If Franco did a single great thing in his tortuous career, that was discovering Soledad Miranda.Forget what the plot is supposedly about.
Eugenie De Sade (1970) **** (out of 4) One of Jess Franco's best has Soledad Miranda playing the naive Eugenie, a young girl who one day discovers a sexual book that has been hidden by her stepfather Albert (Paul Muller). Soon the two begin a series of murders just for the sake of being able to get away with it and their weird connection eventually leads to a sexual relationship.
Eugénie(Soledad Miranda)is a willing participant in her stepfather's Sadean games where they carry out planned "erotic murders" with their success deriving from the lack of worry towards being caught. The murders are often well thought out and orchestrated by Albert Radeck(Paul Muller), Eugénie's stepfather, an author of erotic masochistic tales, who delights in the pleasures of the violence and success they have in committing their sadistic deeds.
Eugenie (Historia de una perversión) (1980) ** (out of 4) Jess Franco goes the de Sade route again with this film, which is a remake of similar films from 1969 and 1970 (among others). In this version, a perverted couple (Robert Foster, Mabel Escano) stalk a young teenage girl named Eugenie (Katja Bienert) and eventually take her to their island where they try to deflower her.
In what I suspect was a fairly routine quickie by the uncle of cinematic sleaze, Spanish Director Jess Franco, what story-line there is is stretched and pummeled by much frolicking and graphic, elongated, sexual activity. But at least there is the distraction of a naked Lina Romay (AKA Candy Coster) wearing a spangly wig and being treated, quite willingly, as a dog ...
Jess Franco has almost 200 directorial credits to his name, so with that in mind; it's not surprising that the vast majority of them are rubbish. Jess Franco certainly does know how to make a bad movie, but clearly he knows his way around a good one too, and while they're in a minority in the man's vast filmography; there are some very good Jess Franco films, and Eugenie de Sade is one of the very best of them!
Jesus Franco is now a full-fledged cult legend, and EUGENIE DE SADE, from 1970, is one of his absolute best films (and, to be clear on the point, Franco, in spite of what one may hear from his detractors, has a LOT of great work under his belt, and you've never seen one Franco film until you've seen them all).The movie--obsessive, disturbing, and still darkly romantic--is based on "Eugenie de Franval," by the Marquis de Sade, but updated to a modern setting.
This week-end I have watched another Jess Franco movie, my fifth so far: EUGENIE DE SADE (1970), or as the on-screen title would have it, simply, EUGENIE (by way of the recently released R2 DVD from Oracle Entertainment).Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed by the film itself, especially in view of its reputation as possibly Franco's best.
There must have been some creative photography work or it took four years to edit and perhaps add more footage but Soledad died in a car crash Aug 18 1970. How Franco directed her beyond the grave must be one of the arcane skills of this director.
