Justine (Romina Power), and her sister Juliette (Maria Rohm) are forced to leave their convent school when their mother dies and they end up in a Parisian brothel. Juliette decides a whore's life is a good career choice, while the chaste Justine sets on on a bizarre journey, where she is used and abused, tortured, branded and framed for murder. Along the way she becomes embroiled with a gang of thieves, a strange artist who enjoys painting her naked and the wickedly insane Brother Antonin (Jack Palance), in what is essentially an 18th century road movie.

Justine is Franco's biggest budget film and it looks superb. The cast are excellent, especially Mercedes McCambridge as the gravelly voiced Madame Dusbois and Klaus Kinski as the imprisoned Marquis DeSade in a series of short vignettes. Of course, the film's highlight is enigmatic Jack Palance as the mad monk. Romina Powers provides some serious eye candy, as does Maria Rohm as the naughty and nice sisters. Franco later compared Power's acting to a piece of furniture: ”just put her in a room, turn her the right way toward the camera, and hope it looks okay“. True she probably didn’t deserve an Oscar for her performance, but her beauty and innocence won me over... but then I am notoriously easy to please!  S.J.T.

Justine. 1969

Directed by Jess Franco

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