Films That Witness Madness

review

JUSTINE

Chris Boger's JUSTINE contains some of the point but little of the potency of the original novel by the Marquis de Sade. While Boger's film captures the melodrama of Sade's work, the depravity and delicious irony is all but gone. In their place lies the kind of stoicism and route sexuality that punctuated a great many Hammer film. People (and corpses) are raped in the film, a child is murdered by a gang of bandits, nuns indulge in lesbianism, and all sorts of prostitution is engaged in but it is all carried off with a sort of ho-hum attitude and an unwillingness to really go the distance, to so much as taste the depravity Sade delighted in. That Boger's JUSTINE is the best adaptation of Sade's novel says more about the other adaptations than it does about this film. Compared to the rest of the bunch - made by the likes of Jess Franco and Claude Pierson - Boger's film is a damned near masterpiece. When taken on its own, it is barely passable as entertainment, a shame considering the talents involved.

Justine and Juliette are attending a convent school when their father abruptly hangs himself. Her mother quickly follows suit. Juliette, a fiery seventeen year old with an overabundance of sexual desire, has little problem reconciling with her parents death. Justine, on the other hand, has bought, hook, line and sinker, into the hellfire sermons of the convent priests. As their father had accrued significant debts, the sisters can no longer afford to stay in the convent. A few of the nuns offer a compromise - this is where the lesbian nuns come into play - but Justine can't go through with it. She values her modesty and virginity above all else, terribly afraid of the punishment that God will rain down on her if she sins. So the sisters are tossed out and make their way to London to stay with a friend and find work as prostitutes. Juliette, naturally, takes to the job rather quickly, even meeting a handsome young man, Lord Carlisle, who falls in love with her. Justine, however, can't stand it and runs away in the night. She returns to the convent to seek the help of the convent priest who has promised her room and board whenever she would need it.

But Justine proves to be more than this man of God can take. He attempts to rape her but Justine flees. The priest chases her and accidentally falls to his death. Poor Justine now finds herself wanted for murder. But that is the least of her troubles. She has been found by a band of roving murderous thieves who only give her two choices: help us rob and kill or be turned over to the law and executed for the murder of the priest. Justine decides on the former. They set a trap using Justine as bait, tying her up and laying her in the middle of a forest path. They ambush the first wagon that comes along and massacre everyone inside. The only spared, at Justine's pleading, is Lord Carlisle himself.

From here on out I won't say anymore. I've said enough as it is but I really don't want to ruin the ending which is the best part of the film. Needless to say, those familiar with Sade's work and his absolute dismissal of kindness towards the virtuous will see it coming. Overall, the main themes of JUSTINE the film fit with the major themes of Sade's work. The tyranny of religion and futility of God, the power struggles between the conscience and our sexual urges and the male desire for dominance are all present and accounted for. Some of these themes don't exactly translate well in regards to this film, however. Justine, though beautiful, is plain and boring. Every man - and, it seems, woman - wants to, for the lack of a better word, fuck her and so every person she comes across in the film eventually tries. Even our hero is unable to control his desire, flying out of control after watching her bathe in a river. After a while, it gets old watching this same scene play out over and over again during the films 90-some minute running time. Some of this has to do with the character of Justine herself. Her character doesn't quite gain our sympathies. She's incredibly dull and virtually lifeless as she wander from scene to scene. The film definitely needed a more robust screenplay with a bit more variation. As it is, JUSTINE just doesn't supply us with much interesting situations.

This is actually a rather well-made and acted film which makes it even more of a letdown when it never catches fire. All the pieces are in place for a memorable film. We have two beautiful leading ladies in Koo Stark as Justine and Lydia Lisle as her sister Juliette. We have beautiful cinematography from Roger Deakins - who went on to work for the Coen brothers - and the relatively sure handed direction from Boger. We have ripe, lurid source material from one of the great mavericks of world literature. But what we don't have is anything close to momentum and cohesion. This is a meandering little film with no clear direction in its narrative and little in the way of action. For a film based on Sade, it is also lacking in eroticism and perversion - though what the little the film does contain is memorable. In summary, this is a film that needed a lot more oomph and a lot less blah.

Decent but dull.

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