Too much of everything

Such a frustrating disappointment

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

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The intoxicatingly sexy Marie Liljedahl plays the title role, an innocent young woman who is invited to spend time on an island paradise with Madame Saint Ange (Maria Rohm) and her creepy brother Mirvel (Jack Taylor). She discovers that the intention is to initiate her into a variety of depravities presided over by the dapper, elegant Dolmance (Sir Christopher Lee)."Eugenie...the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion" will not be to all tastes, and indeed it has been deemed controversial over the years. Based on the novel "Philosophy in the Boudoir" by none other than The Marquis de Sade, it makes ideal material for the celebrated cult filmmaker Jess Franco. Franco had made more than his fair share of trash during his career, and viewers will likely be impressed with the way that he marries art and sleaze in this stylish production. Granted, it moves at a snails' pace, there are too many out of focus shots, and the music score is loud and Godawful enough at times to really take you out of the action. But Francos' creation of imagery is highly striking, and he does a fine job working with the cinematic aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The dialogue is provocative and literate, especially when it's spoken by Lee. Prolific producer Harry Alan Towers scripted, using his standard pseudonym of "Peter Welbeck".Franco always had some incredibly beautiful and sexy women in his films, and this is no exception. Liljedahl is very appealing and is particularly easy to watch. The whole cast - also including Paul Muller and Anney Kablan - is good, with Lee providing a special treat with his cameo appearance(s).While pretty explicit - there's a generous dose of nudity - the film is also violent without being very gory. It should do the trick for any lover of exploitation.Seven out of 10.

Marquis de Sade's 'Philosophy in the Boudoir' starts as a married man named Mistival (Paul Muller) secretly meets up with his mistress Madame Saint Ange (Maria Rohm) who convinces him to let his teenage daughter Eugenie (Marie Liljedahl) spend the weekend with her on her private island in exchange for some steamy sex, Mistival agrees & both parties seem happy. Madame Agne invites Eugenie to her island & she accepts the invitation, along with her gardener Augustin (Kaplan) & creepy brother Mirvel (Jack Taylor) they are alone on the island. All is not as innocent as it seems though as Madame Agne & Mirvel both belong to an order of people who live out the works of notorious author the Marquis de Sade & Eugenie is set for a starring role in an orgy or depravity & violence...This Spanish & German co-production was directed by Jesus Franco who I consider to be just about the worst filmmaker in cinematic history so maybe this review will be a little bit biased as I really despise the majority of the crap I have sat through that he has been responsible for, retitled to Eugenie... the Story of her Journey into Perversion for it's US release this was indeed based on the novel 'Philosophy in the Boudoir' by the Marquis de Sade. As I said, I hate Franco & his crappy low budget arty films that are as dull as dishwater to sit through & this is no exception despite many claiming it to be his masterpiece. A really boring pace that makes the thing feel like it's on for hours, a lack of proper character's & dialogue doesn't help neither does the limited location which confines the 'action' to about two rooms. The sleaze levels aren't up to scratch either with some full frontal female nudity but little else, the sex is as soft as it comes while the violence is tame. I don't know, I just don't get Franco or his boring films that his fans try to claim are arty surreal masterpieces but to me look like amateurish rubbish with limited stories so Franco has to end up filming random objects just to pad it out a bit. I only saw this yesterday & I can't really say I remember that much about it other than the pedestrian twist ending that in a better director's hands might have been effective but Franco drags it out & ends up boring everyone.The great Christopher Lee has a small role in this & has gone on record as saying he didn't know anything about the soft-core sex scenes & that they were added later without his knowledge. I guess that makes Franco a liar as well as a bad director. The location looks nice enough but what's with the constant whistling wind sound effect? This looks quite colourful & has a few scenes tinted in red for some reason, it's just a shame Franco doesn't know how to shoot a scene. The sex & violence really is tame, there's nothing here that you wouldn't see on late night telly these days.Filmed in Spain the locations look nice enough but Franco never uses them to any great effect. The acting is alright, Christopher Lee obviously stands out but otherwise there aren't that many other people in it.Marquis de Sade's 'Philosophy in the Boudoir' or under whatever title you see it under is crap, I'm sorry but I just don't get Franco or his boring amateurish films. Franco later remade this as Eugenie (Historia de una perversión) (1980) or Wicked Memoirs of Eugenie as it was released in the US.

My first foray into the work of erotic horror master Jesus/Jess Franco is not a total disappointment but I feel it could have been better.Here Franco adapts one of the better known works of the infamous Marquis De Sade, "Philosophy in the Boudoir/Bedroom", which follows the attempts at corruption of the titular Eugenie, by a group of Libertines.The film is competently made and quite stylish, and the cast performs admirably enough, but flaws seem to lie with the script.An overemphasis on creating an "erotic" work, combined with somewhat restrictive cinematic values of the late 1960's as sexuality and violence in cinema were only beginning to truly emerge, prevents it from capturing the nasty spirit of De Sade's work, despite technically having more violence than his novella. Rather it feels like a breezy sex film with some dark undertones. *Spoilers* The other major flaw comes in the under use of the novels antihero Dolmance. Dolmance, never presented as a villain, but spectacularly repulsive, stands as one of the great characters of classical literature. Here he is played by Christopher Lee, who is a great choice for the role, but unfortunately (likely due to Christopher Lee only being used for two days of filming and not knowing the nature of the film until he later saw the scenes he was edited into) the character only appears briefly and serves primarily as a narrator. *Spoilers over*The pacing of the film is also not perfect and at times it seems to drag on rather than moving towards the core aspects, though this does create a bit of effective tension once a That said overall the film is well made, stylish, and probably a must see for fans of soft-core porn/sexploitation, it just lacks the nasty edge that the work of the Marquis should be presented with.

