Affinity is from the same general family of pictures as Tipping
the Velvet, the British project about lesbians hiding their love
from the scorn of Victorian England. Unlike Tipping the Velvet, this
one has virtually no exploitation elements, and takes itself quite
seriously all the time. There's no singing or dancing or naughty
verbal banter. It's basically just two women moving toward an
affair.
One of the women is a con artist, a spiritualist who has been
imprisoned for having caused a fatality in one of her séances. She
claims that she is innocent and that the death was caused by a
powerful spirit whom she was channeling.
The other woman is a young upper crust lady who visits prisoners
as her form of charitable social activism. The rich lady's sexuality
has been completely closeted since her one and only girlfriend
repented of her Sapphic adventures. Her sense of loss is made
especially poignant by the fact that her own brother married her
former lover. The brother is, of course, ignorant of the women's
youthful hanky-panky.
Since the rich woman is prohibited from expressing her
inclinations and is, in fact, being pursued by a male suitor, she is
desperately lonely and frustrated, and is therefore highly
vulnerable to the female con artist, who senses her problem and
exploits her. The major problem for the con artist is not seducing
the lonely heiress, but rather convincing her that she is a "real"
spiritualist and that she was railroaded into jail by a rogue spirit
and an unheeding legal system.
I didn't find the film very satisfying. It is not really deep
enough to be a drama of social consciousness, especially since the
script calls for the rich woman to be completely taken in by the
prisoner's spiritualism alibi. I found that hard to swallow, given
that she was the daughter of a renowned scholar. OK, lady, I know
you're horny and infatuated, but do you really believe she has
supernatural powers? Really?
On the other hand, Affinity is not lurid enough to be an
exploitation film. It has some characteristics of a WIP film, but
it's not one. There is the requisite prison shower scene, but it
lasts only a few seconds and the real nudity is provided by
uncredited extras, many of them in poor physical condition.
Elsewhere in the film, there is no nudity and very little kissing
from the central lesbian couple. In essence, this film is a
straightforward Hollywood thriller, except that it's located in
Victorian England. Imagine one of those sleazy films where you are
led to view every situation in a certain light until the very end,
when the director shows you five minutes of footage which took place
behind the scenes of what you had previously seen. Well, this is one
of those standard "all is not what it appears" kind of films, except
that it is about 19th century lesbians. It's Tipping the Velvet
meets Wild Things, except without the sex and nudity.
Does that sound good to you? I just can't imagine who would be in
the target audience. Having noted that, I'll add that the overall
premise could have made for a great exploitation film. Re-do this
film with plenty of girl-on-girl action, and it would be steamy,
gothic fun. It could have been really entertaining as Tipping the
Velvet meets Wild Things WITH the sex and nudity. Too bad it didn't
go there.
