I'm not sure I have watched the same movies as the others, who give this film glowing reviews, pretty much across the board.
Most of us are aware of Sylvia Kristel's work: she's one of the few Euro-actors who have found relative success in the Hollywood mainstream. But to be fair, most of he notoriety and success comes from the soft-core Emmanuelle franchise which are staged in various parts of the world. Kristel is easy-on-the-eyes for most, looks fine in full frontal nudity, which to be honest, (and with no negating criticism) is largely what she is known for. And on that same level of honesty is a better actress than most who come from other countries ( in this case, the Netherlands) aside from England.
To say this film plods along at a snail's pace is an insult to snails. This isn't Kubrick/Kurosawa-esque deliberate slow-pacing, its simply SLOOOWW. There's vey little dialogue, especially from our lead protagonists, and on that note, there's very little story-line or plot.
Kristel does a lot walking around in the "spooky manor" she finds herself "pseudo" imprisoned, sometime it allows her to venture outside where she does some more walking around, and after about an hour into the film she somehow escapes the manor to drive around for a while. There's a lot of dramatic musical underscoring to make-up for a lack of basic drama in the film. Of course, Sylvia does appear full frontal one time in the film, with style hair and make-up. The rest of the time she magically has all of these nice stylish outfits to wear, but I'm still not clear to why she was wearing them and for whom. I still have not figured out the point of this sleepy film that nearly put me in a coma.....
