Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

movieman_kev Romina Powers spends the duration of the film like the vacant window dressing that she is as Justine, a nubile young virgin whom after being cast out of an orphanage and into a depraved cruel world, in this muddled adaption of one of Marquis de Sade's writings. It's hard to fault Jess Franco, as he's proved time and time again that he just doesn't know any better, but Klaus Kinski, Jack Palance, and Akim Tamiroff should be ashamed of themselves. Move onto 1972's "Justine de Sade" and never look back to the silly, stupid, clumsy, mess of a film lest you turn into a pillar of salt.My Grade: D Eye Candy: Rosemary Dexter, Claudia Gravy, Sylva Koscina, Rosalba Neri, Romina Power, and Maria Rohm show various amounts of skinDVD Extras: 'The Perils And Pleasures Of Justine' 20 minute featurette; Poster and stills gallery; Jess Franco Biography; and French theatrical trailer (subtitled in English) Easter Egg: Highlight the symbol after Extras in the extras menu for an alternative theatrical trailer

Peter Alan Roberts Poor De Sade, persecuted and imprisoned in his lifetime, misrepresented after his death, and unlike one-time-fellow-prisoner Laclos, author of Dangerous Liaisons, is persecuted and tortured on film. Appalling cinematography, grating music, atrocious acting, and a director who praised Palance's what-was-he-thinking turn and despised the very presence of Power as Justine, although she was almost the only one who wasn't mugging in every scene. What was Mercedes McCambridge on? Dear Klaus Kinski, no wonder he spends his time running desperately from one set of bars to the other: "Get me out of this movie! I'm trapped in it forever!" They even removed his vocal cords. Still, a few points for Power's sweet breasts and eyes, and some other brief anatomical contributions by others. Poor Donatien, even Geoffrey Rush assassinated him while he was dead. At least there is Salo.

zBirdman In a word; terrible. The actual story "Justine" is a somewhat perverted morality tale that has a very shrewd understory; de Sade is well known in spite of his fascination with the perverse - he truly was a gifted wordsmith.Would that the same could be said of Franco's "Justine". According to Franco on the short interview included on the DVD, Romina Power was basically forced on him to be the "star", and he does not hide his disgust at her performance in the interview. Franco didn't want her, Power didn't seem to care either way (he said she rarely even knew when the camera was rolling; basically, she'd have a hard time even playing convincing furniture) and to things even better, Romina's Mom tagged along.If you're looking for S&M, you're not going to find it here. If you're looking for nudity, you will find it here, but you quickly won't care. If you're interested in the Marquis de Sade, you won't learn anything about him by watching this. If you're on Death Row with two hours left, then this truly is the film for you; but all others should really steer clear. Klaus Kinski was listed as the star of the film in Europe, and yet he speaks no lines and interacts with none of the other characters in the film. The first few minutes of the film (around 10 minutes, but it seemed like 30) show Kinski as the Marquis. He appears to be swimming in a sea of writing compulsions and drifting beyond the bounds of reality, or he's simply in dire need of a strong laxative. Either way, his segments are interspersed throughout the film, and they add absolutely nothing.Jack Palance is wildly flamboyant, but it's hard to tell what the heck is going on with him anyway. In one particularly bizarre sequence he's gliding around on some sort of a wheeled dolly like a wax statue. According to Franco, Palance was always drunk, but he was pleased with his performance as Antonin. It's not erotic. It's not sensual. It's not alluring. My wife and I watched it anticipating something like "The Story of O", but ended up with "The Story of O No". Definitely NOT recommended.

david melville Sorry to disappoint, but Justine is by no means the welter of non-stop gore and perversion you might expect from a confluence of Franco, de Sade and producer Harry Alan Towers. Adapted from the Marquis's sublimely immoral 'moral tale,' it plays for much of its length as a bawdy 18th century romp in the style of Tom Jones. Naturally, with the added joys of cut-rate production values and dodgy acting.We only hit familiar Franco territory when our heroine (a bland Romina Power - yes, Tyrone's daughter) is ravished by a coven of depraved monks. Cue for lots of naked Eurotrash starlets, trussed up in chains. Gee, it's good to be home!So Justine is not quite your typical Franco production. For a start, it has something approaching a budget. That means a lot of semi-big names (most of whom have seen better days) show up as 'guest stars.' Indeed, the film is best watched as a vast costume party, whose guests have been invited to Come-As-Your-Most-Embarrassing-Moment.Hence we get Akim Tamiroff as a drunken pimp, Mercedes McCambridge as a lesbian brigand, Sylva Koscina as a cross-dressing noblewoman and Klaus Kinski as the Marquis de Sade himself. The grand prize must go to Jack Palance as Brother Antonin, spiritual leader of the above-mentioned depraved monks. His may be the most deranged performance in the annals of screen acting.Weighed down by the baggage of an international tax-shelter epic, Justine never comes close to the dreamlike delirium of Succubus or Virgin Among the Living Dead or any of Franco's more extreme, smaller-scale works. Still, it's a lot of fun - in its utterly reprehensible way.Franco himself even crops up as the ringmaster of a grotesque peepshow, where Justine is forced to appear after she survives any number of Fates-Worse-Than-Death. Now that's what I call typecasting!