The Depraved (1971) Poster

(1971)

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5/10
More Euro-art-house-erotica than exploitation.
BA_Harrison7 December 2013
17-year-old Lena (Christine Lindberg) is prone to flights of fancy, most of which involve her being sexually abused or killed. Torn between two lovers, boyfriend Jan and hedonistic pig Helge (who is blackmailing her with naked photos), Lena decides to run away, but after a few days on the road, during which she imagines herself raped, murdered and killed in a car crash, she returns home to confront her problems, all of which might only be inside her head anyway.

The subtitles for my copy of Exponerad lagged a couple of minutes behind the film, meaning that I found matters really hard to follow—not that I care that much, because the story was dreadfully dull from what I could gather and isn't what drew me to the film in the first place. No, I sought this one out for the same reason that I imagine most men do: the presence of beautiful exploitation sexpot Lindberg, who being a liberal-minded Swede in the early 70s, frequently disrobes and indulges in soft-core hanky-panky for the pleasure of the viewer.

Apart from the regular nudity from the star, there isn't much else to recommend about Exponerad: Lena's violent daydreams are fairly jarring I suppose, and certainly make the viewer wonder what the hell is going, as does a trip to the cinema in which we are treated to several minutes of a Johnny Weismuller Tarzan classic, but everything pales in comparison to the other Lindberg films I have seen so far (my other Lindberg viewings being revenge flick Thriller: A Cruel picture and pinku Journey To Japan).

Without Christina, this would probably only be a 3/10 tops; with her, It's got to be worth a 5.
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5/10
Ah, Christina... Your pure and natural beauty even makes me overlook the dullness!
Coventry20 August 2023
In case you're new to the wicked world of Euro-exploitation: Christina Lindberg is a Swedish goddess who, with her innocent and cherubic face yet curvaceous and perfect body, formed the ideal lead girl for naughty nude flicks during the early 70s. Lindberg became a world-famous cult heroine thanks to the controversial "Thriller: A Cruel Picture" (aka "They Call Her One-Eye). Oddly enough, I personally found this acclaimed classic vastly overrated and disappointing, and ever since then I learned to keep my expectations for Lindberg movies very low.

Whenever she stars in a film, there is nudity to admire, for sure, but everything else - including the plot - is probably mediocre at best. This reasoning helped me through "Exposed" as well! It's one her first appearances, and at age 20-21 she looks indescribably astounding. The girl's an angel, period. And yes, shallow as it may sound, she's naked for approximately two-thirds of the film's running time and that is solely what make it worth the effort.

The story has potential, but it rapidly becomes obvious that it'll lead nowhere. While her parents are away on holidays, 17-year-old Lena is bouncing back and forth between two lovers. Jan is nerdy and good-hearted, but he lives with his dominant and nosy mother. Helge is pure scum who forces Lena to sleep with his friends and blackmails her with nude pictures. Naturally, she's drawn to the latter the most. The first half hour of "Exposed" features the most entertaining sequences, since our girl tries to escape from both men by hitching a ride with a nudist hippie-couple. Besides, during the trip we also discover that Lena is a drama queen with an overly vivid imagination, so none of her adventures may be real after all.
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Plodding film elevated by the beguiling Christina Lindberg
tomgillespie200219 December 2011
A run-of-the-mill erotic fantasy film (that also owes much of it's narrative charms to Bunuel's classic Belle de Jour (1969)), is elevated by the elfin-like, nubile-innocent beauty of Swedish star Christina Lindberg. Her ethereal Lena, like Catherine Deneuve's Severine, displays an ambiguity in her sense of reality. We are never really sure if her sexual experiences throughout the film are fantasies or not. Lena drifts from Jan (Bjorn Adelly), a mummy's boy, and Helge (Heinz Hopf), a seeming playboy who offers her to friends who hangout at parties at his house.

