summerisle

Some people might have two problems with the film: 1. It's rather old fashioned (which is a good thing in my opinion, I don't like the regular hyped mainstream trash). The plot is the kind of story that could come from a novel of Patricia Highsmith, and the look of the film is more like it's from the late 70's or early 80's. 2. The pretty complex story with a lot of strange (and maybe) almost unbelievable coincidences. And you don't get a simple positive character for identification. Exact the same way many french thrillers from the good old times were working (especially those of Clouzot). Though sometimes these films seem a bit too over-constructed (and I must admit I had this problem when I first saw Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques", 1955). But when you accept this (and life itself sometimes surprises us with strange coincidences too), you will see an excellent, very emotional thriller with great performances. You'll never know what happens next!

Okay, I won't say anything more about the film, almost everything has been said by others. Some like it, some hate it. Being a fan of the classic bond films, I hated it. I really wanted to give the film a chance, but it was much worse than I expected. It even spoils its good action sequences because it's so damned pretentious. It's just your usual, hyped mainstream action movie, and even without the number 007 tagged on it I wouldn't have liked it. They should have made this film without spoiling the 'trademark name' "James Bond 007".

But okay, times are changing and after 40 years and 20 (official) films the 'real' James Bond is no longer with us. It's that simple! Even the parody "Casino Royale" (1967) and Connery's comeback "Never Say Never Again" (1983) were more within the spirit of a James Bond movie, than this one. Some might say that this film is more faithful to the Bond of Ian Fleming's novels, but hey - not the novels made the name James Bond that big, but the films!

It's a real pity, because this isn't just one film of the series I don't like, but it marks the end of an era: there will be no 'real' bond films anymore in the future... And I have absolutely no interest to see what's coming after this one.

This is an film which is based on the book "Philosophy in the Boudoir" by the Marquis de Sade. Originally written in 1795, it is perhaps the most representative of all the Marquis de Sade's works. The script very cleverly adapts the original story for the modern time (that is 1970). Dialog is brilliant (Christopher Lee is mostly reading the original text by de Sade). Music is excellent. Acting is superb by all actors, most notably Maria Rohm, Jack Taylor and Christopher Lee. Marie Liljedahl is very convincing as the innocent young girl (she was just 19 while shooting). I don't like the idea to have an even younger actress for the part (like some other comment here seems to advise)! The cinematography fascinatingly uses the space on screen in focusing (and sometimes not focusing) different aspects of the image. But I must admit that this technique works much better on the big screen. Luckily I had the possibility the see this amazing piece of art in a theatrical screening. The film is highly recommended if you like the work of Luis Bunuel, Orson Welles, Douglas Sirk, Roman Polanski, Perdo Almodovar or David Lynch.

That all said, avoid the film if your just looking for a cheap skin flick. You won't find it here. Go to your next videostore and rent something else: "If you want to watch porn, then buy the real thing" (like one other reviewer said). This one has absolutely nothing to do with porn. If you never heard of de Sade and if you have no interest in art and an experimental approach of film-making, you will find this film boring, stupid and you won't understand what's it about.