morrison-dylan-fan Nearing the end of the ICM poll for the best films of 1969,I decided it was time to look at one of the credits from that year of auteur Uncle Jess Franco. Speaking a few years ago to fellow IMDber melvelvit-1 after seeing the operatic excess of Roger Vadim's fun Vice and Virtue,I was told the Jess had done his own version of the story. Standing out on his credits for '69,I decided it was time to at last meet Justine and Juliet.View on the film:Made during his Harry Alan Towers era, director Jess Franco works with his largest ever budget, (and longest run time?) to conjure up a sleazy kitsch historical Horror epic, with Uncle Jess and cinematographer Manuel Merino layering neon colours over the naked horrors inflicted on Justine. Even when working with a bigger budget, ole Uncle Jess thankfully keeps his major themes intact with Bruno Nicolai's playful Jazz score actually finding (some) sense of the epic, and Jess's unique zoom-ins marking out each humiliation Justine experiences.Producing and writing this adaptation of Marquis de Sade's novel, the screenplay by Harry Alan Towers suffers from being thinly spread over the 2 hours, with sequences where the horror hits the heart of Justine, (such a stylish exchange of poison wine and a dead dog!) that are undermined by Justine then being lost in the wilderness,with little time given to build the relationship between Juliet and Justine. Cut-down by Uncle Jess as acting like a window dummy, Romina Power lacks the daydream daze of Jess's usual leading ladies, but makes up for it with a tempting jail bait innocence over the punishment of Justine.

Rapeman Here is yet another of the various exploitation flicks based on De Sade's Justine (the best of which are credited to the prolific Jess Franco). This one is an English production starring Koo Stark, onetime girlfriend of Prince Andrew.Set sometime in 18th Century England, two sisters, 16-year-old Justine and 17-year-old Juliette, are expelled from their convent school after they are orphaned and can no longer afford the fees. Juliette comes up with the brilliant idea of going to the London whorehouse where their cousin works and learning the "tricks of the trade", regardless of the fact they are both still virgins.At the whorehouse the older and more worldly Juliette gets on fine and embraces the brothel lifestyle while the naïve & innocent Justine can't handle it and runs away back to the convent, into Pastor John's welcoming arms. Although, after the good Pastor has had a few wines he can no longer contain his lecherous urges and attempts to rape poor, pure Justine. Luckily she escapes with her virginity intact but Pastor John ends up dead and she is now wanted for murder.Whilst escaping through the church graveyard she encounters a gang of graverobbers who kidnap her and force her into their way of life - she becomes their bait for luring stagecoaches to a halt so the thieves can rob & murder the occupants. Meanwhile, Juliette has become concerned by the absence of her sister and sends her heroic aristocrat boyfriend, Lord Carlisle (Martin Potter of Fellini's Satyricon fame) out to search for her.Lord Carlisle eventually catches up with the thieves as they use their ploy to rob his stagecoach and murder all the occupants, only sparing him after Justine's pleading. The two soon escape only to be hunted down by dogs and brutally slaughtered (and in Justine's case gang-raped).Compared to De Sade's original story (and indeed even Jess Franco's adaptations) Justine is pretty tame, there's the odd splatter of blood, infrequent nudity and even some non-graphic rape & necrophilia but overall - even with those acts included - there's still not much for exploitation aficionados to get excited about. The film focuses more on Justine's plight and the eventual tarnishing of her innocence.Strangely enough this film is included as part of Redemption's Nunsploitation box set but it's only really the first twenty to thirty minutes that are set in the convent - the rest is either in the countryside or the brothel - although, aside from the downbeat ending and Justine's surreal catholic guilt nightmare sequences, the convent scenes are the best & sleaziest parts of the film, with the usual forced lesbianism and debauched Mother Superior.

bentley_john This was the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life and I am sorry I paid money to buy the DVD that I will throw in the trash. Erotic - NO Female nudity - Technically yes about 1 minute in total Sex - NO For practical purposes this was NOT based on the novel by the Marquis de Sade; in fact in the interview the writer admits he rewrote the story to accommodate Tyrone Power's daughter who could not act. So there is no Black Mass or anything of the original book except the two sisters originally being taught by nuns in a convent. This was a shear waste of money on the part of Franco that could have been his masterpiece with the expensive sets and costumes that were absolutely splendid. Jack Palance was totally miscast, even if he were sober it would have made little difference. The same was true with Klaus Kinski because his performance was too remote and did not narrate the story all the way through. Franco said he asked Orson Wells to play the part of the Marquis de Sade, again totally wrong if you are going to make a porno movie. I have no idea what he was thinking. The story was so confused that it failed to make real sense because it deviated from the original novel so much. This movie was not a porno or anything else, it was just a big nothing.

Infofreak I usually love Jess Franco movies, and the thought of him directing De Sade's infamous 'Justine' looked like it was going to be one of his most outrageous films, especially considering legendary nut job Klaus Kinski stars as the Marquis! Unfortunately this one turned out to be a major disappointment. Kinski has little more than a cameo, and the movie is surprisingly tame. It's also way too long and gets very dull in places. This was apparently the biggest budget Franco ever got to work with (a little over a million, which for him was ENORMOUS!). Whether that was the problem, or his beautiful but boring leading lady Romina Power, I don't know, but this ties with 'The Bloody Judge' as the lamest Franco movie I've ever seen. Maria Rohm (who appeared in Franco's 'Eugenie', a much better De Sade adaptation) easily outshines Power but doesn't get enough screen time. Kinski and the other guest stars didn't do much for me apart from Jack Palance who really hams it up as a perverted monk. He's fun to watch, and Franco regular (around forty movies!) Howard Vernon plays one of his colleagues. The bigger the Franco fan you are the more you will get out of 'Justine', but it's still far from his best work, and I can't say I'll be in any hurry to watch it again.