Purely Joyful Movie!

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

In a career that spanned seven decades, Jess Franco achieved over 200 directorial credits in numerous genres, with the quality of his output varying wildly from inspired surrealism to entertaining sleaze to almost unwatchable garbage (with the majority tending to veer towards the latter). However, although Franco's skill as a film-maker was questionable, his ability to get hot Euro-totty to strip off in front of a camera and do whatever he asked was never in doubt, and large doses of frequent female nudity frequently made his movies more bearable.Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion is a prime example of an otherwise rather dull (despite the lurid subject matter) and not particularly well directed movie made more enjoyable largely thanks to Franco's remarkable way with women. His two female stars in this film—regular Franco actress Maria Rohm and Swedish sex-bomb Marie Liljedahl—regularly disrobe, give each other rub-downs, and indulge in all manner of kinky activities, all of which helps the time pass a lot less painfully.Stylistically, the film is fairly typical of Franco's work from the 60s and early 70s, when his films reflected the fashion and mood of the times, exploited the liberated attitudes of the young and incorporated psychedelic visuals to enhance the hallucinatory vibe. Nudity aside, the groovy music by Bruno Nicolai is probably the films greatest strength, his jazzy score really adding to the creepy, decadent vibe. The film is also notable for it's cameo by Christopher Lee, who doesn't get involved in the saucy action, but is still probably not all that proud of his involvement.5.5 out of 10, happily rounded up to 6 for the lovely Marie Liljedah, who almost rivals Christina Lindberg in the major Swedish babe stakes.

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.

I am not ashamed to say I bought this entirely for the lead. She is incredible throughout. I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying the film, but it's certainly not very deep and it's all very silly. If you like Jess Franco films, he described this as the film he "hates the least". That might be an endorsement. I'm not sure.Interesting film, probably not worth watching unless you have the hots for the girl on the cover - something which lead to me picking up the box repeatedly until I eventually bought it. The film otherwise has its moments - some scenes reminiscent of Polanski and Lynch - only bloated and confused. Enjoyable enough if you like Hammer Horror films, etc.I wish she was in more films though.

After I finished watching this pitiful movie, I understood the term "Euro-trash.' There is not one redeemable value in this pseudo erotic attempt of a movie. A young girl supposedly is corrupted by a couple of well to do perverts in a single visit to a luxury island. This movie made in 1969 and therefore full frontal nudity of women seems to be the maximum thrill Jess Franco was shooting for. This is mixed with a single scene of lesbian love, a single scene of soft sadism and very lengthy boring dialogue. The script is a joke, and the "acting" is terrible and the sound track unbearable. Yes, I had to fast forward many times just to make it to the end. If Ed Woods was the worst director ever in Hollywood, he met his match in Jess Franco who made a string of trashy pictures around sado masochistic fantasies loosely inspired by De Sade's opus. The only recognizable actor was Christopher Lee who delivers a lifeless performance with ridiculous lines.