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6
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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For
most Euro-Cult fans, the chief appeal of Jess
Franco's Eugenie De Sade
— a modern adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's
Eugénie de Franval — will be the
presence of Soledad Miranda, the enigmatic Portuguese
beauty most famous for her role in Franco's Vampryos
Lesbos. In Eugenie
she's treated as a fetish icon, striking numerous
poses throughout (often in the nude) while Franco's
camera worships her. One such image is integral
to the film's theme and mood, used as an oft-repeated
motif: that of Miranda hugging her knees to her
chest, an expression of childlike innocence in
her large dark eyes.
Fortunately this is a '70s
Franco film which actually has a coherent plot...
not much of one, mind you, but it is there.
Albert Radek (Lady Frankenstein's
Paul Müller) is a well-to-do writer celebrated
in European intellectual circles. A widower, Radek
shares a manor house in the Berlin suburbs with
his twenty-something stepdaughter Eugenie (Miranda),
whom he's raised from infancy. (Her mother died
shortly after giving birth.) Eugenie thinks of
him as her true father. A shy, distant girl without
friends, Eugenie's life is totally wrapped up
in her adulation of him. She has a keen mind,
nurtured by Albert, but no real human experience
beyond her interaction with him. As for Albert,
he's a successful author but frustrated that the
world at large doesn't recognize his genius. He's
made it his life's work to explore the cultural
and philosophical aspects of eroticism —
and dedicated himself to pushing its boundaries
and violating its taboos.
One
day Eugenie discovers a pornographic novel hidden
in Pop's study. Reading it unleashes strange stirrings
within her body and psyche.
Albert is pleased when he learns that Eugenie
has read the book, encouraging her to explore
the subject further. In perhaps the film's most
erotic scene, Miranda strips off her undies and
hikes up her dress, languidly writhing on her
bed where Albert can see her through the open
door. He chooses not to take her then; he judges
it the right time to propose a little "game",
however.
Together the two
of them will "revel in the secret knowledge
of having done something savagely beautiful, yet
forbidden."
Thus they embark
on a string of homicides, beginning with that
of a nude photo model in Brussels, then killing
a ditzy blonde hitchhiker they pick up one day
on the road. The hitchhiker is seduced by both
Albert and Eugenie, who get her drunk and topless,
then kill her. In celebration stepfather and daughter
have sex. (In De Sade's novella, Albert is Eugenie's
natural father —
Franco still hadn't come to the point in his films
where anything goes.) Their "perfect"
crime spree continues after the deadly duo dispose
of the corpse without a trace in a nearby lake.
Police are never seen in this movie; the Radeks
are never suspected by the authorities. But someone
else does seem to know about their strange relationship:
Attila Tanner (played
by director Franco himself), an eccentric writer
who approaches them about chronicling their lifestyle.
Tanner, too, is amoral —
he has no intention of going to the police with
his suspicions. He merely wants to record their
experiences... and the inevitably tragic outcome
he predicts will occur.
Eugenie
De Sade is a "thriller" totally lacking
in suspense. Franco's intention, though, isn't
to put viewers on the edge of their seats breathlessly
awaiting the next twist in the plot. Like its
source material, the film is a tale of amorality
and the objectification of human beings. The homicides
aren't stylized. What murders we're shown aren't
at all gory but are nonetheless quite disturbing,
especially the slaying of the hitchhiker. There
isn't any mystery here; we know who's doing the
killing from the outset.
It's the why that's so unsettling. To Albert
and Eugenie it's just a game —
lives are snuffed out purely for their own sensual
amusement. Even so, the viewer will likely come
to feel sympathy for Eugenie despite the fact
she's a cold-blooded murderess. She's the twisted
product of her stepfather, who's raised and molded
her from childhood to join him in his nihilistic
pursuits.
I'm still not quite sure where
I stand on this film. It has some things to say
about the extreme side of the human condition,
and does so effectively and even intriguingly
without a lot of violence or any gore whatsoever.
Its exploitation elements are limited to sex and
nudity. (This is a Franco film, after all.
Women do get naked a lot, starting exactly three
seconds in.) Soledad Miranda is a goth-mod goddess
as the title character; much of the running time
is devoted to lingering shots of her.
Even dubbed (though the
character doesn't actually have many speaking
lines) she's an incredibly beguiling actress —
one moment looking like a heroin addict, the next
a little lost child —
a Dark Angel you'd willingly follow down paths
best not tread. Franco certainly seems spellbound,
using De Sade's story and his film to render her
an objet d'art.
So there are aspects
of Eugenie that I
like. There're also things which I don't. Franco
has a habit of letting some scenes go on too long,
others are tedious or lethargic. (At least he
doesn't go totally ape-shit with the zoom lens
here.) One particular scene would be a good time
to visit the john or raid the fridge: a nightclub
sequence in which Albert and Eugenie scope out
their final victim, a jazz musician. It seems
to go on bloody forever. And though some folks
seem to like it, the score by Bruno Nicolai (Case
Of The Bloody Iris) is sappy or just plain
annoying —
the "Eugenie Theme" is used to death.
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Eugenie
De Sade, long
sought after by North American Francophiles in an
even halfway decent edition, is finally brought
to DVD via a small niche company, Wild East Productions.
A fullframe
transfer is used, so some of Franco's compositions
lose their full effect.
There's some grain and the picture seems a tad dark
but one has to remember this is a microbudget film
over 30 years old. The English-dubbed mono audio
track is perfectly acceptable.
Extras include
the French theatrical
trailer (the first part of which, using an edit
of De Sade '70, plays like a grungy —
but cool —
music video), a photo/still gallery, and three short
unfinished films shot by Franco while he has working
on other projects. No doubt Franco fans can find
something of interest in these clips. Laymen will
just be left scratching their heads. The first vignette
is pointless (two naked women stroll across sand
dunes, then a naked aborigine guy shows up —
the end), the second one quite weird (a topless
woman with a dead, cut-open pig). The third, set
in the churchyard of a seaside castle, is as pointless
as the first but artful. These archival clips are
definitely for Franco completists only, and are
discussed in a 4-page liner notes booklet in addition
to the main feature.
7/28/02 |
| UPDATE
By 2004 (probably much earlier) this disc's run
was sold out. As far as I'm aware, it is no longer
available except on auction sites like eBay. |
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