Sadly, I haven’t seen this one yet, even though it is an integral part of my non mainstream national film heritage. I found several copies being sold by some dude that owns a now defunct horror movie website at a small local heavy metal festival. I didn’t pick it up though since I was on a limited budget and thought the film to be overpriced. the copy looked pretty crude too so I didn’t really trust the guy on the quality of it.
It was not uncommon in European films to have the hardcore inserts ready for various markets. I don’t necessarily agree that it takes you out of the film, but it is certainly not enticing or attractive. If anything, those scenes made this movie even more uncomfortable for me, as it makes her client scenes so much uglier than they already are. You are right that Christina Lindberg sells this film perfectly, and is so beautiful and vulnerable that the viewer can’t help but be utterly outraged by everything that happens.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
While watching this I figured we were going to get the obligatory scenes of her getting off the dope cold turkey: a dark room with much writhing about, flashbacks to the horrors we’ve already seen, and probably lots of sweat and nudity. It was really shocking to me that this didn’t happen, and that one of the things our heroine does to get away from Tony is…buy her own supply of heroin! I really do mean that this was utterly shocking to me. It made me think, once the film was over, that there was a missing scene where she went back to her car, sat in the front seat and overdosed. Similar to the end of Sonatine, an amazing film by Takeshi Kitano. There was just no happy ending for me. However, I proudly have this movie on the same shelf as my Criterion Edition of Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, which is probably the next ugliest and most depressing “revenge” film out there. Forget the awful remake (WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA? Bring him to me! NOW!) and stick to the incredibly ambiguous and brilliant original.
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Sadly, I haven’t seen this one yet, even though it is an integral part of my non mainstream national film heritage. I found several copies being sold by some dude that owns a now defunct horror movie website at a small local heavy metal festival. I didn’t pick it up though since I was on a limited budget and thought the film to be overpriced. the copy looked pretty crude too so I didn’t really trust the guy on the quality of it.
It was not uncommon in European films to have the hardcore inserts ready for various markets. I don’t necessarily agree that it takes you out of the film, but it is certainly not enticing or attractive. If anything, those scenes made this movie even more uncomfortable for me, as it makes her client scenes so much uglier than they already are. You are right that Christina Lindberg sells this film perfectly, and is so beautiful and vulnerable that the viewer can’t help but be utterly outraged by everything that happens.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
While watching this I figured we were going to get the obligatory scenes of her getting off the dope cold turkey: a dark room with much writhing about, flashbacks to the horrors we’ve already seen, and probably lots of sweat and nudity. It was really shocking to me that this didn’t happen, and that one of the things our heroine does to get away from Tony is…buy her own supply of heroin! I really do mean that this was utterly shocking to me. It made me think, once the film was over, that there was a missing scene where she went back to her car, sat in the front seat and overdosed. Similar to the end of Sonatine, an amazing film by Takeshi Kitano. There was just no happy ending for me. However, I proudly have this movie on the same shelf as my Criterion Edition of Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, which is probably the next ugliest and most depressing “revenge” film out there. Forget the awful remake (WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA? Bring him to me! NOW!) and stick to the incredibly ambiguous and brilliant original.
That eye… I should’ve looked away…