The direction and cinematography are quite loose, giving it's mis-en- scene an elemental idea of realism. But with this technique, the result has very little suspense or atmosphere. Beginning with Lena taking off from boyfriend, Jan, hitchhiking out to a country house. She is picked up by a couple who go with her, and Lena imagines an encounter with the man of the couple. From here Lena simply goes back and forth between the two men who offer their utter love to her. She seems uninterested in either. We are reminded throughout the film that Helge took some nude photographs of her, and he attempts to blackmail her - something that never really happens, and some humanity suddenly comes from the sullen- seeming Lena, as she demands that she have them and the negatives.

Whilst the film has a reputation for it's depiction of sexuality, and now relatively soft sexual violence, it is rarely shocking. Also, with a very thin plot, it plods along in quite a pedestrian fashion. However, this is not to say that the time spent with this film is certainly no waste of time. Christina Lindberg is incredibly watchable. She radiates beauty, and has an incredible presence. So, with utter beguiled fascination, the film goes from being a two star reward, to a three.

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3/10
Very strange movie...
Spectrocon22 August 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Cristina Lindberg starred in a few Swedish movies in the 70's and also in some German porn movies for those who didn't know.

A lot of these exploitation movies she starred in were OK but not greater than that. Although almost all of the movies she was in sucked big time including this film, Thriller - A cruel picture is worth seeing. Quentin Tarantino was inspired by some of her movies but most of all Thriller.

This movie however is very weird. Cristina plays a character named Lena, a 17 year old girl who seems lost and keeps daydreaming all the time. She goes on a very short road trip and gets in some trouble and from there the story gets duller and duller. Although this movie has a lot of nudity in it and Cristina was somewhat of hotty, this movie isn't worth seeing at all. For the Swedish crowd it could be of some interest considering that you'll see Sweden in 70's and the film itself is considered to be a classic.

Conclusion: If you like Cristina Lindberg and those types of movies you should perhaps see it if you don't like those types of movies, watch something else.
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7/10
Don't Mess With Christina...
Snowygooner11 December 2007
...I cannot say a lot about the film as the version I have is in its original language with no subtitles. That is a shame because Christina's character Lena had a lot of dialogue and it would have been interesting to hear what she had to say. Anyway, Christina plays a young girl who after a row with her boyfriend hitchhikes across the countryside in Sweden, meets up with a couple of nudist, and spends some time at their log cabin. Her boyfriend eventually finds her and takes her back to the city where unbeknown to him she continues an affair with a more older and perverted man.

Exponerad is quite surreal and is told in flashbacks and dreamlike sequences. There is a lot of nudity; Christina spends most of her time in various states of undress and you get a bondage scene and an attempted rape on our beautiful heroine too. I notice that IMDb has a tag line for this film that states that it was banned in 36 countries. After watching this film I have to add that if that statement is true then I cannot see why. There is nothing too explicit on show to warrant that.

So, If you are a Christina Lindberg fan, like me, then seek out this film. You will not be disappointed. For anyone else or anybody expecting an exploitation classic along the lines of 'Thriller: a Cruel Picture'. I would have to say that you should move along. There is nothing of any interest for you here.
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7/10
Exposing Christina.
morrison-dylan-fan19 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Searching round online for Anita: Swedish Nymphet (1973),I was pleased to find a box set containing the title. Finding the set to contain a flick I've not heard of before,I got set to get exposed to a new discovery.

View on the film:

Looking like prime jail bait, (not that I'm a expert on jail bait!) fittie Christina Lindberg gives a delirious turn as Svensson,who drips with a sweet as honey,butter wouldn't melt in her mouth innocence from Lindberg. Snapped out of her breezy state, Lindberg twists Svensson's enticing image into a calculating backstabber. The lone movie in the set not directed by Torgny Wickman, co-writer/( with cinematographer Tony Forsberg) director Gustav Wiklund capture Svensson's naive innocence with warm Autumn colours painted along panning shots following Svensson and friends in the countryside.

