Watch Marquis de Sade: Justine For Free

Really Surprised!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

I am a fan of director Jess Franco..but I am not a fan of this really awful film adaptation of the Marquis De Sade. The large budget was wasted, and because of it, otherwise creative director Jess Franco's hands were obviously tied, making a film by other people's rules. first off, the "actress" Rowina Powers delivered the most appalling, rot-gut performance I have EVER seen in ANY film, ever. Franco said in an interview that Powers was like a piece of furniture, and was forced upon him by the film's bank-roller; the father of this bimbo. When the director hates his own main actress, you can't really expect a great product. A product that looks like a Benny Hill episode with all it's silly comedy. It does have it's moments, and some nice sets. But the ending is wretched, featuring not only a hammy, embarrassing performance by Jack Palance, who appeared drunk in every scene. but the final insult comes at the absolute castration of Sade's work. Removing the grim ending, and replacing it with a happy ending where all the "sinners" congratulate Justine for being pure and virtuous, and inform her that she is a "better person" for not giving into temptation?!? This is the exact polar opposite of Sade's philosophy. If he could see this rubbish he would surely despise it. I think the problem was that the budget was too big, and therefore the story had to be sterilized and commercialized for mainstream consumption. Again something that it's author was anything but. Even though the story takes place during Victorian times, the women all sport 60's hair and makeup, and everything is played for laughs. And Klaus Kinski would have been excellent as the Marquis, but every time he was on screen he was overpowered by the loudest, most invasive musical score you could imagine. you will want to turn down the volume on your TV when he is on screen; it is that irritating. For those interested in seeing a decent film version of "Justine," check out the 1977 adaptation. t preserves the mood and philosophy of Sade, and features appropriate sets, costumes and music. And it succeeds at being Gothic in tone, instead of candy colored fluff; it's no masterpiece, but it is compared to this mess.

Spanish smut-meister Jess Franco was finally granted the funds by recently deceased globe-trotting film financier Harry Alan Towers to fully indulge his avowed admiration, running as an undercurrent throughout his entire freak filmography, for the literary endeavors of the unfortunate Marquis de Sade and the results should have been dirty movie devotee nirvana. So what went wrong ? Well, one aspect careening out of control was definitely the compromise that comes with any international production, the phenomenon disrespectfully if often accurately described as "Europudding" ; another reason seems more endemic to Franco and similar cinéastes whose bark is much worse than their bite, screaming at the top of their lungs how they would be able to realize their potential if only ignorant money men would wise up and bankroll their pet project. Another of the director's "what if ?" achievements, his JACK THE RIPPER (paid for by Swiss movie mogul Erwin C. Dietrich at the behest of the provenly persuasive filmmaker), was to generate a comparably underwhelming response.Not even the best of Franco's admittedly glossy and perhaps as a result somewhat generic collaborations with Towers, an honor split down the middle between EUGENIE and VENUS IN FURS, JUSTINE on the surface probably comes about as close to the mainstream as either movie maven ever has and that's not necessarily a good thing. Framed by scenes of an incarcerated Marquis (madman Klaus Kinski putting in another strictly debt-allaying gig) furiously scribbling away while plagued by blood-soaked female phantoms emanating from his fevered mind, the film traces the road from comparative riches to rags and back again followed by sisters Justine (Romina Power) and Juliette (Maria Rohm, Mrs. Towers at the time) as their parents' self-inflicted demise when business turned sour leaves them destitute and as a direct result rather uncharitably cast out of the convent by the sisters whose piety's clearly limited to the amount of Francs pouring into their coffers. While Juliette becomes the original happy hooker and quickly gathers a small fortune through lewdness, thievery and worse, her God-fearing sibling desperately clings to her virtue with all the ensuing sad consequences readers of the novel or, more likely, viewers of any of sexploitation cinema's myriad movie renditions are familiar with.Rather astonishingly, though a lightness of tone might conceivably have been imposed in order to reach as wide an audience such a costly endeavor (by Towers' standards anyway) would warrant to recoup its investment, Franco plays most of Justine's trials and tribulations almost strictly for laughs. This only serves to make poor Romina Power, daughter of Hollywood heartthrob Tyrone and a subsequent pop sensation with husband Al Bano in '80s Italy, look ridiculously naive to the point of certifiable brain damage, perhaps a deliberate move on the director's part as she was imposed by the producer as an eleventh hour replacement for his own choice of Rosemary Dexter, now relegated to supporting duty playing Juliette's sister in slime Claudine. An early section with debt collector Du Harpin (hammed to the hilt by legendary character actor Akim Tamiroff) comes off worst as he even sells off the girl's few garments, leaving her hanging around his boarding house dressed in nothing more than a barely buttock-covering men's shirt, a sight sure to raise some eyebrows in 18th century France ! Much better is the sequence involving the devious Marquis de Bressac (popular German actor Horst Frank, known primarily to Euro horror aficionados for appearing in Armando Crispino's underrated THE ETRUSCAN KILLS AGAIN), whose pan-sexuality is considerably more downplayed than it was in Claude Pierson's astonishing JUSTINE DE SADE a mere three years later, scheming to poison his wealthy spouse (the always welcome Sylva Koscina, once again baring almost all for her art) with or without Justine's help, threatening to let her take the fall if she refuses to comply.Along the way, it soon becomes obvious that the "big name" actors attracted to the production because they had fallen on hard times financially - a slumming Mercedes McCambridge and Jack Palance among them - are the ones behaving most unprofessionally while it's the modest second stringers saving the day. Refuting all accusations of nepotism, ravishing Rohm acquits herself well as usual, remorselessly amoral as Juliette, and Kraut matinée idol Harald Leipnitz (who prominently figured in several of the frothy FRAU WIRTIN a/k/a SEXY SUSAN Terry Torday sex comedies) makes the most out of Justine's insipid love interest Raymond because, yes, adding insult to injury, Franco and/or Towers saw fit to tag on an illogical if allegedly crowd-pleasing true love conquers all happy ending to boot ! Talk about taking the sting out of a scorpion's tail. Even our hapless heroine's ordeal at the hands of an order of lascivious libertine monks fails to generate much in the way of shock value, shot in the foot by Palance over-acting on a level that even Dennis Hopper might have considered beyond the pale. Left to her own devices, the unseasoned Power barely seems to register anything that goes on around her. As for production values, this picture paradoxically ranks among their creators' sterling achievements, spectacularly shot by veteran DoP Manuel Merino and superbly scored by Bruno Nicolai, then at the top of his game just as he was starting to branch out from Spaghetti westerns.

