Private Parts
1972 · Directed by Paul Bartel · USA
Private Parts (1972) is Paul Bartel’s feature debut. It is part art house exploration of gender expectations and part exploitation trash, with women who are men and men who are women.
All set behind a facade of art deco exterior, this houses a “respectable hotel” of sadomasochism imagery, voyeurism, and where unwanted snooping leads to decapitation. Bartel’s direction leads us through the dank corridors and the secrets of its residents through the eyes of Cheryl, a runaway looking to explore her own sexual awakening.
The soundtrack dominates the mood; a more considered approach to the use of music to build the tension would have been an improvement. Bartel has uncredited writing on the script he developed, and also pops up in a brief cameo as a park dweller disturbed by Cheryl in a private moment.
Bartel would go on to make more successful films, but this is an interesting start to his feature film career, with odd shifts between the intellectual and grindhouse tropes.
