A Taste of Flesh

I love exploitation cinema. However, I don’t love movies that don’t see women as people. This is a problem as lots of exploitation cinema isn’t great to women. But, at least there’s A Taste of Flesh. This low budget 1967 sexploitation thriller had a female director at the helm! A Taste of Flesh is a lot more understanding of basic female humanity than most films in the exploitation genre. Don’t worry, though! There’s still tits aplenty.

A Taste of Flesh takes place entirely inside an apartment. the apartment belongs to Carol and Bobi who fondle each other in the bath but also have separate bedrooms. Bobi invites a foreign friend of hers named Hannah to stay with them for a few days. But soon after Hannah’s arrival, two men enter the apartment and restrain the women. Their plan is to assassinate a foreign Prime Minister who is staying across the street. The Prime Minister is set to arrive the next day. So, for nearly 24 hours, the criminals keep Hannah, Carol and Bobi hostage.

The film is obviously very low budget. But it makes the most out of its means. A Taste of Flesh used director Doris Wishman’s apartment to shoot in. I’ve seen several movies shot with minimal locations. This one does a good job of keeping it from feeling dull. Music, quick cuts, interesting camera angles and general competence all help in distracting from the film’s financial and technical short falls. The music is a particular high point. Catchy and high tempo, it’s great at keeping up tension and the pacing from feeling like it’s flagging.

Generally, this is a good movie to pay half attention to. Multitasking will definitely help disguise the fact that all audio was recorded in post. The dialogue rarely if ever syncs. I do think if I saw this in a theatre I would be annoyed as not much happens in the movie. There’s not much violence, for example. Just threats of it. Even the sex is largely off-screen. There’s a lot of breasts but actual sex scenes are relegated to shots of legs on a bed.

The best and most gay scene is a dream sequence. While Bobi and Hannah are asleep on the sofa, Bobi (and potentially Hannah) has a dream wherein they mimic heterosexuality and marriage. Hannah is in a white slip and Bobi is in a suit. They stare at each other, dance and then go to bed together. This is all shot in an intriguing, surreal style. It genuinely feels dream-like. This is a weird little sequence that aside from being gay, shows Wishman’s talent as a director. Within her limited means, she’s able to do scenes that have atmosphere and show off her talents with cinematography and blocking. Sadly, this scene is soon followed by a rape scene. Because it’s still a 1967 exploitation film.

Even with the sexual assault scene, A Taste of Flesh is still way more female friendly than most films of the time. The lead characters and heroes are all women. The film easily passes the Bechdel test. Most of the scenes are the women talking about this hostage situation they find themselves in. I don’t know whether or not Wishman had any sort of specific feminist agenda in her works. But intentionally or not, her films stand out among the exploitation genre for the simple reason that she is a woman. The interactions between the three women ring a lot more true and the women feel like actual characters instead of just a pair of breasts onscreen.

A Taste of Flesh is a really fascinating little time capsule of a movie. This is a particularly old WLW film, film by a female director and also an earlier example of exploitation before the 70’s showed up and all bets were off. The film really makes the best out of its limited means. It’s ultimately a little too limited in these means to be called good, but god damn do I respect the film.

Overall rating: 5.8/10

Other WLW films in similar genres