House of Whipcord
1974 Dir. Pete Walker House of Whipcord follows French model Ann-Marie Di Verney (Penny Irving) as she is forcibly imprisoned in a privately owned facility masquerading as a country clinic. She joins a number of other women detained there because of their ‘loose’ morals. The prison is domineered by sadistic, self-appointed wardens and a senile judge who deal out torturous lessons in conservative morality. Pete Walker is notorious for his exploitative, sordid films which brandish scathing social commentaries on British class, authority figures and generational conflict. Shockingly violent and anti-establishment, his work was always controversial. On one hand, House of Whipcord can arguably be seen as exploitative, sleazy, misogynistic trash, while on the other, it can be seen as a brutal critique of hypocritical, right-wing moralising. Either way, its themes are still relevant today, especially when it comes to human rights, prisoners welfare and free will. Assuming a ‘Women i...