DVD Review: S&M: Les Sadiques

With a wintry Berlin as its backdrop, Alex Bakshaev's "S&M:Les Sadiques" offers a heartfelt tribute to the late Jess Franco while making its own mark in the cinema of unease.
Here, in the heartland of David Bowie's greatest triumphs (look out for the shrine), trans peed along tracks headed to nowhere; the lost and the lonely nurse drinks in seedy
bars, and a young woman searches for bed and board in a city where everything has its price.

College dropout Marie (Nadine Pape) soon discovers that if the streets are mean, bricks and mortar can hose even more hazards as she narrowly avoids rape,
ending up in the abode of a woman who "takes orders from no-one.
Sandra (Sandra Bourdonecc) soon introduces her latest charge to a world where pain and pleasure co-exist; a lifestyle that leads to betrayal and murder.

With nods to "Succubus", "Venus In Furs" and "She Killed In Ecstasy", "S&M" also draws on the poetic elements of Jean Rollin, where snow covered streets replace beaches,
leaving short-lived footprints that will soon fade forever.
The film is accompanied by an evocative soundtrack from Kevin Kopacka and Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov ( Stuart Lindsay performing the music of Daniel White at various points), and brought to life by exquisite photography, capturing the magic and the harsh realities of the location.

Cast-wise, there are two stimulating performances from the female leads, ably supported by Kevin Kopacka (Marie's lover), Harry Baer as her Uncle Franz and Nikolaus Sternfeld as Tom.
Thanks to the script by Alex Bakshaev and Sarnt Utamachote, there's plenty to stretch performers and viewers alike, installing this as a film that will most certainly repay multiple viewings.

It's extremely bloody in places, with jealousy and betrayal leading to a reprehensible act that will surely make your blood run cold.
There are also moments of tenderness and togetherness, recalling happier times when the world seemed less oppressive.
"S&M: Les Sadiques" scores highly in all the key areas and carries my recommendation as a perversion story with a heart and soul.

Image quality on the DVD is pin-sharp, highlighting the beautifully lit interior and exterior scenes. There are also 3 trailers. One for the main feature,
and for two other enticing titles: "Dylan" and "The Devil Of Kreuzberg".

The Girl From Rio

Jess Franco and Harry Alan Towers follow the samba beat with this tale of a disreputable businessman arriving in Brazil with $10 million worth of ill-gotten gains. Forget Ronnie Biggs and instead devote your attention to a guy named Jeff Sutton (Wyler), who hooks up with exotic spy Leslie ( Maria Rohm), before evading the clutches of four knife-wielding masked men in the employ of crime lord Masius (Geroge Sanders).

The ‘Big M’ is aware of Sutton’s recently acquired wealth, and seeks to relieve him of this ‘burden’ while on the other side of the fence lies Sunanda (Shirley Eaton); self-styled Queen of Femina – a city of women who are slowly working towards the total empowerment of men and view Sutton as the latest in a long line of reluctant financiers. Alternating between blonde and brunette and decked out in outrageous pop art threads or fetching Cleopatra garb, Eaton appears to be having a ball with her character while at the same time undoubtedly aware of the many absurd lines of dialogue she’s asked to recite. George Sanders also goes with the flow, delivering many of his lines with an air of detachment; a class act playing a character unable to view the acts of violence carried out at his request. Witness the scene where Lesley is ducked several times in a swimming pool, while Masius reads a Popeye comic rather than be privy to the victims ordeal.It’s here that Rohm’s beautiful face is at its most alluring – say what you will about this much-maligned director but Franco has a track record for employing a host of sensual women and his screen captures of Rohm, together with the likes of Miranda, Stroemberg and Janine Reynaud mix sleazy with surreal to often devastating effect.

While fans of Jess and Maria will rejoice at the chance to see another chapter in their story, those same people may well grumble at the amateurish action scenes (you can be sure Ridley Scott did not use Franco’s helicopter footage as a blueprint for Black Hawk Down) and laughable instalments of torture. Well, chill out folks! This is nothing more than throwaway pop art trash, to be approached with a sense of fun and due lack of caution.

For many people, Franco’s partnership with Towers (numbering 9 films) was largely a bridging gap between past glories and a new golden age which would begin with Vampyros Lesbos (1970). That’s possibly an unfair assessment, as Towers was involved with at least one Franco classic (Venus In Furs) and several worthwhile projects that continue to grow in stature ( Eugenie – The Story Of Her Journey Into Perversion, The Bloody Judge). The Girl From Rio scores above average in the mindless entertainment stakes but, given the Franco riches currently available on DVD, it’s unlikely to attract multiple viewings from all but the most committed Franco freak.

