The Story of O

Based on a novel by Dominique Aury, Story of O is an arty version of the classic story of S&M. Despite the sadomasochistic tone, the film is actually rather soft; but while it may not delight fans of the more hardcore pornography, the way that director Just Jaeckin tried to elevate the story above what it is and make a 'classic' film, as well as the fact that parts of it actually are erotic means that this is at least a fairly successful piece of softcore porn. The film focuses on a woman simply named 'O' (which is somewhat ironic because it sounds like a James Bond codename and the lead is played by Moonraker Bond girl Corinne Clery). She goes out with a man named Rene, who decides to take her to a retreat where she is trained in sexual perversion. It's clear that the director obviously valued his subject material and although the film fails as a classy drama; the way that it's filmed does give some extra interest. The acting is actually fairly decent, with Corinne Clery standing out alongside Anthony Steel and Udo Kier. There's a fair amount of sexual perversion involved although the film does not go into great detail with most of it; but we do get plenty of whipping and lesbianism at least. I have to say that I preferred Gerard Damiano's 'The Story of Joanna', which was also based on the classic French novel; but this is decent enough stuff and worthwhile for one viewing.

I caught this film on a German satellite channel a few months ago. The locations and characters are sophisticated (no tattoos body piercing or lewd behaviour). There is a story line but the way in this is filmed is incredibly stunning and highly erotic. Corinne Clery a remarkably beautiful women, must be very pleased at the Playboy quality of the production. I rate this in the top 5 of any erotic film I have ever seen and recommend you to buy a copy if you can find one to keep. This is the benchmark against which all directors of this film genre should aspire to.

I admit I know little about the S+M/B+D lifestyle, but if this is any indication, it must be kind of like being in a bad European "art" film. This is one movie that truly does not deserve its notorious reputation(either in the negative or positive sense). It's just your typical silly and pretentious 70's Eurotrash. It is slightly less boring than the director's previous "Emmannuelle" (1974) but only slightly. The lead (and only conceivable reason to watch this nonsense) is Corrine Clery,who was later a second-string Bond girl eaten by vicious dobermans in "Moonraker". Clery spends most of the movie naked and being whipped by various men and women. This certainly sounds pretty sordid, but the movie (tastefully?) never shows the whip actually hitting her. And though she is almost constantly being flogged, there never seems to be a mark on her on her perpetually on-display body. She is also passed around by various men, but the sex scenes are even more circumspect than the whipping scenes. I'd enjoy watching Clery doing anything naked(mowing the lawn, painting a fence, digging a garden), but there's just nothing especially exciting here. Mostly, the movie consists of cheesy dialogue and idiotic libertine philosophizing. I don't know if you have to be a sadist to enjoy it, but you definitely have to be a masochist to sit through it.

Adapted from a famous erotic novel – with Sadean overtones – by Dominique Aury (writing as Pauline Reage), this came hot on the heels of director Jaeckin’s box-office smash EMMANUELLE (1974), and was itself followed by Shuji Terayama’s FRUITS OF PASSION (1981). I would also like to watch Jess Franco’s reworking of the same source material, THE SEXUAL STORY OF O (1981) – recently released on DVD through Severin.

Anyway, easily the best things about the film are the pleasing soft-focus photography and Pierre Bachelet’s haunting score. The stunning-looking Corinne Clery is ideally cast in the enigmatic title role – not so her male co-stars, stolid Udo Kier and a rather bemused Anthony Steel (Jaeckin originally wanted Christopher Lee who had actually played a similar role, briefly but effectively, in Franco’s superior EUGENIE...THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION [1969]).

With too many characters involved but not enough explanation as to their particular motives, the film winds up being mostly uninvolving as a result: the female ‘victims’ are too easily willed into participating into the clandestine and degrading goings-on, as if they – and the viewing audience with them – are supposed to take all of this twaddle for granted (not to say seriously)! However, the finale – in which Clery is seen to have mastered her skills in playing the game and now matches her ‘superiors’ in every way – is a nice touch.

The Arrow R2 DVD I watched presents the film in an English-dubbed re-edited version prepared by Jaeckin himself (though the erotic content is said to be intact). Incidentally, I followed this with Radley Metzger’s similar but even more disturbing and explicit THE IMAGE (1976).

"Story of O" is luxuriant, nicely photographed, and Corinne Clery is quite appealing as a sensual actress…

The film is an adaptation of Pauline Reage's novel about a young girl called O and her entry into the art of loving… The special philosophy here is that women, by nature, are inferior to men and should therefore submit to their every emotion and desire. This is the only way for a woman to find ecstasy…

O falls in love with a practitioner of this doctrine, and is forced to go through quite a lot before he will take her in…

The treatment of eroticism is slow and careful… O is initiated into a house of bondage where the women are playthings for the male clientele… No talking or complaining is permitted... If the rules are broken, they are "punished" in the collar with whips and chains...

One can call this film a lot of things, but "subtle" isn't one of them… Still, it's not overly offensive either, despite its extremely one-sided view of femininity... It does have a seductive quality, and we are attracted into its exotic fact or assumption largely because of Corinne Clery's beauty and sensuality