Franco February Day 14 - Happy Valentines Day you creeps! What a perfect day to celebrate another top-tier Franco flick, one he made with the notorious producer Harry Alan Tower. This is a fantastic slice of '70s art house sleaze from our pervy euro-cult uncle Jess Franco with a cool exotic jazz score from Bruno Nicolai (Eyeball), gorgeous locations, a euro-cult all-star cast, plus debauched themes makes this a stone-cold must-own for any self respecting Franco-phile.
EUGENIE ...THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1970)
AKA MARQUIS DE SADE’S PHILOSOPHY IN THE BOUDOIR
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Label: Blue Underground
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 87 Minutes
Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA; French 1.0 DTS-HD MA with Optional English SDH, Français, Español Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR 2160p UHD Widescreen (2.40:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Marie Liljedahl, Maria Rohm, Jack Taylor, Christopher Lee, Paul Muller
A young woman named Eugenie (Marie Liljedahl, Inga) becomes an unwilling pawn in a soul-maddening game of sexual corruption when the sultry Marianne Saint-Ange (Maria Rohm, Count Dracula) seduces the young woman's father, somehow convincing him to let the young girl spend a weekend on her private island for some fun and games. Marianne also invites her creepy half-brother Mirvel (Jack Taylor, Pieces) to the island for the arousing weekend, and together the pair of pleasure and pain crazed siblings set about drugging and corrupting the young girl.
Eugenie is essentially a movie about the diabolical corruption of an innocent young woman by two demented and incestuous siblings who take pleasure in that corruption. They set about inducing her with drug-laced wine and having their way with her in a myriad of ways. Afterward they re-dress her and when she awakens she's confused, unaware that she's been assaulted. Eugenie is so out of her mind on drugs that she believes the half-remembered orgies may have just been a bad wine-induced dream, but little does she realize... By the end of the movie she becomes entangled in sadomasochistic orgies and murder, with a shocker multi-twist finale that might leave your head spinning in the aftermath of this erotic tale of corruption.
The early '70s were a particularly fertile period for prolific director Jess Franco, who at the time was just coming off the adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's Justine (1969). This adaptation of de Sade is set in the modern 70's era and I think it makes for a fitting setting for this debauched tale of sexual perversion, though it considerably softens the blow of the even more sadistic source material, which maintains it's shock value even to this day. The production value is fairly lavish for a Franco flick, the stunning island location is something Franco would return to again and again in later movies, from She Killed In Ecstasy (1970) to Countess Perverse (1973). As with many of his seventies movies the lensing is for the most part quite attractive, shots of the coastline and beaches surrounding Marianne's lavish island paradise are eye-catching with some great lensing and shot composition, though it is hard to ignore the numerous shots that were slightly out of focus, making me feel like my eyes were failing me. Some say that these focus-challenged shots are a device meant to convey the surreal, drugged-up state of mind of young Eugenie, but I think that's a crock of shit, this is just not properly focused, and if you've watched any number of Franco movie you know that this is not an uncommon characteristic of his flicks, but that small complaint aside this is still a fantastic slice of '70s art house sleaze from our pervy euro-cult uncle Jess Franco with a very cool exotic jazz score from Bruno Nicolai (Eyeball).
The cast is superb, we have the young and quite attractive Marie Liljedahl (Inga) as the wide-eyed Eugenie, she's coming of age, sexually charged and a bit doe-eyed, but in a good way, not like Romina Power in Justine with her vacant expressions. Liljedahl has more range and nuance in her role, but she always comes through as a corrupted innocent, not a sex-kitten playing an innocent. Maria Rohm (The Secret of Dorian Gray) is fantastic as the gorgeously deviant Marianne Saint-Ange, she is detestable but she's so damn sexy, I wouldn't mind it if she corrupted me, as long as she kept her creepy brother out of it. Speaking of whom, we also have Euro-cult superstar Jack Taylor (Pieces) as the half-brother of Marianne, a suitably creepy and deviant portrayal, Taylor always brings some heat to his roles. Horror icon Christopher Lee (Dracula Price of Darkness) drops in for an extended cameo as the on-screen narrator Dolmance, of course adding his usual touch of class to the devious movie.
Audio/Video: Eugenie ...the Story of Her Journey into Perversion (1970) gets the venerable UHD catalog upgrade from from Blue Underground with a brand-new 4K HD restoration from the original camera negative. It's a appreciable upgrade over Blue Underground's limited edition 3-disc release from 2015, the increased 4K resolution pulls a lot from the source, upgrading in all the expected areas with more naturalistic skin tones, improved depth and clarity, more finite detail in close-ups of faces and textures, and of course with deeper inkier blacks thanks to the Dolby Vision HDR color-grading - it's simply never looked better on home video. Audio on the Blu-ray and UHD come by way of either English of French DTS-HD HD Mono 1.0 with optional English subtitles. The audio is crisp and clean, sounding appropriately vintage but with no issues with hiss or distortion. The score from Bruno Nicolai (All the Colors of the Dark) come through nicely as well, sounding full-bodied and potent.
For their UHD upgrade Blue Underground offers fans some some new exclusive extras; first up is a terrific Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth. This pairing have delivered several of my favorite team-up commentaries and they deliver the goods on this one as well. They have great rapport, they aren't too scholarly for their own good, and while they're super knowledgeable about all things euro-cult they keep things humorous and fun. We also get a new 25-min Jack Taylor in the Francoverse – Interview with Star Jack Taylor who talks about his many collaborations with Franco, the director's shooting style, in addition to how he came upon he stage name. We also get a Newly Expanded Poster & Still Gallery.
On top of that we get a pair of archival extras, these start off with the 17-minute Perversion Stories featuring interviews with Director Jess Franco, Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Marie Liljedahl and Christopher Lee who speak about the making of the movie. Franco discusses the casting of the movie, and working with Christopher Lee, and a few of the locations used in the movie. Actress Marie Liljedahl also speaks about accepting the role, figuring that if Lee was on board it must be alright, while Lee for his part says he had no idea of the erotic nature of the movie, which I find a little hard to swallow. There's also a 18-minute Interview with Stephen Thrower, author of "Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco", who speaks to the differences between the source material and the adaptation that appears on screen, not the least of which would be the contemporary setting, pointing out that Eugenie is toned down quite a bit, coming off a bit more like Sade's Justine than Eugenie.
The 2-disc UHD/BD release arrives in an oversized black Scanavo keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork with the Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion artwork, this comes housed is an embossed window boxed slipcover with the Philosophy in the Boudoir title, which nicely frames the artwork on the wrap. I'd still hang-on to that 3-Disc BD/DVD/CD edition that BU released in 2015 though, the new UHD is superb but that release included a few goodies that are not present here. These include an Illustrated Collector's Booklet with writing on the film from Stephen Thrower, plus a CD Soundtrack of Bruno Nicolai's terrific score, which is well-worth hanging onto.
Special Features:
Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min).
Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
- Perversion Stories - Interviews with Director Jess Franco, Writer/Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Marie Liljedahl & Christopher Lee (17 min)
- Stephen Thrower on EUGENIE - Interview with the author of “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco” (18 min)
- NEW! Jack Taylor in the Francoverse – Interview with Star Jack Taylor (25 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min)
- NEWLY EXPANDED! Poster & Still Gallery
