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.
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.