Having read a lot of positive reviews about this film on the Internet (and the mystique surrounding it due to unavailability), it was no real surprise that it would be the first Jess Franco title I decided to seek out. Overall, I'm very glad I finally took the plunge to discover for myself Franco's very distinctive world-view. And I know this is one film I'll be looking forward to watch again – and not purely for its exploitation value, mind you!De Sade was most certainly a writer ahead of his time, so the updating to modern times comes off particularly well here. Production values are efficient enough and generally manage to belie the low-budget Franco and producer Harry Alan Towers had to work with; Franco's mise-en-scene is quite confident and the film is certainly good to look at. Still, what holds one's attention here is the invigorating 'atmosphere' of decadence which Franco manages to create around a flimsy but fascinating plot. Perhaps thankfully, the film is not all that long so that it does not overstay its welcome.While there is certainly a great deal of nudity on display, the film rises above being mere exploitation fare - which I assume is a rare feat for this director, considering his notorious reputation. It is aided a great deal by genuinely interesting characterizations, particularly the two female leads: Eugenie's blind faith in her obviously more experienced mentor is so complete that she doesn't realize until too late that she is being manipulated; Marianne herself comes off as fairly sympathetic despite her devious nature – all in all, a human being, and we feel sorry for her when she dies (at least, I did!); even the minor supporting characters are put to good use, like the black boatman/guitar player and the deaf-mute servant, which is not often the case with these type of films.Having said all this, I would be lying if I said I thought that EUGENIE… THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION was a perfect viewing experience. Despite the attractive scenery, I found the numerous out-of-focus shots very distracting and rather than aiding the hallucinatory nature of the story, they end up being merely annoying. Furthermore, I felt that some of the S & M sequences could have been better staged. Besides, there are some inconsistencies in the plot as well: whereas the black boatman is at first depicted as being contrary to the pagan practices, he is seen to join in during the final ceremony where Marianne meets her come-uppance.The casting is OK, I guess, but it still comes up short in my opinion: Marie Liljedahl, nice-looking though she obviously is, is not entirely comfortable with the complexities of her role (particularly towards the end, where she is unable to properly communicate Eugenie's psychological 'degradation') [N.B.: I tend to agree with what Glenn Erickson wrote about this in his review of the R1 DVD on the 'DVD Savant' website: 'The supposed 'corruption' of Eugenie is completely unconvincing - she remains a duped puppet. When she kills the first time it is out of fear, and the second time is just not fully explained. You don't get the idea that she's progressed to the point where she can 'replace' her hostess in the cult, and that turns out not to be the plan anyway.']; likewise, Jack Taylor - though suitably enigmatic and, at times, even vulnerable - hardly makes for a compelling screen presence. On the other hand, for me, Maria Rohm is the focus of the entire film and she also gives the best performance. Christopher Lee, despite his brief appearance, is smoothly sinister and a definite plus to the proceedings; in fact, he and Rohm make for a much more convincingly 'evil' pair. Then there is Bruno Nicolai's music: a very fine score and a memorable one, but which I feel is, in spots, a bit too jovial for its purpose.I had already read that the story of the film was 'imagined' by Marianne in online reviews, but it still managed to take me by surprise when it happened. At first I was a bit let-down by this 'flashback' device – for me the film would have ended ideally when Eugenie runs out of the house, comes upon the graves on the beach and realizes that she is trapped on the island which is enclosed by barbed wire. Even the next morning shot when the police siren is heard sounding off in the distance was rather unnecessary. However, upon realizing that everything that we had been watching has yet to take place, rather than seeming a 'cop-out' (akin to what contemporary critics had said of the similar ending to Fritz Lang's marvelous THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW [1944]), it just added a new layer of subversion to the proceedings. It not only implies that Marianne actually relishes the thought of perishing at the hands of her beloved Eugenie but also that this eventuality would be the epitome of a vicious circle of lovers killing each other as a climactic finale on which to end their relationship, tenuous as that may have been: Mirvel (Marianne's stepbrother and long-time lover) kills Theresa (also perhaps once Marianne's lover); Mirvel is in turn killed by Eugenie (Marianne's present lover); Eugenie was to have been killed by Marianne but with the aid of Dolmance (conceivably once also Marianne's lover) kills Marianne instead; Dolmance (also presumably lusting for Eugenie) double-crosses her and pins all three murders onto her, etc.The acceptance of the dream-state as the environment in which the film is ultimately taking place seems to excuse and indeed justify some of those technical fallacies and character inconsistencies of which I spoke earlier, for what dream is anything but an imperfect and half-remembered rendition of real-life events? In the end, therefore, the impression I was left with regarding the ending was more comparable to the open-ended and ambiguous one found in Luis Bunuel's magnificent BELLE DE JOUR (1967) which could be interpreted in any number of legitimate ways.Though the film was apparently shot in English, the soundtrack was looped later in the studio. In this respect, it isn't too bad if not always in synch which can prove a distraction. After the many glowing reviews I had read, I found the DVD transfer to be somewhat disappointing (even if I can entirely understand its shortcomings) but, as it is, there is simply too much grain in exterior shots and the print is also a little faded in spots. The extras are fantastic: the 17-minute documentary is excellent indeed, particularly Franco's sincere ruminations about the film and his own working conditions; he comes off as a quite pleasant, even intelligent, man – and completely unpretentious. Tim Lucas' liner notes are a good read, even if he feels a bit over-awed by the film's many (and doubtless genuine) 'qualities'.In the end, EUGENIE…THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION - or, as it's called on Anchor Bay UK's R2 disc, MARQUIS DE SADE'S PHILOSOPHY IN THE BOUDOIR - may not be a very subtle film (certainly not much is left to the spectator's imagination) but, for all its faults, is quite often a sublime one.