Blue Underground’s DVD presentation unveils The Girl From Rio via a nice widescreen transfer with rich colours, warm fleshtones and several instances of edge enhancement, which do not prove too distracting.
Extras include: a Franco biography; ‘The Facts Of Sumuru – a potted text history of the “Female Fu Manchu” with no recognizable national identity – and ‘Rolling In Rio’: a 14 minute featurette in which Franco, Towers and Eaton participate in video interviews. Here, Franco and Eaton both exhibit mutual admiration, though Eaton does accuse Franco of taking liberties with a ‘body double’ and Towers joins in the fun, revealing the Rio shoot also provided the means to film roughly 25% of Franco’s 99 Women feature

Jess Franco's Eugenie De Sade

"Pleasure is always at someone else's expense."

he late, great Soledad Miranda is joined by Franco regular Paul Muller for what is often cited as the most faithful celluloid adaptation of a Marquis De Sade tale. Based on the novella "Eugenie De Franval", Franco's take involves a most unsavoury relationship between Eugenie and her stepfather, Albert Radeck. In De Sade's story, their status was actually father and daughter, with a real sea change occuring on Eugenie's 14th birthday when Albert made her his mistress. Although Franco changed much of the original narrative - therefore falling well short of any claim pertaining to that 'most faithful' tag - his version is most certainly alive with the spirit of De Sade

The film begins as Atilla Tanner (Franco) sits at the bedside of Eugenie, who promises to relate her story on condition that Tanner kills her on completion. Tanner, an author who aims to write a biography on the Franval's, agrees and sits back to hear every sordid detail of their life and crimes.

Although Eugenie De Sade runs for less than 90 minutes, Franco crams an awful lot into his film; particularly during a remarkable first act, sowing the seeds of disgust as Albert introduces Eugenie to the delights of pornography, making it clear there are to be no boundaries. As the pair grow ever closer, Albert announces a business trip to Paris, where the couple will commit the 'perfect crime'.

Although Franco steered clear of replicating De Sade's father and daughter partnership, he undoubtedly succeeds in creating an unsettling air of familial perversity, with shots of Eugenie's teddy bear reminding us that a hitherto innocent young girl is now approaching the dark side of human nature; an entrance that is marked by Albert's confession that he was forced to kill Eugenie's mother, in order to raise and groom his intended one true love (Albert's wife, and a third party named Valmont, both figure strongly in De Sade's novella).Soon, Eugenie is a willing accomplice in Albert's quest for the ultimate in erotic entertainment, though his demands will eventually lead to the realisation of his worst nightmare.
The subsequent downwards spiral is, perhaps, too brisk to really catch fire - particularly during a most unlikely courtship between Eugenie and one of her intended conquests (musician Paul, played by weakest link Andre Montcall) but Miranda and Muller never miss a beat en route to the tragic conclusion.

As with most Franco films, there are a couple of scenes that really do linger in the memory: the De Franval's first murder is captured on camera as a young model (Alice Arno) takes part in a photo shoot that will culminate in her death. It's here that Eugenie makes her killer's debut, taking the part of make-up artist, producer and executioner. As Albert's camera approaches a frenzied climax, Bruno Nicolai's lyrical score suddenly mutates into disorientating free-form jazz; a head-spinning combination that will surely wipe the smile off the face of any Franco detractor. The second inspired set-piece occurs when the De Franval's develop a taste for hitchhikers; this time, it's Greta Schmidt (playing terminal chatterbox Kitty) who joins the ranks of Franco's 'slaughtered broads', taking centre-stage in a party game that must figure as one of Franco's most erotic creations. The man himself also plays a significant part in front of the camera, emerging as a directorial detective who loathes and admires his quarry.

Eugenie De Sade was the first major starring role for Soledad Miranda who, to avoid shaming her parents, used the pseudonym 'Susan Korday' (aka Korder): this disguise would be used again for Spanish language prints of films where Miranda was required to appear nude, and the name was a combination of novelist Jacqueline Susann and the great Alexander Korda. While it's a real pleasure to witness one of her most affecting performances, it's also a genuinely moving experience as one is rarely more than a minute away from remembering that her time amongst us was all too short.

Thanks to the wonderful medium of DVD, Eugenie De Sade has joined a growing library of choice cuts from the Spanish maestro. The Region 1 release - from Wild East Productions - apparently contains an acceptable transfer of this low budget film, with the added bonus of an "Unfinished Franco" supplement, comprising of 18 minutes of footage from 3 aborted projects shot in b&w between 1978-80 (one segment featuring Susan Hemmingway). While Oracle Entertainment's Region 2 UK release does not include this footage, their presentation of the main feature is nice and sharp, with strong colours. By all accounts, this is a far superior transfer though Franco completists may well look beyond this delicately balanced trade-off and purchase both.