Justine - Grausame Leidenschaften

I have read de Sade and read about him and so was a little excited when I saw the title but couldn't wait for the end, fast forwarding through the last 15 minutes.

The acting is not even second rate, the script poorly conceived and written, the direction is amateurish and the production values almost non-existent. The story line is convoluted and doesn't follow any rhyme or reason as far as script writing techniques. Characters are not clearly introduced nor is their relation to each other and it's hard to care about the characters much less sympathize or empathize with them.

A difficult book to translate into even a watch able movie, this fails in every aspect.

This is another adaptation one of the better Marquis de Sade stories "Justine" which tells the story of two sisters, Justine and Juliette, who are orphaned and expelled from their convent school. Juliette becomes a prostitute and rises to a position of power by freely indulging in vice. Her sister Justine, however, tries to remain virtuous and is victimized by nearly everybody. This film was adapted a number of times by European directors of the late 60's and 70's and then, strangely, never really touched again. The best adaptation was Jesus Franco's "Marquis de Sade's Justine" even though it was marred by the wretched over-acting of "name" American actors like Mercedes McCambridge and Jack Palance, and the wretched non-acting of "daughter of an American name" lead actress Romina Powers. It is nevertheless one of Franco's best movies. "Justine" with Alice Arno and the Swedish hardcore film "Justine och Juliette" were less successful; both are so drenched in graphic sex that they lose the fascinating spirit of de Sade, and ultimately any kind of coherent plot at all.

This film actually works pretty well for awhile and is quite faithful to the original story with only a few digressions into the then popular "nunsploitation" genre as in one lurid scene where Juliette makes it with one lesbian nun while her sister is nearly raped by another. The end is kind of abrupt, and not terribly effective though.

The lovely lead Koo Stark who plays the TITular character is definitely a real ASSet here, not because she was a great actress but because she was one of the few European sex stars who genuinely could portray an innocent character. (Some might describe her as a "girl next door" type, but few people were probably lucky enough to have a girl like HER living next door to them). The actress playing Juliette was actually pretty good, making it all the more regrettable that she kind of disappears halfway through the movie. And as others have said, there is also an early cameo appearance by another English cult actress, Glory Annen.

Not a great movie, but worth seeing I guess.

Yes, there was some really, really bad acting in this film, but it wasn't done by Koo Stark. She was beautiful, demure, and a pretty decent Justine. (It's often hard to judge an actor in a really bad movie.) i have never seen Stark elsewhere, and would need to do so before deciding if she were a hack. About the material itself, I have read some Sade, (although not "Justine") and it is some really vile stuff. Someone mentioned that the sex scenes were depressing and un-erotic. That describes Sade's stuff on a very mild day. He was a fanatical atheist, and took great delight in portraying sex as sacrilege, and all religion as hypocritical.

Cute girl, somewhat shocking for its' time. Captures a little of the dark humor and irreverence of de Sade's story. Lot's of nudity. Somewhat similar to Caligula but not nearly as good as that movie. Naughty lesbian nuns frolic in this r-rated romp. You get the picture, like a soft core porno with a b-movie plot and acting.

It could be conjectured that if Koo Stark had not appeared in this film and a couple of others like it that she would have ended up as Duchess of York.Was that a fair exchange? Basically it is a fairly tawdry film.In the last quarter of an hour nearly everyone,including a dead woman,gets raped or killed or both.Not very pleasant.