Review of Justine De Sade

Introduction

When I see a film from the 1970s with the word notorious on the packaging, the alarm bells start to ring - in my experience to date, anything that earned notoriety in the seventies (or eighties for that matter), generally tends to be rather tame when viewed thirty years later when attitudes have become far more liberal.

Basically this French movie tells the story of a young orphan girl who seems to run into undesirable group of people after another, getting tortured and raped everywhere she goes - even turning to religion doesn`t help her. Obviously, given the above, there is plenty of nudity and sex throughout the movie.

Video

The video is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of average quality given the age and origins of the movie. The image is a little dark, and is quite grainy throughout the film. In addition, there is quite a lot of dirt and other visual blemishes on the print, but having said that there isn`t anything that will spoil your enjoyment (or otherwise) of the movie.

Visually, the film is an 18th century period piece, and the settings are reasonably authentic, as are the clothes (however, the actresses spend most of their time without their clothes on). None of the sex is particularly explicit in terms of the actual intercourse itself (aside from an unconvincing looking money shot), however as the sex is non-consenting, it`s the tone of the sex that is more extreme. Similarly, Justine is tortured with a variety of implements, including being tied up, branded and having a hot metal flask pushed between her legs. Obviously not everyones (or rather not many people`s) cup of tea.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in a choice of the original French or a dubbed English Dolby Digital Mono track. English subtitles are available. I watched the film with the French track and the English subtitles, as I despise dubbed movies.

The vocals are clear and understandable (although my French is no longer up to scratch).

Features

The only extra on offer is a photo gallery.

Conclusion

Overall, like the Emmanuelle series, this is French soft-core porn with added rape and torture. Whilst this may have worked as a book (which I haven`t read and don`t intend to read), as a film the storyline takes a back seat to the almost continual nudity. Unfortunately, I don`t get my thrills from watching women being raped and tortured, so it doesn`t work as soft-core porn either.

The video and sound are distinctly average and the extras minimal.

Given the above, it`ll be no surprise to you that I don`t recommend this disc.