An innocent girl, Yugeni, is invited by her aristocratic older friend Marian to spend the weekend at her residence on a luxurious island. There the girl is drawn into mystical events with sadomasochistic orgies and murders
4k movies reviews
Many a famous refined aristocrat and philosopher of the sensations of the body, the Marquis de Sade was a defiant personality, much to the amoral freedom of the individual, unaffected by any restrictions of the overriding state and social values. In his desire to satisfy personal needs, de Sade consulted neither religious things nor legal norms, devoting his depraved meditations to the study of these quenches. Finally, it was de Sade’s name that named the phenomenon ‘sadism’, which, as you know, is the terminology for taking pleasure in humiliating and tormenting others.
But it’s not really about him. The speech moves in passing in the direction of his work ‘Philosophy in the Boudoir’, which laid down in free form in this film. The first edition of ‘Philosophy…’ saw the light in 1795 in two volumes of small format, anonymously, having the epigraph ‘Mothers will punish their daughters to read this book’ (how beautiful in reference to the immorality of the novel). Subsequently, the book has been republished more than once and has consistently been a definite success, addressing always pressing issues of sexual gratification. I have not read the novel, so it is extremely difficult to assess the degree of liberty of the picture.
As an epigraph of the review lines of the introduction from ‘Philosophy…’ translated by Michael Armalinsky:
To the debauchees
Lovers of all ages and all sexes, to you alone I offer this work:
Be imbued with the principles set forth therein, for they encourage your passions, which cold and flat moralists try to frighten you with, whereas these passions are only instruments of Nature, by means of which she directs man on the path she needs. Take heed only to these enthusiastic impulses, for they alone will bring you happiness.
Lustful women, let the voluptuous Saint-Ange serve as your role model, disregard everything that contradicts the divine laws of pleasure to which she has been subject all her life.
Young girls, so long held back by the bizarre absurdities of virtue and the dangerous shackles of vile religion, imitate the fiery Eugenie:
destroy, reject with contempt, as she did, all the laughable precepts of feeble-minded parents.
And you, kind libertines, you, who since your youth put no limits to your desires and obey only your whims, study the cynical Dolmanse.
Do as he does, and follow him to the end, if you too want to reach the fragrant gardens prepared for you by debauchery by studying at Dolmanse Academy, imbued with the conviction that only by releasing and refining your tastes and whims, by sacrificing everything for pleasure, the poor creature called man, thrown into this sad world against his will, will manage to sow some roses on the thorny path of life.
Remarkable words.
Not knowing about Jess Franco’s activities is a little difficult for fans of low-budget erotic and horror auteur cinema. Franco has stamped his work with enviable zeal, displaying, at times, a stirring attitude toward creating real atmosphere, quirky images and characters, and a certain charm. I would not hesitate to call Franco a creator at times, though his graphomaniacal pretensions are quite evident. This film, echoing these words, has its own mood and look, unhurried and enjoyable, like a slow fog of action of a man enjoying every second of his sexual arousal, with penetrating lustful glances; clothed not even in the performance of roles, but in the display of certain images, frozen forms, mise-en-scène. The characters are reflective and expansive; they have seen and experienced much already in the mountains of lust, having lost the uncontrollability and affectivity of their sexual drive. Instead, they see it wholeheartedly, indulge it, and seek out new details that might provide something new and higher. They are well-groomed, beautiful, elegant and intelligent, creative. The grayness of ordinary life contradicts the actual tenets of their essence; they must suffer, these aristocratic perverts, to suffer and constantly seek something new in search of pleasure. Marie Rom, beautiful in her years and experience, or Marie Liljedahl, blossoming with youth, innocence, and even naivety.
The recent acquaintance of these aforementioned beautiful persons leads to a friendly spark between them, which contributes to Rom’s desire to invite her to his island to relax for the weekend. Liljedal happily agrees, unaware of what is actually going to take place here. Intimate gradual lesbian intimacy, the fervor of Rom’s brother’s love (incest between brother and sister, moreover, is in evidence), the swirl of a semi-static atmosphere of sexual attraction, where in every look of the characters lust and desire, taking special pleasure just from contemplating even the young innocent flesh of Liljedal, who is just preparing to partake of sexual pain and suffering. Thus, under the influence of drugs, gaze and body charm, Liljedahl is soon subjected to acts of sadism, which are given special perverse painful pleasure by an associate of some conspiratorial group led by Christopher Lee, similar to today’s bdsm formations (chicly observed is the peculiar satanic prologue in which this group sacrifices female beauty for drinkable pleasure. The faces with the women’s stockings on their heads are excessively wonderful, and the look of young Franco, coupled with the chants, creates the image of a satanic event).
The women of the picture deserve special mention. Maria Rom is beautiful and has done quite a bit of work with Franco in his exploitation production. Her appearance is statuesque, her face elegant and aristocratic, her demeanor smooth and stealthily graceful. Rom is chic in the film, in my opinion, all the more so as a lusty bisexual lecher. Contrasting her character is the innocence in the character of Liljedal, who has more energy, youth and unrestrained, trusting nature. The possessor of a firm ass is sexually abused, but her desires are not yet fully discovered, she fears them, she hesitates and becomes the central figure in the sadistic murder of her mentor.
And those lustful glances and freeze frames with close-ups of faces, a kind of flowing unhurried atmosphere, giving the impression that every moment hides a certain meaning and thought of the author. The guitar-playing Negro looks like a prophet about to say something philosophical. It’s like a light breeze, refreshing and invigorating, the touch of a man’s body against a woman’s. The lonely island, the beautiful women, the lust. The characters seem to delay their pleasure, to fall into a depraved abyss, and to derive a perverse pleasure from this abstinence. The touch of lips, the outline of young breasts, with the debauchery and abuse of innocence there is no need to hurry, the main thing is to absorb these immediate and unaware of the true juices of lust eyes, movements, fears, desires. Knowledgeable souls no longer satisfy the lust of the experienced and learned, you need a new body and soul, innocent, not nurtured, to let in it the seed of debauchery and watch it grow, to know that it is your property.
The music of the picture, unusual in its active moments, and very appropriate in its static manifestation, attracts attention both by its slight singularity and by a certain originality to the modern ear. The disturbing and aggressive red light immediately draws the viewer out of the trappings of past languor and slowness, and the final denouement somewhat resembles the melancholy of ‘She Killed in Ecstasy’, which had similar features, transforming in this case into a display of female sexual dissatisfaction, suffering and innate wandering in search.
Beyond moral restraint, sexual suffering and search, the melancholy of eyes and beauty, lust, death.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (83.3 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English: Dolby Digital Mono
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish.
