Cover Art

Credits

Director: Radley Metzger Starring: Rebecca Brooke, Carl Parker, Marilyn Roberts Screenplay: Jake Barnes Music: Brian Bennett Tagline: "Beyond the Story of O!" Country: USA/France AKA: The Punishment of Anne, The Mistress and the Slave, L'Esclave, L'Image

This is A-list exploitation. The cinematography is superb, the camera is unflinching in it's depictions of sexual violence, and the blurb on the front of the DVD stating that it was "ultra-erotic" told no lies. Even so, it might be a bit much for some – watching Anne being utterly degraded on a regular basis can get depressing at times – the end dungeon scene is particularly grim, to my mind.

The basic story is simple: ice-queen Claire has beautiful Anne as a slave in an increasingly nasty sado-masochistic relationship. Along comes 1970s swinger dude Jean, who easily fits in to their way of life, and is quite happy to have Anne suck him off while Claire whips the be-jesus out of her slave. And it's real sex, ladies and gents. No pop-shots, but still actual mouth-on-cock action. Let me explain: I normally don't find the whole sex–on-screen thing particularly arousing, but there's something about this film that started making me feel all trousery. But the violence, oh, the violence…

All of a sudden there's whips and chains and uber-violence. This in and of itself is enough to start making me feel a bit nervous. But, being made of stern stuff, I persevered, and came across a 70s masterpiece that certainly outstrips The Story Of O and the original Sylvia Kristal Emmanuelle films in terms of explicitness – they were always a bit too soft and arty for my taste. But it can be hard to reconcile yourself to a film that detractors might argue was merely a patchwork of beatings and boobs with a minimal, episodic narrative.

There's little in the way of plot, or even character development here, but even so, this is most definitely not porn any more than 9 Songs or Anatomy of Hell were. It's an exploration of sado-masochistic sexuality and power struggles inside an obviously unusual ménage a trois, and little more. And in that latter regard, the end was a bit of a surprise, watching where the power pendulum swung inside the relationship. But all of that notwithstanding, I would cheerfully stand up in any court of law and defend this film's artistic merit.

So, if you are a fan of boobs, perversion or whipping, this is probably a film for you. Or, conversely, if you are a fan of beautifully shot and well-crafted erotica, this is probably a film for you. Personally speaking, sexually, this kind of thing is not really Mr Intolerance's cup of Twinings, as I am a tremendous physical coward and don't really like the idea of being beaten with whips as foreplay – but as a tribute to the director, he does make the whole thing heavily charged with pretty bloody steamy eroticism – so I guess in terms of what he set out to do – make an intelligent and beautifully crafted erotic film about sado-masochism: mission accomplished.