Clicking away into sleaze, Wiklund offers a eyeful of sexy Lindberg with stylish overlapping montages of secret photos,and a unsettling calm stillness gazing at Svensson planning her revenge moves. Tearing away her care-free nature, the screenplay by Wiklund & Forsberg interestingly stays in flux between the Grindhouse and the Art House,as wonderfully saucy skin antics of Svensson are balanced by a simmering family drama,lit by Svensson being left exposed.
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8/10
"I feel too little and know too much"
jaibo29 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Lena, a nubile young lass, has been seeing an older man behind the back of her young boyfriend Jan. When she tells Jan, he rewards her with a good few smacks around the chops and she flees town. Lena hitches a lift with with a middle-aged businessman, who parks down a side road and rapes her. But this turns out to be an idle fantasy of Lenas, and when the man drops her off she is picked up by a male/female couple of swingers who she takes to her boyfriend's mother's cabin in the woods. The three of them share an idyll there, broken only by another fantasy of Lena's that the woman is murderously jealous of her, and late at night she watches them making love on the living room floor.

The next day Jan appears and, after a car chase (which ends with a fantasy from Lena of she & the couple burning to death), Jan drags his errant girlfriend back to the town. There she confesses that the older man, Helge, has been blackmailing her into taking part in orgies because he has some nudie pictures of her. Helge is violent and obsessed with Lena, and the middle section of the film is split between the girl getting lovey-dovey with Jan and being stalked by the menacing Helge. Eventually Lena runs away from Jan when his mother discovers the nudie shots (calling her a whore) & is followed home by the stalking Helge. He gets into the house and, in a particularly creepy and uncomfortable scene, ties her to the bed (with her collusion), cuts off her dress and has sex with her. She gets an arm free and uses the knife to stab her lover/assailant in the back. There follows an extraordinary shot in which she remains tied up (by both hands) with his stabbed corpse lying on top of her. The next day, Lena's mother arrives back from holiday. Helge has gone and Lena is taken shopping for a new dress. She meets Jan and all seems okay, but for the fact that Lena is still thinking about seeing Helge. There is some question by now as to whether Helge actually exists or whether he's another fantasy of Lena's.

Exposed is intriguing because it suggests that Lena's sexuality is a complex and messy state of affairs, and that there is no longer the surety that she would prefer to be in a "normal" relationship with a bland ordinary bloke - perhaps her sexual life runs to more exotic and dangerous pursuits? Or perhaps Helge is a fantasy of the predatory male gaze which will always follow her, thinking about coercion, submission and violence? There's no ground for the definite to exist in Lena's life, torn as she is between a bland reality and a sadistic world of fantasy which is itself potentially true.

Lena's story takes place in nicely furnished but faceless rooms (sometimes when Lena is alone in her bedroom, the visuals are reminiscent of Munch) or what Deleuze would call "any-space-whatevers": shopping precincts, streets, petrol stations and stairwells. This is a world which is meaningless but for a series of impulses, be they normalising or sexually deviant. Lena has no definite self, she is a series of reactions or acquiescences to the desires of the men in her life, which might or might not be her desires. In the end, though a lot of flesh has been exposed in the film, the self is as opaque as it was before any camera was pointed at it.

Christina Lindberg's affectless face has rarely been better used than in the role of the nullity, Lena. The character confesses that "I feel too little and know too much" and in the world of experience that the film exposes, Lena is not alone in her lack of feeling: as she and her mother walk as typical consumers along the commercial streets of the town, they pass a sex-shop district with windows displaying the same kind of pictures that Lena might have posed for; she asks her mother what she thinks of them, and the mother replies "soon everything will be like that; nobody will feel anything any more." In its modest way, Exposed is a prophecy of a world which was, as the sexual revolution ended, just being born: a world of impulse and craving, the vain search for satisfaction, boring conformism or soulless promiscuity and kicks.

Scored with a haunting, harmonica-led theme tune and filmed in stark realist colours, Exposed deserves to have a higher reputation.
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7/10
carries you back to the early Seventies
wrv-1685811 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
'Exponerad' (= Swedish for 'Exposed') above all evokes the mood of the early 1970-s. Complete with the then current idealistic touch about 'free love', for which Sweden was famous at the time (AIDS wasn't there yet).

Add to this the picturing of some nice Swedish countryside scenery, all bedded in a credible down-to-earth story.

Supported by a number of nudity shots, female lead Christina Lindberg performs your girl-next-door reasonably well. She convincingly manages to carry this film to its end.

