Review of Justine

Introduction

The summary says it all really. Two sisters making their own way in the world walk different paths. The one taken by the younger and more rightous of the two soon finds that the world is not quite taken with her attitude and soon teaches her a lesson. The older sister meanwhile uses her cunning female wiles, and body, to assure her position by getting to the very top of social respectability. We mainly follow Justine as her adventure into the immoral brings her further into despair with some truly crazy characters. Is it only the wicked and bad that prosper?

Anchor Bay have, for the first time, restored the original director`s cut of the film after the butchering that occured to the film in America by its owner, American International Pictures. It was originally deemed to long clocking in at 2 hours, so 30 minutes was cut, plus the title was similar to another film, 20th Century Fox`s Justine. Hence this film was retitled as Deadly Sanctuary. As you can imagine, any butchering of a film can have an impact on its coherency, so to remove 30 minutes seemed daft.

This DVD presents the film just the way director Jess Franco would want you to see it, though not with his casting of the female lead in the title role. Again, AIP stepped in with an actor which it had under contract. Rosemary Dexter was replaced by the young Romina Power.

Video

The 1.85:1 anamorphic video transfer is quite clear with very little grain and only minimal amounts of dirt. The period costumes are vibrant and the colour is indicative of the 70s. Detail is fairly good too which is surprising to see on an old film.

Audio

The English DD2.0 soundtrack is clear though this is another example of a film where the re-recorded sound doesn`t synch with the actors` lips (the other being another Anchor Bay title, Eugenie). It`s mildly disconcerting because the actors are speaking English with the timing of the dub slightly off, plus the timbre and other sound affects don`t match. The lack of ambience in the foley (sound effects) too is noticeable for it`s absence. Apart from this oddity, the rest of the sound is clear with no sign of distortion, hiss or crackle.

Features

Easy to navigate animated menus with a loop of menacing music ensures you won`t be sitting around on just the menus for very long. Extras consist of:

• French Theatrical Trailer (3:42) - Anamorphically enhanced, the French voiceover is subtitled. Interesting trailer, but as with most trailers, it`s too long.

• The Perils and Pleasures of Justine Featurette (19:57) - Anamorphically enhanced, this is a short documentary made by Blue Underground which also made the featurette on the other Franco film, Eugenie. It`s an interesting piece and Jess Franco isn`t a man to mince his words. He`s very forthright about the problems encountered on the making of Justine.

• Biography: Jess Franco Director - 21 static pages on the man himself with a selected filmography too. It`s an interesting read and is clearly someone with a lot to say.

• Poster and Stills Gallery - 26 publicity stills as well as pictures taken from the film. Interesting just the one time.

• Liner Notes - A well written feature by Video Watchdog`s Tim Lucas. Some of the info here in the sleeve is already covered in Blue Underground`s featurette on the disc, but it still makes for an interesting read.

There are no subtitles. Justine is packaged in a standard keepcase.

Conclusion

The journey of Justine is an interesting one, though the way it unfolds here is highly comical. Director Jess Franco`s dissaproval of studio actor Romina Power being forced upon him might explain the hammy performances on display, but the studio can`t be blamed for the laughable dialogue. At best it`s nothing more than a poor Carry On film with breast shots.

The transformation of Justine from a prim and highly moral woman into an object is the basis of the story but I feel that it doesn`t suit the modern audience and would need to be remade. Looking at Justine now is almost comedic as the film hasn`t aged well at all. Jack Palance does do a surprising turn as the crazy decadent cult leader though but even this did prove a little tiring after five minutes. In the end, Justine`s path does eventually lead to redemption and I think it`s here that it might be intriguing to find out if her debauched experiences would affect her virtuos nature. Alas we don`t venture this far.

The quality of the anamorphic transfer is very good, bar the usual dirt that accompanies most 30 year old films. Plus of course it`s fully restored to how it should be. As with the other Jess Franco/Anchor Bay title, Eugenie, Justine has better than average extras and certainly these are supplements that I found interesting to watch. It`s a shame that by today`s standards the film doesn`t make the same impact as it had done in the 70s era. To that end, it`s worth renting if your interest is piqued by Jess Franco, otherwise I`d say don`t bother.