User Reviews

I have little doubt that one of the main reason's for tracking down this bizarre, brain-swapping shocker is the luminous presence of the exquisite Alexandra Bastedo in one of her most entertainingly outlandish performances excluding her delicious turn in 'The Blood-Spattered Bride'. After a singularly swinging introduction of boozy, girl-swapping nightlife, the hazy evening ends somewhat abruptly with the boozy couple suffering a terrible motor accident and poor Leda Schmidt (Alexandra Bastedo) becoming the unwilling experimental guinea pig of the opportunistic surgeon Dr. Adolf (Narciso Ibañez Menta) whose unscrupulous transplant procedure, whereby the still living brain of a libidinous male is placed inside the delectable skull of the unsuspecting Lena who awakens deliriously to the far from dulcet bedside manner of sinister Dr. Adolf who excitingly assures her that the prohibited operation has been a triumphant success, but Bastedo's angst-ridden visage in the mirror yells an entirely different story!

The fact that Klimovsky's head-scratching odd, brain-swappingly strange 'I Hate My Body' is such a bemusing entity is both its strength and weakness, a great idea, poorly realised. The Film itself is no less schizoid in nature than the increasingly disturbed male cerebellum inside Leda Schmidt's pretty head, part undercooked agitprop, equal rites polemic, part mad scientist B-Movie that mirroring its dispossessed protagonist is neither one thing nor the other. All that being said, 'I Hate My Body' is certainly not without prurient interest to avid 1970s euro-cult fans, namely the far from hate-able, beautifully put together body of Alexandra Bastedo whose lively performance and animated features gives the semblance of life to this bafflingly brainless obscurity. As even the lissome Alexandra Bastedo's luminous star quality can't enlighten this rather dull, misshapen B-Movie.

1st watched 5/3/2002 - 3 out of 10(Dir-Leon Klimovsky): Weird story about a brain transplant performed on a woman's body with a man's brain. What ensues, of course, is chaos for the victim of the operation who becomes confused, obviously, about his/her identity and what he/she is supposed to do about it. What could have been an interesting exploration in the difference between men and women becomes more of an exploitative one-sided view of the heathen, filthy men and a display of a one-sided world that caters to men and treats women like trash. I can't say that some of this probably wasn't true especially in the early 70's, but when the movie turns into a typical thriller/type situation where the man/woman tries to get the best out of his/her life by ruining other people's it gets out of hand.

Although this wondrous website lists "horror", "Sci-fi", and "drama" as genres to classify "I Hate my Body", you rapidly realize the emphasis primarily lies on the drama, just a little bit on the science-fiction, and practically not at all on the horror. But hey, what else do you expect from a tale about an experimental brain transplant, in which a successful and macho male engineer wakes up in the body of an attractive young female after a tragic road accident. He/she is painfully confronted with the discrimination and sexist behavior he was also guilty of in his previous life, and he badly suffers to determine his sexual orientation.

It's hardly horror-material, obviously, but veteran-director Léon Klimovski nevertheless manages to insert a handful of exploitative and sleaze-laden sequences. The actual transplant, for instance, is performed by a questionable surgeon named Adolphe who apparently experimented with similar stuff during World War II. Dr Adolphe doesn't like to be reminded of the concentration camps, though. There's plenty of gratuitous sex and nudity, as well as the mandatory sadist rape-sequence. Alexandra Bastedo, known from "The Blood-Spattered Bride", is a talented actress and an immensely beautiful woman, but even she can't rescue the film from sheer tastelessness and boredom.