Artsleaze legend Jess Franco had previously tackled De Sade's Justine in the late 60s starring the beautiful but dull Romina Power. It was one of his less successful movies, only really worth watching to see Jack Palance ham it up outrageously as a perverted monk. This version by Claude Pierson is much better. The Franco connection continues as Alice Arno who plays Justine (a.k.a. Therese) will be familiar to anyone who has seen Franco's 'Eugenie De Sade', where she plays a photo model murdered by Paul Muller and Soledad Miranda in a memorable sequence. Arno to me doesn't look as sweet and innocent as she should to convincingly play Justine, but she has a hot body and spends most of the movie in various states of undress. Justine is a virginal character who gets passed around from one lecher to another in a series of humiliations, rapes and tortures. The movie isn't hardcore but is still surprisingly explicit and nasty, so be warned. Personally not being a sadist myself I'm baffled at De Sade's obsessions, especially his fetish with buttocks(!) but that doesn't stop this from being one of the most watchable De Sade adaptations. If you want to see what that "saucy" troublemaker in 'Quills' (an extremely dishonest movie in my opinion) was REALLY all about watch this and you might think a bit differently about him!
