i've always been amused by the fact that both 'conan the barbarian' and 'caligula' kick off with a quotation from nietzsche - the same one, the only one anyone can ever remember.
"God is dead?"
and i love those bits in russ meyer films, like at the beginning of f'aster pusscat kill kill' or the end of 'beyond the valley of the dolls' , when the narrator explains all the sleazy action by philosophising over the human condition.
That's Russ both using and parodying the idea of the "square-up" reel. That's the old exploitation movie idea that you could put in lots of drugs and sex so long as the characters came to a bad end and you tacked a moral on it so you could justify all the depravity as a morality tale.
now that i think of it, loads of classic horror and science fiction films try to crowbar in clunky claims about the evil in men's souls in order to explain their particular brand of cheese. it's pretensious, but does it qualify?
on the otherhand, a film like 'jacob's ladder' contains blood and guts, shocking scenes and an hallucinogenic storyline, ticks all the boxes, but i wouldn't want to dismiss it as artsploitative. i think it is genuinely insightful and moving, despite the sensationalist trappings.
I wouldn't call it artsploitative either. I'm not sure it's trying to be arty, just trying to be a good solid psychological thriller. But I'm not sure I'd "dismiss" anything as artsploitation. I kind of like these films in general.
as for genuine artsploitation, how about nic roeg, with stuff like 'the man who fell to earth' and 'performance'? 'zardoz'? surely 'la bete'?
I haven't seen those so I wouldn't say, but probably. If by LA BETE you mean that film about the beast-creature that rapes a woman, I'd have to assume it qualifies big time.