Eugenie (1970)

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Eugenie...the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion (1970) *** (out of 4)Jess Franco takes Marquis de Sade's Philosophy in the Boudoir and turns it into one of his best films. A young woman named Eugenie (Marie Liljedahl) is sent off to an island with Madame Saint Ange (Maria Rohm) and her perverted brother (Jack Taylor) and before long the two are sexually assaulting the girl as they act out various de Sade stories. EUGENIE is certainly one of the most bizarre films from this era and I don't think anyone other than Franco could have pulled the material off. I'm sure someone could have filmed a pretty version of this story but I think Franco perfectly nailed the situations because we're basically given one big nightmare for this girl with a psychedelic vision and a terrific score by Bruno Nicolai. What works so well with this film is the vision on its director because you really do feel as if you're watching some sort of strange and perverted trip. I really loved the red tinting that Franco used during certainly scenes and especially all through the finale. This really does add a surreal feel to everything you're watching. Add in the terrific score, which at times is rather playful (example: when Rohm helps Liljedahl with a bath) and at other times creepy and perverse. Another major plus is that Franco is given one of his best casts to work with. I thought Liljedahl was very good in her role. Yes, there are times where she can't fully capture the deprived situation of the character but other than this I thought the actress looked the part and was quite believable during the seduction scenes. Taylor isn't a master actor or anything but he manages to turn in a fine performance as does Paul Muller in his brief role and Herbert Fux in his cameo. It's also fun seeing someone like Christopher Lee in a film like this even though he wasn't aware of what type of film they were making around him. Rohm is the real stand out here as she's really one of the main vocal points in the film. She certainly has the look of the character but also manages to make you believe in everything she's doing. EUGENIE has some flaws throughout including some pacing issues and there are times where the soft or out of focus cinematography is just rather annoying. Still, this isn't a very easy story to tell but Franco brings it to life like only he can.

The idea of making a narrative film of de Sade's philosophical dialogue Philosophy in the Bedroom is an attractive one, and certainly any adaptation would have to (if it were to have any dramatic life at all) take liberties with the original text. Jess Franco's 1970 adaptation Eugenie… the Story of her Journey into Perversion takes the basic situation and the characters and transforms them into a quite different Sadeian tale. For my money, the original offers more interesting aspects, with the complete seduction of the young heroine into Dolmance's libertine lifestyle and the murderous abjection of the mother at the end.Franco's film has Eugenie, a young middle-class girl invited by swinging Madame de St. Ange and her pervy step-brother (a dilution of Sade's incestuous siblings) and falling prey to an elaborate plan of Madame's to set the girl up as a sacrificial victim as a punishment for taking the step-brother's love. Dolmance becomes a side-figure, appearing to help with Madame's scheme but turning it on her in the end, getting his twisted pleasure out of seeing everyone come to ruin. The most intriguing feature of this is the tacked-on revelation that the action has all been Madame's dream, a fantasy in which she is tricked out of her life – that a woman should have such fantasies is certainly provocative.The anti-Christian, republican and homosexual aspects of Sade's book are jettisoned. What we get in their place is a lot of softcore nudity and brittle upper-class decadence. The film is certainly creepy, although the creepiness is second hand, the idea of dreams which turn out to be real a direct lift from Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. Franco certainly knows how to direct the camera, although it is hard to tell whether the often out-of-focus camera-work was deliberate or not (a case could be made that it is, and behoves the dream that the film's action is). The pace is very slow.This is not a bad film about decadence, Sadism and being driven mad by sex, but there's surely a better narrative to be extrapolated from Sade's extraordinary book.

It seems I thought even more of this when first seen and I felt it, 'Absolutely sublime.' and 'Faultless' but now I feel maybe 'Venus in Furs' is even better. Beautifully made with sumptuous set design and costumerie and performances including a menacing one from Jack Taylor, are all fine. Featuring one of Bruno Nicolai's better scores this maintains an eerie sexiness throughout and thanks to Christopher Lees' central performance as narrator/De Sade all is most satisfactory. I think on this second viewing I was left feeling that it could either have been a little tougher and/or a little sexier but maybe it just caught me in the wrong mood and another viewing will have me purring with delight as before.

It is not difficult to understand why this languorous Franco ero-drama caused quite the controversy when released in 1970. It is sexually frank and throws in incest, lesbianism and interracial kissing with gleeful abandon.Today, it seems very tame from a graphic point of view, but its sexual politics are way ahead of the ultra-conservative (sexual) climate the film industry currently operates in.This is not an el cheapo Franco flutter shot on a castle set with bad lighting and hit-and-miss focus. It is beautifully shot by Manuel Merino and, as always, Bruno Nicolai delivers a rich, evocative score.Eugenie's "journey" into perversion encompasses light lesbianism, a little rough intercourse and some soft whipping of her tender breasts. She emerges more lost and confused than liberated and ends up wandering nude for several minutes on an island; this sequence, the film's strongest, is quite surreal.Marie Liljedahl, who plays Eugenie, is not Soledad Miranda, and is quite bland in her leading lady role.Jack Taylor is suitably oily as Maria Rohm's lust-filled brother and Rohm makes the most of her role as Eugene's corrupter.I like EUGENIE DE SADE quite a bit more than this and find it far more erotic, but this is worth a look, if not high praise.