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Eugenie De Sade (1970)
One of the reasons why I had wanted to see this movie is because I was fully aware that actress Soledad Miranda would die only a short months after it's completion. She was one of the most recognizable women in foreign cinema from those days. She was always a solid actress and in my opinion one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the screen. So I was thrilled with checking her out in a film made by director Jess Franco especially when it was a retelling of a story by DeSade.
"Eugenie De Sade" is the story of young Eugenie, a quiet girl who lives with her stepfather who is a famous writer. While snooping around his office one day she comes across one of the erotic books that he had there, which happened to be his latest obsession. The book holds something over her and gets her into a deeper level of sexuality in her life, which her stepfather eventually picks up on. But instead of becoming dissatisfied with her, he wants her to join him in his newly found world of murder and perversion.
I know that Jess Franco's movies are an acquired taste, but I'll be damned if there is a better director out there who can just shoot a woman as beautiful as Soledad Miranda in the nude and make it more interesting. That's basically what we get a lot of in this one as it's just Franco's camera work mixed in with scenes of Miranda looking spectacular. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as this is a sexploitation film and a retelling of a DeSade story. Now it's not entirely true to the story, but it's the closest interpretation they could do at the time. The subject matter was a bit too taboo for people and Franco himself says in an interview included on the disc that he would have rather told the story differently than to not tell it at all.
Also for a Franco film this one has more of a coherent plot than most of the stuff I've seen from the man. Now, it's not that heavy of one but there is one there. Then again, if you are retelling a story of DeSade's then you're going to have to be at least remotely faithful to the story at hand. But this one works well as it's Miranda on display and although there isn't too many, the scenes of murder end up being pretty perverse which would have to be expected here. It works with the way the story was intended and it's even better since it's Franco filming it in all it's pervy glory. It truly amazes me to watch films that Franco has done, because I've never seen a director work with so little and manage to still make a very good looking film. But I have to say that I thought this was some of his best work that I've seen and is a pretty good flick considering.
The only complaint that I really have about this one is that some of the scenes in the movie simply drag on too long. That's a problem that I have with Franco in general though because he's mainly a visual film-make which in most cases means that the director wants to capture the essence of everything on camera, which is respectable but sometimes you have to know when enough has been enough. But overall it's a small complaint as I did enjoy the movie.
Overall I would recommend this to Franco fans and people who are interested in film adaptations of DeSade's writings. Other than that this is probably not for your average cult film fan or even sexploitation fan. I really enjoyed it, but then again I haven't seen a film adaptation of a DeSade story that didn't interest me. Recommended.
Rating - ***
-Ed Demko
