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W I D E R SCREENINGS TM presents...
WORLD EROTICA INDEX
JUSTINE (1976)
Salvation DVD (region 1)
d. Chris Boger; pr. Chris Boger; scr. Ian Cullen; novel. Marquis DeSade; ph. Robin Deakins, Roger Deakins; ed. Peter Delegou; cast. Koo Stark, Martin Potter, Lydia Lisle, Katherine Kath, Hope Jackman, Maggie Petersen (109 mins)

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Naked sinful nuns are the promise of director Chris Boger’s Justine, from the notorious writings of the Marquis De Sade and starring one time Royal sex toy Koo Stark.

Religious fear, dread and sexual repression underlie this subversion of Christian sexual morality. A devout nun prays beside a naked nun masturbating, giggling and beckoning the devout nun to join her: between the aspiration to heaven and the fear of hellfire and damnation lies the field of sexual desire and the secreted female sexuality so revealingly exposed in this erotic film classic of British exploitation, taking its place alongside such as The Story of O.

Christian Morality as a Repressive Sexual Socialization Creating Pathological Psychosis

The constraints of Christian morality – the sexual repression of women in deference to the ideals of marriage and virginity, under penalty of damnation and hellfire – result in a religious sexual socialization tantamount to dangerous psychosis.

The title character in Justine, a novice nun, comes into the clutches of a horde of nuns unable to repress their lesbian desires and hysterically poring over the young, nubile body. Depravity here is human nature and religion is psycho-sexual totalitarian mind-control, denying the desires inherent in womanhood.

Two sisters leave the convent and set off into London, renouncing God’ love for the carnal appetites of prostitution, intending to sell her virginity – from the cloisters to the brothel and a world of sexual freedom from the hypocrisy and repression of the Christian church. Prostitution is liberation in this film. The parallels between the convent and the brothel – religious instruction compared to sexual instruction, repression to role-playing and individual sexual self-determination. “Religion is an illness to be killed”: that is the belief here, and sexual control through the means of prostitution is the way to destroy this illness. Yet, this is what forces Justine to flee.

The clash between Christian repression and un-Christian liberation is too much for Justine, who needs the guidance of Godly, honourable men in the traditional sense.

But after her Priest tries to rape her, she falls in with grave-robbers intent on ransom or reward. Although constrained by its low-budget, Justine is a peculiar gender-variation on Oliver Twist. Here, its not a headstrong Oliver but a cowering and sexually timid Justine who encounters a variety of society’s criminal underclass as she leaves her convent and seeks a life without her sister’s ruinous interference.

Meanwhile, Justine’s sister is increasingly disillusioned with life in the brothel. Indeed, it is the inter-cutting between them that serves to develop the contrasts between “fallen” life and “virtuous” life and what the path of each offers women that propels Justine. Released through Salvation films, Justine is a worthy addition to the sinful-nun subgenre and indeed a curious addition to the likes of Fanny Hill and other classics of erotic literature.

But there is little humour here beyond the deepest of ironies and Justine emerges finally as an intriguing morality play and episodic journey through developing womanhood, bound by time, place and religious socialization.