly acted rape, but you have to feel for the actress being naked and on her back while largeish pigs scurry around her – too close), and in its artistic life, it shows us quite well how men rule – they castrate a horse without regard for its suffering, they rape and get away with it whilst the smallest infraction by a woman means they get flogged (if lucky) or tortured to death if not.

It kind of works partly, and the atmosphere veers from rather fine when the odd imagery and music come in, to being undercut by the poor sound design, some poor acting, and the extremeness of the sleaze.

I kind of enjoyed it, when there wasn’t a wince on my face, which was often.

I definitely saw a cut version by the way, because the end of the uncut apparently has an extended flaying – my version cut sharply just as that started. I don’t feel hard-done-by in missing it though.