Retail Price: $29.95

Reviewed by:
Troy Howarth on October 17, 2007.

Justine (Alice Arno) is a virtuous girl in a world full of corruption, and as she attempts to find safe haven she continually pays for her naiveté...

Previously filmed by Jess Franco as Justine (1968), De Sade's tale is adapted with more fidelity in this well-mounted French production by director Claude Pierson. Whereas Franco's film was tailored to the needs of a bigger-than-usual cast, with aspirations of achieving some mainstream recognition, Pierson's film is more concerned with sticking to the source material. The end result is curiously less satisfying than the Franco film, though it is hardly without points of interest.

The story itself plays like a black comedy - Justine, wide eyed and virtuous, continually falls for one scam after another as she attempts to be reunited with her sister. As she undergoes one trial after another, each more grotesque than the last, it finally looks as though things are going to work out all right - but then more trials and tribulations await. 

The theme of virtue in a corrupt world being a heavy burden to bear is effectively conveyed, but Pierson's approach to the material is stodgy and the film never really comes to life. Despite the copious nudity and sleazy situations, the film is never overly erotic - Alice Arno (herself a Franco veteran, of Female Vampire, 1973) acquits herself in the difficult role better than Romina Power had done in the Franco version, but the supporting cast is merely functional. The casting of Arno's sister - billed under her real name: Chantal Broquet - adds a kinky vibe to the S&M sequence they share together, but even this comes across as curiously muted. 

The episodic nature of the story originates in De Sade's original text, but Pierson does nothing to rectify this - instead, we're treated to one long flashback after the other, each ending with Justine's miraculous escape followed by an almost instantaneous situation in which she is duped into further danger. The pacing is slack and the overall impression is of the director attempting to make the material "respectable" by evoking a mannered approach. Franco's earlier version may have been guilty of many of the same faults - and it offered a pat finale, besides - but at least he was able to breathe some life into the individual episodes. Here, alas, Pierson's stodgy approach yields little entertainment value, though sleaze fans should appreciate the various scenes of Arno and other attractive actresses nude and in distress.

The pretty period soundtrack by Francoise and Roger Cotte adds to the veneer of respectability, but one is still left frustrated that the material isn't given the vitality it really deserves. Matters aren't helped any by the dialogue, which parrots the stylized prose of the source material and comes across as unduly "purple." Even so, despite all its faults, it is an undeniably well made picture and one that should be of interest to De Sade completists.

Though hardly one of the more compelling adaptations of De Sade, Justine De Sade is worth a look and gets a solid transfer from Blue Underground. 

Alice Arno, Yves Arcanal, Michel Bertay, Georges Beauvilliers