Melodramas are rarely balanced, rarely present information in a way that is pleasant for both sexes. By itself, this fact does not mean that the film is defective. There are nice offers for men, but more often for women. The genre is considered feminine because it makes more effort than other genres in trying to understand the essence of sexual relations. This film is balanced and will be appreciated by everyone who likes dark romanticism. There are enough spoilers in this text to hurt the first impression. I advise you to start reading this article after watching it the film. The object is easy to find on torrent trackers.
“Story of O” by my pen pal Just Jaeckin was originally supposed to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, an art-house director who was in vogue back in 1975. It was he who was the number one choice of producer Eric Rocha, source material fanatic. Eric had little to do with the cinema industry and spent most of his career producing various adaptations of the eponymous novel by de Sade in a skirt - Pauline Reage. But something did not work out with Alejandro and Just got the opportunity to surpass his famous, financially successful, and historically significant debut - "Emmanuelle". Film, which will yet trigger prison sentences for watching it on VCRs at home in the Soviet Union and whose influence on shaking up late Soviet morality can only be compared with "Rambo".
Unlike "Emmanuelle", “Story of O” is more of a niche film. It was shown on openly pirate post-Soviet television in the 90s, like all significant Euro-American movies with nudity. But less frequently. In England and Australia, it was banned until the early 00s, but this is not surprising. Anglo-Saxons are comfortable with plotless pornography but are easily freaked out by serious contemplations of sexuality. This is where they differ greatly and for the worse from the French, Slavs, and other continental Europeans. In the English contractual system of relations, it is assumed that partners should be more or less equal. Intellectually, socially, by age. How exactly must they come to this equality is not exactly specified. Just like what they can get from it. In sadism, it is generally accepted that personal growth occurs only through inequality and suffering. Inequality, because any person, but especially a young one, strives to be filled with meanings. Suffering, because otherwise, you won't understand what is important to you and that secondary things, which we often try to ignore while trying to build relationships with a person who is a little different from us, will sooner or later emerge in a mutually fundamental way.
For a man of the philistine nature, the very concept is associated with cruelty and infliction of pain. And although this is partly true, the subculture is unrelated to flayers, animal tormentors, or just brutal assholes. The violence of these strata is likewise animalistic, instinctive, and unconscious. For a juvenile drug addict, crucifying a cat is a pastime between dose and cold turkey, just like beating up a girlfriend between jail terms is a pastime for a criminal repeat offender. This is their natural modus operandi. For those who have read more than one book in their life, however, sadism is primarily an experiment for clarification of the nature of relationships and their personal role.
There were two masochism-inclined women in my life. One, a Tatar girl named Kamilya, who stylized her name as Camille, a Goth and a Francophile. She took me to the central cemetery of the city at midnight for kissing sessions, where she asked to bite her lips at full tenacity until they bleed. Growing up in an Islamic family, her sex drive was suppressed. She was a virgin and sublimated her chastity in such a spicy way. She managed to emigrate to France, where she now works as a flamenco dancer and continues her habit with Parisian men and cemeteries. My relationship with the second one was long enough for her to forget her hair-pulling fetish. If at first she was offended when I did not do it, then after a few years she was offended when I did it. Living together tends to weather out such urges. As for me, my fetishes have always been visual and emotional, never tactile. Therefore, before marriage, I would not have understood the scene when O forces the maid to beat her up ostentatiously, to spite an overly ambitious secondary lover, and to prove her loyalty to the owner. Tactile fetishes are more intense heart-to-heart talks than any visuals.
It's no secret that there are three main sources of attraction. Biological, financial, intellectual. Fewer people realize how big is the gap in importance between the first and the rest of the sources. Beautiful people are being hunted all their lives, they enjoy more forgiveness. In a relationship, they throw their weight around more, knowing that the less beautiful half of the couple will be more afraid of parting. They almost always have a meager erotic fantasy, underdeveloped due to abundant but simplistic practice. Their advice to unhappy and envious ugly loners is to “be yourself”. After all, this is all that they needed in life. Those who are biologically lower, but have high erotic ambitions, are forced to become virtuosos of power in relationships, sooner or later.
“Autumn was coming”. One of the first phrases in the film, spoken against the background of a young couple walking hand in hand. As it will become clear later, the autumn of their biology-based relationship was approaching.
Character of a uniquely demonic German actor - Udo Kier - seeks adventure and sincere devotion. He predated the currently popular “theme” of cuckoldism, where spiritual loyalty is regularly tested by physical unfaithfulness. Conservative men are unlikely to understand the meaning of this quote: "sleeping with other men, she belonged only to him." And why does this character, who would otherwise be called tyrant by modern female psychologists, wants this. The logic here is that when the girl returns from another man, she confirms your superiority over him. And when she does not, she confirms his superiority. Of course, this only works with a high-level, sought-after girl of model appearance. The kind that any lover would want to keep for himself forever. Next door type of girls is suitable only for leisure and the only thing which infidelity of such girl can prove is her own infirmity.
However, O is obliged to say thanks to the “cuckold” for the patronage in the form of getting directly to the highest level - the castle in Roissy, bypassing the school for young and inexperienced in Samois-sur-Seine. Literary source makes it clear that this does not happen usually. Difference between the two places is significant. First one is patriarchal, hedonistic, with a touch of the Renaissance and antiquity, exquisite food, and sexy styles of clothing. Second one is matriarchal, Victorian, ascetic, with a hot iron, infantile dresses, suppressed and open lesbianism. Heroine experienced the suffering of second place in the privileged status of Roissy visitor. This immediately made her an alpha female in Samois and also provided an inner core, which allowed her to set the tone in the subsequent relationship, without formally leaving the status of a sex slave.
The main heroine floats through time and space for most of the story. Soft focus of the camera was borrowed by Just from the trendy photographer and owner of Penthouse magazine Bob Guccione, who shot in this way during the 70s. It emphasizes the evanescence, semi-fabulousness, and fragility of what is happening.
It's a paradox, but the more undeservedly you get something, the more intimate and romantic are the feelings you experience. The more conscientiously you work, the more mundane and boring are your earnings. Sugar babies who ask big money just for their beauty, and not even for sex, understand this well. Like the heroes of socialist labor, who were traded for dissidents at the rate of 1,000 to 1. “Normal” girls become “owls,” the anti-thesis of the sacrificial lamb, through the victory over the natural female duality. “She wanted it to end as soon as possible. She wanted it to never end.” I have seen such a state quite often and as a rule, it was a green flag. Signal that you can move to a new level of intimacy. Confusion of feelings indicates their presence. But for a full-fledged enthronement of femininity, it is necessary to choose an unambiguous yes, no matter how attractive such a suspension may be felt.
Sir Stephen owes a lot to his status. Philosophy and ingenuity, when naked, divorced from materialism and money, are never enough for an aging man. Even charm and style are asexual in themselves. In seducing elite girls half your age they can only serve as an appendage to opportunities you're able to create. Such people neither party around nor settle down, because such relationships cannot be called debauchery or leisure. This is a mutual upgrade in understanding yourself and those around you. Only dying and ceasing to live could be interested in stopping it.
It is unclear whether the semi-rape he committed would have worked this favorably, had it happened in a simpler setting. But having good real estate, connections, the favor of the bitch school matron - such things change attitudes. Help the chosen girl to accept the exclusive stigma.
It is not known how long such a family hearth will burn. But life expectancy is also impossible to predict.