However, this film also shows a human touch in revealing Christina's agony & worries. Due to having been photographed naked - and having been blackmailed fot it.

Those around in the early Seventies will surely warm up watching 'Exponerad'. For those who weren't, I guess this film must be pretty mediocre.
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A Must for Lindberg Fans
Michael_Elliott8 June 2009
Exposed (1971)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Christina Lindberg fans can rejoice because another one of her films has been released to DVD. In this film she plays a 17-year-old girl who gets taken advantage of by an older man. He took some nude photos of her and is now blackmailing her, which doesn't sit well with a mama's boy that she's currently dating. There are about two other plot lines that could be brought up but, as the director states in the featurette, the story really isn't that important when you've got the beautiful Lindberg running around nude for 60% of the running time. The movie actually manages to be more than just your typical sexploitation film because the story itself isn't too bad and we get some decent performances. The entire subplot of Lindberg's character imagining bad things happening to her might have been a homage to Bunuel's BELLE DE JOUR but it works. These fantasy sequences range from her being raped, to her death with some nudist and various others. Lindberg turns in a good, if certainly not great performance, which is more than enough. She certainly makes us care for her character even though we really don't learn too much about her. The biggest issue with this film and many other sexploitation movies is that there's just not enough going on for a running time over seventy-five minutes. Clocking in at 91-minutes this film runs out of steam towards the final half-hour and there's just way too much added stuff. There's a five-minute sequence, which shows us the movie TARZAN TRIUMPHS but it's not just a clip but an entire five-minute sequence! The print has the Swedish subtitles as well, which was strange to see and I'm curious if Warner knows about it. There are other sequences that could have used some editing as well. With that said, most people are coming to this film to see Lindberg and you get plenty to look out, which is good enough for the film to work.
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7/10
An unusual sexploitation on Sweden Background, worthwhile a look!!
elo-equipamentos19 July 2023
When I was a teenager I often hear about small magazine of Sweden nudes girl sold a black market at my home city, how I never had any money to buy it, my friend showed me his unique issue, now I see how it was made watching this unknown picture from there, where the director Gustav Wiklund laid a unusual narrative over a underage girl when their parents is absence by a seasoned vacation.

The attractive and naïve Lena (Christina Lindberg) has a boring life among studies, working as Museum assistant and has a young boyfriend Jan (Bjorn Adelly), in the meantime she meets those womanizer mature man Helge (Heinz Hopf) whom usually convinces his girls to spicy nude photo shoot, clearly Helge make part of underground of so profitable exploitation that sold this nude photos worldwide, the crock Helge has a sordid relationship with the ninny Lena, who runs away from him in a dangerous journey at road hitchhiking until reach a country house of his boyfriend Jan, who sudden appears there casting out Lena an odd couple of broad-mind Lena's hitch-hike from there.

Back at Stockholm Lena tries get back from Helge the photo's negatives at once due if it is caught in the black market will ruins her standing, meanwhile meets with Jan to fix the mistake, Helge delivers the negatives and also the pictures, nonetheless still pursued her for unknown reason, the outcome is too much disturbing offering.

It quite sure wasn't able to every taste whatsoever, in some early sequence the newbie Director Wiklund exposes several scenes whereof just decurrent Lena's thoughts as real, thereafter back to reality, somehow it displeased the audience for such misleading trick, a kind of sexploitation feature, laid down by Sweden standard, deserves respect.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.
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8/10
uneasy mix
This movie is an uneasy mix of carefree hedonistic sixties sexy fun and a darker, more edgy sexuality and is all the better for that. In a way the gorgeous Christina Lindberg also epitomises this duality, is she a wide eyed innocent schoolgirl or someone craving some action? Well, I suppose the fact she spends most of the film with hardly any clothes partly answers that question but here even she seems unable to decide. Indeed for much of the movie we slip fantasy and reality and between her safe home loving, sweater wearing boyfriend to the more exciting older guy who plays with drugs and SM. Always good to watch with some interesting twists and turns and a glorious semi consensual bondage scene to round things off.
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