Scott LeBrun The intoxicatingly sexy Marie Liljedahl plays the title role, an innocent young woman who is invited to spend time on an island paradise with Madame Saint Ange (Maria Rohm) and her creepy brother Mirvel (Jack Taylor). She discovers that the intention is to initiate her into a variety of depravities presided over by the dapper, elegant Dolmance (Sir Christopher Lee)."Eugenie...the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion" will not be to all tastes, and indeed it has been deemed controversial over the years. Based on the novel "Philosophy in the Boudoir" by none other than The Marquis de Sade, it makes ideal material for the celebrated cult filmmaker Jess Franco. Franco had made more than his fair share of trash during his career, and viewers will likely be impressed with the way that he marries art and sleaze in this stylish production. Granted, it moves at a snails' pace, there are too many out of focus shots, and the music score is loud and Godawful enough at times to really take you out of the action. But Francos' creation of imagery is highly striking, and he does a fine job working with the cinematic aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The dialogue is provocative and literate, especially when it's spoken by Lee. Prolific producer Harry Alan Towers scripted, using his standard pseudonym of "Peter Welbeck".Franco always had some incredibly beautiful and sexy women in his films, and this is no exception. Liljedahl is very appealing and is particularly easy to watch. The whole cast - also including Paul Muller and Anney Kablan - is good, with Lee providing a special treat with his cameo appearance(s).While pretty explicit - there's a generous dose of nudity - the film is also violent without being very gory. It should do the trick for any lover of exploitation.Seven out of 10.

Red-Barracuda Eugenie is prolific director Jesus Franco's adaption of the Marquis de Sade's 'Philosophy in the Boudoir'. He made several films based on de Sade's writings. In my opinion, this is one of the best films that he ever directed; seemingly he himself said that it was his own personal favourite of his works and it has certainly been made with considerably more care than Franco became known for. It came out at a time when he was making films for producer Harry Alan Towers and, like the others from this cycle; it does seem to have a lot more production value than Franco would soon become known for. After all, this one features British acting legend Christopher Lee in the role of the mysterious character Dolmance. Apparently Lee was not best happy when he saw the completed film on account of the abundant nudity and sleaze – he said Franco added these parts in when he wasn't on set, in fairness viewing the film with this in mind it does appear perfectly likely that this indeed happened.Aside from Lee, the film stars Franco regular Maria Rohm as Mme. de St. Ange, who reads the Marquis book and fantasises about its decadent contents. The sweet Marie Liljedahl plays the title character Eugenie, the young innocent who is lured into sin by Mme. de St. Ange on her island retreat, alongside her lover Mirvel (Jack Taylor). These two libertines drug her and abuse her in ways that involve sadomasochistic games, inspired by the dark master of ceremonies, Dolmance and his obedient followers.What really makes this Franco film stand out is that despite containing lots of nudity and perversion – including the then taboo subjects of sadomasochism, lesbianism and inter-racial kisses, and the still taboo subject of incest - it benefits from very nice cinematography, including some rather attractively shot island scenery; while it also has some lush music from Bruno Nicolai to add additional class to proceedings. When you take into account that it looks and sounds good, has interesting actors and a story that makes sense, what you are left with is a genuinely stylish sexploitation film. A film that shows both Franco and its sub-genre at their best.

lazarillo "Eugenie" is a scandalous story from the Marquis de Sade about a naive young girl who is sold by her father into the servitude of a married pair of depraved libertines who proceed to seduce and debauch her. Not surprisingly, it has not received a lot cinematic treatment (and could probably not even be made these days). Even the incredibly prolific and repetitive Jesus Franco only made two versions of the story, this and one in the early 80's called "Erotismo" ("Eugenie de Sade", made a year later with Soledad Miranda, is also based on a De Sade story, but is about a very different character also named Eugenie).This is no doubt the better version. It was made at a time when Franco had access to plenty of a money through producer Harry Allen Towers and quality international stars, not only Maria Rohm and Jack Taylor as the libertine couple, but even Christopher Lee (who apparently had no idea what he was getting into) as the leader of the strange sex cult the pair belong to. As the title character Eugenie, Swedish actress Marie "Inga" Lillejahl is a typical Franco actress of the period--not as talented as some Franco collaborators like Soledad Miranda or Rosalba Neri, but very beautiful and classy unlike many of his later actresses (including his wife Lina Romay, who beautiful as she was, had a bad tendency of indulging the director in his most tasteless cinematic fantasies). Lillejahl, I might also add, was older than the character she played, and it turns out it's much better to cast a twenty year old as a fourteen year in a fairly explicit role than an actual fourteen year old as he did in "Erotismo" (Katja Beinert, who ironically could have easily passed for twenty), not only for moral reasons but also artistic ones--just as a drunk is best played by someone who is not actually drunk, a naive innocent is most effectively played by someone who is NOT actually a naive innocent.The beautiful, dream-like style of the movie also does a lot to mitigate the inherent sleaziness of the subject matter. The scenes of Lillejahl stumbling naked along barren sand dunes with lots of phallic jutting rocks as the morning sun comes up are very memorable (even if they don't make a lot of sense). The repetitive opening and closing sequences Franco uses is a hoary device that goes all the way back to the British classic "Dead of Night", but it is quite effective and really adds to the dream-like atmosphere. One of the "good" Franco movies.

fertilecelluloid It is not difficult to understand why this languorous Franco ero-drama caused quite the controversy when released in 1970. It is sexually frank and throws in incest, lesbianism and interracial kissing with gleeful abandon.Today, it seems very tame from a graphic point of view, but its sexual politics are way ahead of the ultra-conservative (sexual) climate the film industry currently operates in.This is not an el cheapo Franco flutter shot on a castle set with bad lighting and hit-and-miss focus. It is beautifully shot by Manuel Merino and, as always, Bruno Nicolai delivers a rich, evocative score.Eugenie's "journey" into perversion encompasses light lesbianism, a little rough intercourse and some soft whipping of her tender breasts. She emerges more lost and confused than liberated and ends up wandering nude for several minutes on an island; this sequence, the film's strongest, is quite surreal.Marie Liljedahl, who plays Eugenie, is not Soledad Miranda, and is quite bland in her leading lady role.Jack Taylor is suitably oily as Maria Rohm's lust-filled brother and Rohm makes the most of her role as Eugene's corrupter.I like EUGENIE DE SADE quite a bit more than this and find it far more erotic, but this is worth a look, if not high praise.