Before 17 year old Katja Bienert has even had time to close the door behind her, we're treated, quite without warning, to lingering, graphic hard-core shots of gleeful sexual activity. Not entirely shocking for a film whose English translation is 'Lilian the Perverted Virgin', but jarring nonetheless. This is because the sex scenes originally filmed were not considered explicit enough at the time of release, where censorship laws had recently been (very much) relaxed (this became the first legal Spanish hardcore film). To be honest, it maligns this project, as many films directed around this time by prolific Spanish Director Jess Franco have been somewhat dragged down by their gratuitous sexploitation content. That isn't to say he was ever in search of sophistication, but films such as this could have been so much more effective, and better received, without quite so much pornographic content.
Within the first few minutes, the audience is bombarded with a variety of tones. After the initial X-rated scene, we have a dreamy, delirious, poetic image of Bienert running through a desert shimmer in silhouette. After that, comedy, as Franco's own character Bernardo (uncredited) awakes sneezing from a nap, before Mario Pereira (bearded Robert/FosterAntonio Mayans) discovers Bienert (as Lilian) drugged and barely conscious, and we settle into the film proper for a time. All to the placid strains of Pablo Villa/Daniel White's floating score (White also stars in this). Lina Romay, billed as Candy Coster but without the ubiquitous blonde bob wig (she appears to have swapped it for a longer red one here), plays Irina.
It's a familiar Franco story focussing on the tragic corruption of an innocent, with a body double playing Lilian for the more invasive scenes. Tasteful it isn't of course, but it emerges as a film that doesn't know what it wants to be. In parts, it is beautifully photographed, and in others the graphic additions undermine everything else going on here, especially the terrifically wistful performances. My score is 5 out of 10.
