John Seal It's amazing what Jess Franco can do with a film when he, y'know, TRIES. Case in point: Historia sexual de O (Sexual Story of O), the director's take on the Pauline Reage novel that proved to be an overground underground hit (you know what I mean!) during the 1970s. Though there are plenty of boring and overly long sex scenes, Franco clearly didn't phone this one in--it's beautifully and carefully shot (though there's the occasional frame jerk to remind us all that it IS Jess behind the camera), deliberately paced, and sensitively scored. At the same time, it also manages to be one of the most outrageous films our hero ever made, and it's clearly top 10 material. A very pleasant surprise, right down to the deeply unpleasant but astonishing denouement.

Michael_Elliott Sexual Story of O, The (1984) *** (out of 4) Jess Franco returns to the same ground as Eugenie...The Story of Her Journey Into Perversion and delivers a pretty good remake and certainly one of the best films I've seen from his Golden Era productions. A naive young woman is sexually preyed upon by a man and woman who plan on selling her to a bizarre couple who will sexually torture the girl. The only problem is that the couple, both the man and woman, begin to have feelings for the girl. We've seen Franco tackle the Eugenie theme countless times but it's one element that he always nails on the head. There's really not too much that happens in this film as Franco takes his sweet time with every single scene by extending them to their fullest. For the most part this works but there are a few scenes that become rather boring including a three-minute toe sucking scene. However, Franco always captures sexuality perfectly and that's the case here. Franco's also known for using the same cast members over and over but this film features all fresh faces, which made the film more interesting to watch for someone who is nearing one-hundred films viewed by the director. The director doesn't pull any punches during the violent ending and manages to make it quite hard to watch even though there's no graphic violence. The film has terrific cinematography and a great score that makes this one of the director's better efforts, although newbies certainly shouldn't start here.

Kaya Ozkaracalar Never mind the title, this does not have much affinity with the famous French S&M movie, Histoire D'O. Instead, it is one of Franco's several movies inspired from and loosely based on Sade's Philosophy in the Boudoir. This is quite unlike some of Franco's better known kitsch sleaze flicks. It is a deliberately slow-paced, minimalist piece of erotica. Yes, there are quite a lot of (soft-core) sex, three-some, lesbian, etc., scenes esp. in the first 2/3rds of the movie, and yet despite the presence of these skin scenes, the movie is a very uncommercial and personal effort. The victim's eventual descent into being a prey of the predatory aristocrats from cherishing a chance at free sex experience is very well executed and the final sado-orgy is terrifyingly nightmarish.

Thom-P WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS (though you may thank me for them later).Just picked up an ex-rental and thought I'd offer a little review of this Jess Franco "classic." The box reads: "An aristocrat and his friends invite beautiful women to their home where they torture and rape them." Oooookay.The film begins with a woman masturbating in a highrise apartment building. For the sake of simplicity, let's call her Masturbating Woman. Across the way, in another highrise, are a couple whom I gather are supposed to represent the Aristocrat and his Mistress, though it's hard to imagine an Aristocrat living in what is basically a pre-fab apartment complex. Whatever... Aristocrat and Mistress spot Masturbating Woman through their window and decide to have sex. Masturbating Woman also spots Aristocrat and Mistress and decides to continue masturbating. It is here that Franco displays his total command of the art of montage as he deftly cross-cuts between the two settings, treating us to a startling display of masturbating and fornicating that just goes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until the doorbell rings in Masturbating Woman's apartment, interrupting her bliss.Masturbating Woman answers to find the Mistress standing there and the two decide to have sex. After a fair bit of lesbianism, Aristocrat himself joins the ladies for a threesome. Then Masturbating Woman leaves for no apparent reason and Aristocrat and Mistress decide to have sex in Masturbating Woman's apartment.Later that day, Masturbating Woman and Mistress have sex again, though we are never quite sure in who's apartment. No doubt, Franco intended this in order to keep his audience disoriented, or else he just didn't have time to shoot any establishing scenes. No matter, because soon Aristocrat joins the ladies for yet another threesome, brilliantly mirroring the previous threesome scene.Then the three take a boat ride across a lake to a country villa where resides a Stern-Looking Woman and, as we will later learn, a Wimpish Man. After some brief introductions, the foursome decide to have sex and it is during this scene (or perhaps a later sex scene - my memory fails me here so cut me some slack) that said Wimpish Man appears from behind a plate-glass window and proceeds to watch for a while. However, not content as a spectator, Wimpish Man soon joins in the action and after shooting his bolt, starts to cry for reasons known only to Franco.Later, Aristocrat goes for a walk on the beach and meets Masturbating Woman. The two have sex in a field and in a subtle stroke of genius, Franco has us believe that the two have inexplicably fallen in love. As is the case whenever two people fall in love, Masturbating Woman returns to the villa for a nap while Aristocrat continues wandering aimlessly across the beach.Back at the villa, Masturbating Woman is roused from her nap by the Mistress, who proceeds to stick a syringe in Masturbating Woman's arm. Masturbating Woman vehemently protests, but only verbally since any physical struggle would have required more camera setups than Franco had time to shoot. When Masturbating Woman awakens from her drug-induced slumber, her vision is obscured by gauze filters over the camera lens, but she can still distinguish the Mistress, Stern-Looking Woman and Wimpish Man, all of whom are now donning various S&M costumes. The Mistress then chains Masturbating Woman's wrists. Again, Masturbating Woman protests, but only verbally since any physical struggle would have interfered with Franco's epic 2-day shooting schedule.Once Masturbating Woman has been falsely-secured, Wimpish man produces a miniature spiked ball and chain which he uses to supposedly whip Masturbating Woman, although every blow only manages to hit the mattress. This can be interpreted either as Franco's symbolic statement that all of our bodies are merely used mattresses with which to contain our souls, or else his non-existent FX budget didn't allow for the tearing of flesh. No matter though because soon the S&M freaks produce blood-drenched whips and proceed to lash Masturbating Woman's naked body, streaking it red with ketchup stains. This turns them on so much that Stern-Looking Woman kneels over the bed and begins stabbing Masturbating Woman repeatedly, which affords Wimpish Man the opportunity to mount Stern-Looking Woman from behind while the Mistress masturbates off to the side.Meanwhile, Aristocrat returns from his aimless wandering and sees the S&M addicts in the process of killing the woman he apparently loves. Conveniently, he just happens to have a shotgun in his hands and immediately opens fire, killing everyone.In a gut-wrenching grand finale, we see Aristocrat carrying Masturbating Woman's dead body into the sea as Franco's camera pans up to the sun, suggesting that the sun is hot and the water is cold and we will all die eventually. Fin.