Alberto (Antonio Mayans), who lives in an incestuous relationship with
his sister Alba (Mabel Escano) and their dog woman Sultana (Lina Romay),
bumps into young and innocent but sensuous Eugenie (Katja Bienert) one day
... and is enchanted by her almost immediately. He follows her around town
to peep on her, and she doesn't really seem to mind, actually gives him
opportunity after opportunity to see her naked, even watch her masturbate.
For her it's just innocent teasing ... Alba loves her brother more than
anyone else, so she promises to help him get his hands on the girl - and
to that end, she makes Eugenie's dad (Antonio Rebollo) fall in love with
her, but promises him a sexual relationship only if he "borrows"
her and her brother the girl for the weekend. Dad of course knows it's not
the right thing to do, but he's so overcome with lust for Alba that he
agrees anyways. Alberto, Alba and Sultana take Eugenie to their private
island, where Eugenie also meets and falls in love with the blind guitar
player Walter (Melo Costa), whom she considers some sort of soulmate.
Alberto, Alba and Sultana let Eugenie take part in their hedonistic
lifestyle, which includes alcohol and drugs, and at the end of the first
night, Alberto rapes the totally drugged out girl. The next day, Eugenie
thinks the rape was nothing but a bad dream. The second day, Alberto goes
even further and violently whips Eugenie before shagging her. However, the
fact that Eugenie has fallen in love with Walter somehow ticks Alberto off
and he soon kills Sultana during sexual intercourse, then drives Alba, who
has some unspecified condition, to such a heavy orgasm that it kills her.
Then he comes after Eugenie - but in her desperation, she grabs the first
thing that falls into her hand, and it's fortunately a harpoon, and kills
Alberto with it ... I think even most Jess Franco fans (and I'm
one of them) will agree that the late 1970's/early 80's were not the
director's best period, mostly he just churned out films by the dozen and
put only very little effort or creativity into them. ... and then
there's Eugenie... Historia de una Perversión, one of the most
beautiful, most sensual, most erotic films he has ever made. Sure, the
story (which Franco has filmed before) might be a bit on the basic and
perverse side, and serves too well as a hanger to undress girls to be
taken wholly seriously - but the way it's told is something altogether:
The bright colours the film is told in seem otherworldly (without being
synthetic), Franco's fascination with weird architecture (and his ability
to film it) is in full bloom here, and the eccentrically shot and edited
sex scenes are breathtaking in their otherworldly beauty. And that Katja
Bienert's early beauty is at her peak in this one and she embodies the
role of Eugenie just so perfectly doesn't hurt much either. In all, a
great and grossly underrated piece of erotica.
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