DIE MARQUISE VON SADE

Enter a hushed parallel world of Sex and Death...


Strange shadows in empty rooms. A bleak mise-en-scene...


DAS BILDNIS DER DORIANA GRAY/DIE MARQUISE DE SADE/DIRTY DRACULA/EJACULATIONS:
SWITZERLAND/WG-1976, 79m.
I think this film, best known as DAS BILDNIS DER DORIANA GRAY (1976), works a whole lot better without the distraction of the closeups mechanics of hardcore sex. just as LA COMTESSE NOIRE (1973) works best without the hardcore footage, which really drags it out.

As with LA COMTESSE NOIRE, Franco made this film as a hardcore female vampire film with the main character sucking the "essential liquids" from her victims and also as a version without the XXX action inserts.Then there was a horror version where the character is sucking blood from victims, as in the novel DRACULA and all the films based on it. But I don't know of any version of DORIANA GRAY which has traditional vampire scenes of the main character sucking blood from her victims, as the EROTIKILL version of LA COMTESSE NOIRE has. This version was distributed by Force Video in the mid 1980s in the US and lasts just over 75 minutes and is cropped at 1.33:1, which takes much of its impact away.

Many critics have complained about the numerous out of focus shots and seeming technical "errors" in LA COMETESS..., like Lina Romay bumping into the camera lens during the credits sequence. But I find these moments part of the film's uniquely dreamlike quality. To paraphrase the late Henri Langlois, sometimes Franco's failings become his greatest strengths.


It opens with one of the most stunning images in Franco's extensive filmography and justs get better as it goes along. An almost dialogue-free film the impressionistic and low level sound mix is very appropriate to the theme. DORIANA GRAY tells the same story as LA COMTESSE NOIRE with the same characters but in a slightly different key. An lonely female vampire leading a life of quiet desperation in lavishly appointed isolation. Adding a Conradian "secret sharer" in Doriana's torment, her twin sister, separated at birth, who suffers hidden away in the clinic of Dr. Orloff. First seen in a mirror sing songing a macabre nursery rhyme Doriana's twin is one of Franco's most haunting creations, a pathetic creature, a sexually addicted victim of her predatory sister's erotic experiences. She thrashes about having the climaxes denied to Doriana, who telepathically, or somehow, transfers the orgasms to her imprisoned sister who is almost always seen either sexually stimulating herself in between Doriana's transmissions.

It's a world without love, only compulsive sexual behavior, frustration and screaming release for the sister. Punctuated by the cries of birds and set to the minimalist sitar score of Walter Baumgartner the film is clinical, remote and deeply disturbing. The reduced, but luminous, color scheme which lights the way to world of shadows is rigorously explored by Franco's drunken camera.

Designed in slate greys and eye popping pinks (Doriana's see-through robe), set within a castle perched above a jungle (Portugal, probably), much of the run time is taken up with Franco zooming in to study the architecture of the estate. The endless rains pour from the mouths of gargoyles onto the hard tile floors of the mansion while Doriana slowly walks through pillared patios and down long, mysterious hallways to her next deadly assignation. Like Irina Von Karlstein she dies in private bath evoking the last lines of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land." It works as unique version of Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, while evoking Ingmar Bergman's THE SILENCE and Kieslowski's THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE.

Having re watched the 2003 VIP DVD from producer Dietrich's ELITE FILMS, taken from original camera negs and superbly restored, I find it somewhat technically flawed with some motion glitches, unless there's been a replacement transfer since then.
The English language track grates due to distracting voice casting. I do wish for a new English subtitled NTSC disc which ideally would contain both the non-hardcore version as well as the XXX one.

1976 was a rather amazing years for Jess Franco in that he managed to turn out three of his best films, all in different genres (erotic vampire; nunsploitation; gore/true-crime thriller) and styles: DORIANA GRAY, LOVE LETTERS OF A PORTUGUESE NUN and JACK, THE RIPPER. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Since I wrote the above text there has a been a Blu-ray release of DORIANA, with both versions on Dietrich's THE JESS FRANCO GOLDEN COLLECTION, which I haven't yet seen. I have now seen the non-hardcore version, DIE MARQUISE VON SADE, made in Southern France and in the Dietrich Studios in Switzerland, first in a XXX hardcore version, usually titled DAS BILINDAS DER DORIANA GRAY, then in a non-hardcore version with inserts shot by producer Dietrich (according to FLOWERS OF PERVERSION; THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO). As Dietrich states in his OBSESSION interview, there were more than one version of both the non-hardcore and the hardcore produced. DIE MARQUISE... is a version I have seen on AMAZON PRIME, running approximately 69 minutes with the inserts replacing all the hardcore material. I much prefer this version as it overall plays in a quiet, daydreamy tone, which is often interrupted by graphic hardcore close-ups of genitalia and oral sex in DORIANA. It's more of a tone poem than an arty porno epic. Some references note a 74 minute version of this re-edit, and there may be more of both out there. Here is a link to an updated article on both versions of the film, along with new interviews with actress Monica Swinn about the making of the film. Also included are research notes and bibliographical information. Written by Michael Orlando Yaccarino. www.dorianavilla.com/library (C) Robert Monell, 2025