Loosely based upon the notorious novel Justine by the Marquis de Sade, and made eight years after Jess Franco made his big budget version Marquis de Sade's Justine and just two years after Pasolini's rather more radical revisioning of The 120 Days of Sodom as Salo, Cruel Passion aka Marquis de Sade's Justine is a rather toned-down version of divine Marquis, with mere hints of his Satanic philosophising and nods towards his all-encompassing sexual depravity. The film is nearer to being a low-grade Barry Lyndon or Tony Richardson's contemporaneous Joseph Andrews than other 60s and 70s screen versions of Sade.
As ever, two young sisters are orphaned and left at the mercy of a morally corrupt universe. Juliette, the older sister, is pragmatic; Justine, her younger sibling, is full of notions of purity and virtue. In this version, we meet the sisters in the care of a local nunnery, Juliette giving herself sexually to a hypocritical lesbian sister but Justine refusing the advances of the frantically groping Mother Abbess. Juliette's residual protectiveness towards Justine causes them both to be thrown out, and they make their way to London and a brothel where a saucy relative works. In the carriage on the way they meet a young nobleman, Lord Carlisle, who falls in lust with Juliette.
An extended brothel sequence shows Juliette being inducted into the ways of whoredom, all of which repulse Justine so that she runs back home. Taking up the offer of the local Pastor of a roof over her head, she find that her beauty inflames the old lecher; Justine flees to the roof, and in pursuing her the Pastor falls to his death. Justine flees once more, into the arms of a gang of cut-throats. Meanwhile, Carlisle has taken Juliette as his mistress and is sent to recover Justine. As ill-luck would have it, the cut-throats attack the coach that Carlisle is travelling on, kill his fellow passengers (including a child) and holding him to ransom.
Up until this point in the film, there have been the odd effective moment in between some poor acting, atrocious editing and rather lacklustre pace. But the final fifteen minutes plunge us into a world without a moral anchor. Justine helps Carlisle escape and is rewarded with him raping her; the cut-throats catch up with them both, set the dogs on them, gang rape her and murder him. This is all done in a nicely frenzied sequence beautifully filmed at a swan-haunted lake. Our final vision is of the cut-throats triumphant, Carlisle dead and Justine's body floating Ophelia-like down the river. Virtue, purity and hope are all down the swannee, and the film raises itself to some kind of effectively Sadeian level.
The performances range from the adequate to the hammy, with Koo Stark as a nubile Justine and Martin Potter as a hunky Carlisle pleasant on the eye if not giving masterclasses; a nod should be given to Barry McGinn's crazed brothel trainer George, who at least does something pretty barmy with his part. As a product of the 70s British film industry, Cruel Passion gets marks for offering some alternative to the usual sniggering, smutty sex romp; it's a shame that apart from the odd moment, the dizzying ending and an effective integration of classical music on the soundtrack, the film falls short of its ambitions.
As ever, two young sisters are orphaned and left at the mercy of a morally corrupt universe. Juliette, the older sister, is pragmatic; Justine, her younger sibling, is full of notions of purity and virtue. In this version, we meet the sisters in the care of a local nunnery, Juliette giving herself sexually to a hypocritical lesbian sister but Justine refusing the advances of the frantically groping Mother Abbess. Juliette's residual protectiveness towards Justine causes them both to be thrown out, and they make their way to London and a brothel where a saucy relative works. In the carriage on the way they meet a young nobleman, Lord Carlisle, who falls in lust with Juliette.
An extended brothel sequence shows Juliette being inducted into the ways of whoredom, all of which repulse Justine so that she runs back home. Taking up the offer of the local Pastor of a roof over her head, she find that her beauty inflames the old lecher; Justine flees to the roof, and in pursuing her the Pastor falls to his death. Justine flees once more, into the arms of a gang of cut-throats. Meanwhile, Carlisle has taken Juliette as his mistress and is sent to recover Justine. As ill-luck would have it, the cut-throats attack the coach that Carlisle is travelling on, kill his fellow passengers (including a child) and holding him to ransom.
Up until this point in the film, there have been the odd effective moment in between some poor acting, atrocious editing and rather lacklustre pace. But the final fifteen minutes plunge us into a world without a moral anchor. Justine helps Carlisle escape and is rewarded with him raping her; the cut-throats catch up with them both, set the dogs on them, gang rape her and murder him. This is all done in a nicely frenzied sequence beautifully filmed at a swan-haunted lake. Our final vision is of the cut-throats triumphant, Carlisle dead and Justine's body floating Ophelia-like down the river. Virtue, purity and hope are all down the swannee, and the film raises itself to some kind of effectively Sadeian level.
The performances range from the adequate to the hammy, with Koo Stark as a nubile Justine and Martin Potter as a hunky Carlisle pleasant on the eye if not giving masterclasses; a nod should be given to Barry McGinn's crazed brothel trainer George, who at least does something pretty barmy with his part. As a product of the 70s British film industry, Cruel Passion gets marks for offering some alternative to the usual sniggering, smutty sex romp; it's a shame that apart from the odd moment, the dizzying ending and an effective integration of classical music on the soundtrack, the film falls short of its ambitions.