Marquis De Sade's Justine

Imprisoned and tortured by visions, the Marquis De Sade (Klaus Kinski) pens a tale of "the virtues of vice and the vice of virtue".

Two sisters, Justine and Juliette, are forced to leave the convent when their father's disappearance and mother's death mean they can no longer be supported. With 100 crowns each they are sent to make their way in the world. Juliette leads them to Madame De Buisson's brothel from which Justine flees. After being duped out of her money by a priest she is forced to work as a servant. Justine's employer tries to get her to steal a brooch from another resident, but she resists. Alas, the brooch disappears anyway and, when the police are called, it is Justine who is arrested for the crime and thrown in jail. A fellow inmate, the notorious murderess Mme Dusbois (Mercedes McCambridge), who is to be executed the next morn, recruits Justine to aid her escape attempt and they break out of jail. (Later, hiding in the woods, Justine learns that 20 other inmates died as a result of their escape.)

Meanwhile, Juliette and another whore, Claudine (Rosemary Dexter), plot to murder Madame De Buisson and steal her money. Then Juliette kills her co-conspirator and rapidly advances through her crimes to a position of power, wealth and respect.

Justine flees from Mme Dubois and her men and, for a brief time, finds happiness with a painter. But the authorities come searching for her and she is forced to flee. Caught unwittingly on the Marquis De Bressac's land, Justine is forced into service. The Marquis tries to get her to poison his wife, the Marquise, so that he can inherit her wealth, but she tells the Marquise of the plot, prompting her to attempt to poison her husband. Unfortunately the Count was watching Justine's betrayal and switches glasses with his wife. Worse, he then has Justine branded with an M for murderess…

Set free, Justine seeks sanctuary with a group of monks led by Antonin (Jack Palance) little realising their sect is dedicated to sensual pleasure…

And so on, until our two heroines finally meet once more, allowing Justine to reflect on the error of her ways; her foolishness in believing that the natural and social universe are in any way benign and just.

Marquis De Sade's Justine's only major failing is a lack of narrative direction. The fundamental theme – Justine suffers for her virtues while Juliette is rewarded for her vices – is established immediately but only repeats rather than develops as the film unfolds. In part this might be attributed to the film-makers' desire to be true to the spirit of De Sade's work, although one also feels Romina Power's somewhat limited acting range has a role to play. Her lack of a "dark side", as it were, means that there's little opportunity for Justine's character to develop in response to the cruelties inflicted upon her nor for conveying a developing masochistic desire for victimisation. One can only wonder what Rosemary Dexter, who clearly has that special Barbara Steele like quality for portraying both victim and victimiser, would have brought to the role and the film had Franco been able to cast her as he wished. As it is, however, one is inclined to agree with Franco's critical assessment that Power brings an unfortunate element of "Bambi 2" to proceedings. (Though the thought of torturing this doe-eyed creature is strangely appealing ;-))

As it is, one wonders how Romina Power's parents decided the film would be a good booster for their daughter's career. You'd think all but the most liberal minded would take one glance at the film's pedigree and swiftly decide it wasn't appropriate for their 17-year-old offspring.

The other performers are, in their way, inspired. Maria Rohm's uninhibited enthusiasm certainly makes vice attractive, while the eyeball-rolling,, near foaming-at-the-mouth Dutch Courage inspired ferocity with which Jack Palance and Mercedes McCambridge attack their guest star turns seems entirely and in tune with the director's no-holds barred approach to cinema.

Kinski's non-speaking turn as the Marquis De Sade is different from those of his cohorts, being more like a set of warm-up routines that have been edited together and overlaid with a monologue than a conventional performance. Even so, Kinski is Kinski. The man could probably have drunk a glass of water and made it compelling to watch.

Franco fans will also note the presence of Howard Vernon, clearly having fun, as one of Palance's followers.

Bruno Nicolai's lush, orchestral score – just about as far from the idiosyncratic orchestration of his spaghetti westerns or the beat combo stylings of his giallos as it is possible to get – is another powerful asset and a reminder that he deserves to be better known in his own right rather than as merely Ennio Morricone's assistant-cum-orchestrator.

Elsewhere Justine benefits from a larger budget than the typical Franco film, allowing for more in the way of costuming, elaborate production designs and even some crowd scenes. Yet the use of deliberately anachronistic Gaudi architecture along with some characteristically stylised compositions and expressive lighting effects shows the director's hand and reminds us that delivering a completely straight historical melodrama held no interest for him.

All told Justine is another piece of entertaining, popular, thought-provoking cinema from Jesus Franco to be held up to the man's detractors as an illustration of what he could achieve. Fans of Buñuel or Tom Jones, in particular, should seek it out.

This Region 2 DVD from Anchor Bay, a straight port of the Region 1 Blue Underground release, is another worthwhile buy for the Francophile.

The film looks and sounds good given its vintage and budget, which may have been high by the standards of Franco and producer Harry Alan Towers, but was still a "little big picture" as the director comments, and is supplemented with a useful 20 minute interview featurette in which the producer and director talk about their experiences making the film, including what it was like to work with Palance and Kinski and the Romina Power saga. Franco (whose accent seems to make him easier to understand in French than in English) is frank and forthright as usual and shows his cultural awareness, discussing how the scenes with Kinski were staged like Peter Brook's Marat/Sade, even if he is also dismissive of most intellectualism as snobbery and a load of "bullshit". Other than this, there are the usual biography, trailer, stills gallery (as with those in the Eugenie… the story of her journey into perversion DVD the pictures are on the small side) and liner notes by Tim Lucas.

One thing: the DVD package says the running time is 124 minutes, but the film only runs 120. Anyone know what the deal is here?