Mina wrote her post here, but, honestly, I have to have another take at this. I just can’t help it…
When you watch the movie, you struggle to find anything good about it. Whomever was responsible for Soledad Miranda’s hair did manage to keep it straight consistently, so, bonus points there. Beyond that, you can only praise the incredible team effort, where the bad acting helped to camoflauge the poor direction, which also hid the feeble concept. In essence, Eugenie de Sade is a wonderful parfait of suck.
The “plot” centers around Eugenie and her father. The story begins with her finding a secret book of erotica in her father’s library, and her father sussing out his teenager daughter’s secret reading habits. Upon realizing that his daughter is blossoming into her sexuality, and inappropriately objectifying him, he acts as any father would – he praises her reading, saying it was high time, seduces her, and decides that she will be the perfect accomplice in his scheme to commit the perfect murders. Naturally! Their first plan is to go to a conference in Paris, secretly fly to Brussels durign a variety show, murder whatever model they hire, and return to Paris before the variety show ends, thus cementing the alibi. (Ah for the days when airlines didn’t keep passnger manifests, and TSA didn’t make you show up two hours early!) Of course, this very first murder is instantly sussed out by a devoted fan of the father. Although he does not report them to the police, Eugenie and her father respond to the discovery of their brilliant plan by instead murdering hitchhikers, a classic method of victim selection. Strangely, one of the murders arouses them to fuck over the victim’s body. (yes, I get it, but the way the movie plays, it is completely unaccountable.) Eventually, their trail of murders falls apart when the Father’s plan is to have Eugenie seduce a jazz musician for him to prey upon. Of course, she falls in love with their target, causing the father to murder him in a rage, instead of cold blood, and then to mutilate Eugenie before stabbing himself. The movie ends with Eugenie dying as she completes her deathbed confession to the fan of her father who had been stalking them throughout the film.
There are certain moments in the movie that require a delicate sophistication. For instance, when Eugenie’s father confesses to her (after being asked once) that he murdered her mom shortly after she was born for infidelity. The incredibly complex waves of emotion that wash over a young girl as she discovers that her first lover, her father, and her partner in murder was the one who executed her mother in cold blood only after waiting for her to be born so he could have the net woman in his life were reduced to a sensible nod of, “well yes, she needed to die.”
In some ways, it’s obvious that the director knew he only had about forty minutes of material, and was desperate to stretch it out. As a result, the viewed is tormented with protracted scenes of musicians playing, and massively out-of-focus action overlaid with one of the four songs used to create the movie. It is also apparent that the director realized halfway through the filming process that the movie was going to be a steaming pile of crap, and had stopped really trying to do a good job. There are several scenes where the depth of field is bizarrely placed, leaving extras in focus and the principal characters lost in the blur. Eugenie is apparently a fan of bears, as her father has grown his own wool coat on his back, and her musician lover has an ass only a yeti could love (though, bizarrely, no other body hair). Even ignoring some of the movie’s datedness, it is hard to get around how awful the film is, from concept to execution. The bad ideas were only succeeded by how poorly they were done.
If you happen to have a tall bottle of intoxicating beverage and a bunch of friends not put off by nudity, it is a great movie for everyone to ironically mock, but paying any money to actually experience this is something you will resent for your entire life. Stay away…far far away.
