Marquis de Sade: Justine 4K 1969

Once upon a time there were two sisters, Juliette and Justina, totally unlike each other... Justine was truly virtuous, pious and innocent. Juliette was ready for everything possible and impossible in order to be happy.

It so happens that the sisters are kicked out of the convent, where they were brought up away from people. The sisters are separated, and each goes her own way. Juliette happily takes a job in a brothel, where she is favored by her mistress and becomes her mistress. Then, after strangling the mistress and drowning her rival friend, she herself becomes the owner of the whole house. Here she also finds a rich lover, a minister of the King himself. Juliet rises higher and higher up the social ladder, not shying away from murder or debauchery...

What happens to the innocent Justina? She is naive and gullible, which is what Evil takes advantage of on this earth. She is robbed, raped, beaten, humiliated in every way, imprisoned and accused of all mortal sins, but she continues to be virtuous with the name of God on her lips.

Now about the movie. Overall, I enjoyed it... Of course, it's silly to expect the 1969 film to be in complete agreement with the Marquis de Sade's books, replete with scenes of violence and all kinds of orgies... but the atmosphere of this author's books is conveyed quite authentically, albeit with some digressions. Worth noting is the performance of the aspiring actress and singer Romina Pauer (Yes, yes... The same one who recorded the hit 'Felicita' in a duet with her husband Al Bano... and not only him, of course). She's surprisingly suitable for the role of Justina, although I didn't think so at first.

It's a shame that the filmmakers changed the brilliant ending of de Sade's novels. There Justine is pierced by lightning, and she dies on the spot, never knowing happiness on this sinful earth, and Juliet repents of her sins, amazed and inspired by her sister's courage, goes to a convent.

But the Marquis de Sade never gives the question to the main question: 'What is happiness? In virtue or sin? Everyone answers this question in his own way...