Eugénie (1975)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writers:

Jesus Franco (writer)
Marquis de Sade (novel)

Release Date:

12 February 1975 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Eugenie, a beautiful but shy young girl, lives with her stepfather, a famous writer specializing in stories of erotica...

Plot Keywords:

Stepfather | Erotica | Erotic | Murder | Lesbianism

Cast

Soledad Miranda	...	Eugénie Radeck de Franval (as Susan Korday)
Paul Muller	...	Albert Radeck de Franval
Andrés Monales	...	Paul (as Andre Montcall)
Greta Schmidt	...	Kitty
Alice Arno	...	Photo model
Jesus Franco	...	Attila Tanner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marius Lesoeur

Also Known As:

Eugénie de Franval (Liechtenstein)
Eugénie de Sade (France)
Eugenie Sex Happening (USA)
Eugenie de Sade (USA) (DVD title)

Runtime:

USA:86 min

Country:

Liechtenstein | France

Language:

French | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-18 | USA:X | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Prodif Ets.

Trivia:

Though dated 1975 in IMDb to correspond with its release year in France, this was filmed at the beginning of 1970 following the shooting of _Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht (1970)_ (cv). Confusing matters, it is unrelated to Franco's _Eugenie (1970)_ (cv), starring Marie Liljedahl, despite the commonality of titles.

Movie Connections:

References Peeping Tom (1960)

Franco's finest hour

This is my favorite film directed by the alternately brilliant and seemingly talentless Jesus (Jess) Franco. I had already seen a good many of his films and this one stood out as the best of the lot. Since then I've seen over a hundred of his movies, and EUGENIE DE SADE still strikes me as being his masterpiece.

Soledad Miranda gives the performance of her short career as the naive innocent who is drawn into her stepfather's web of violence and eroticism. The stepfather, played by Franco favorite Paul Muller, is an unforgettable character and Muller's performance is outstanding. Everyone in the cast pulls their weight, and I can't help but feel that Franco assumed the role of the control freak in order to extract the performances for this project.

It's a bleak, bloody affair that is highly stylized, atmospheric and dramatically impressive. It's also the perfect marriage of Franco's polished visual style (typically employed when he's working on De Sade adaptations) and his outrageous, experimental visual approach (usually evident in the movies he shot in a handful of days). In short, it looks great and the music is impressive as well. Frankly, it's a gem, and I believe it's one of the finest horror films of the 1970s.