Jess Franco to me, is one of the most evil men in cinema. His films in the 60s were Hitchokian thrillers and a few good erotic ones, however by the 80s he had plummeted into making porn films, fairly crappy at best, compared to Joe D'Amatos Caribbean series. These films consisted of Lina Romay masturbating to sex acts, purely vulgar, Laura Gemser fair enough, but her, no way.Anyhow in the late 60s Franco worked with Harry Allan Towers, and made about 8 damn good films, such as The Bloody Judge, 99 women (less good) and Venus in Furs.However Justine to me, his nemesis, is a good film. It boasts an all star cast, such as Jack Palace, who gives a good performance as a decadant monk, and Klaus Kinski, as De Sade, just prancing around his cell, being taunted by nude phantoms, actually shot using good green lighting and shadow imagery.The film is not do depraved, several nude scenes, some mild sex scenes and some cat fighting, but nothing too bad. Also the buildings, soldiers and extras were fairly epic and in good standard with any epic historical film.The sets were brilliant, hence they were all historical, the film is well shot, cue some blurs etc, well lighted, well cast and well made.Franco is a decent director here, when he worked with Towers, however in the 70s he declined sadly. When he worked with good budgets and actors he was a Ruggero Deodato, but alas, he failed cinema, which he claimed to love...A good film, give it a try!, you will not be disappointed.

I usually love Jess Franco movies, and the thought of him directing De Sade's infamous 'Justine' looked like it was going to be one of his most outrageous films, especially considering legendary nut job Klaus Kinski stars as the Marquis! Unfortunately this one turned out to be a major disappointment. Kinski has little more than a cameo, and the movie is surprisingly tame. It's also way too long and gets very dull in places. This was apparently the biggest budget Franco ever got to work with (a little over a million, which for him was ENORMOUS!). Whether that was the problem, or his beautiful but boring leading lady Romina Power, I don't know, but this ties with 'The Bloody Judge' as the lamest Franco movie I've ever seen. Maria Rohm (who appeared in Franco's 'Eugenie', a much better De Sade adaptation) easily outshines Power but doesn't get enough screen time. Kinski and the other guest stars didn't do much for me apart from Jack Palance who really hams it up as a perverted monk. He's fun to watch, and Franco regular (around forty movies!) Howard Vernon plays one of his colleagues. The bigger the Franco fan you are the more you will get out of 'Justine', but it's still far from his best work, and I can't say I'll be in any hurry to watch it again.