Konterr Brilliant and touching

Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

murfit I feel like I have to put something against all the glowing reviews of this film. I acknowledge that it has to be seen in the context of its time, when it probably wasn't possible to produce erotica above the level of B-movies, but still the film is far from being a masterpiece.The cinematography is adequate, but nothing special. The soundtrack and voice-over narration are cheesy and uninspired. The performances of Carl Parker and Marilyn Roberts are quite wooden. Parker appears more like a brute than a writer and refined member of society, and Roberts is not only cold but also utterly unerotic. Mary Mendum's performance is better, and it is the only thing that carries the movie, in some of her scenes I actually believe her being submissive. But there are other scenes, especially when she lingers ponderingly in front of the cupboard holding the instruments of her torture, where it remained completely mysterious to me what is supposed to be going through her mind.But the main thing, and to me fatal for an erotic movie, is the lack of chemistry between the protagonists. Anne gets off on pain, but she seems to be indifferent as to who inflicts it on her, and Claire gets off on inflicting pain, but she doesn't seem to care about Anne. And I'm not saying I missed "romantic" or "cuddly" scenes – what I missed was actual interpersonal connection in the S&M scenes. There is a lot of skin contact, fellatio, cunnilingus, vaginal penetration, there is a lot of instrumentation being applied – but I never had the impression that these people truly touch each other. And while I understand Jean's sexual desire for pretty Anne, I don't see at all why in the end he would fall for Claire, who for all her libertinism comes across as extremely closed off.Oh and finally: Didn't they seriously not have any nicer lingerie in 1970s Paris? Anne's garter belt looks like a few elastic bands stitched together by an amateur.

jaibo The Image, aka The Punishment of Anne, is one of those rare narrative films in the history of cinema to take sado-masochism at face value, offering it up to the viewer without judgment and placing it at the centre of the drama, rather than as a peripheral element in a genre story.Based on a novel written pseudonymously by Catherine Robbe-Grillet (wife of Alain), The Image tells the story of a sophisticated French writer, Jean, who upon finishing a short story visits a literary soirée and renews his acquaintance with the ice-cool salon habitué Claire. Claire introduces him to her protégé, Anne, and it soon becomes clear that Anne is Claire's slave, trained like a dog to obey. Jean visits the Roseraie de Bagatelle with the two women, there witnessing the humiliation of Anne, whom Claire pierces with a thorn and makes squat on the ground to publicly urinate. A few days later, Jean runs into Anne in the street. The young woman is rude to him, so follows an extended period in which Claire offers Anne to Jean for punishment. Jean gets to enjoy the kinky games, in which Anne enjoys being publicly displayed, offered for sex with strangers, whipped and insulted. Things come to a head when Jean is invited into Clare's torture chamber, where Anne is pierced with hot needles and whipped on a medieval-looking contraption before being penetrated by Jean. Jean's missionary-position f**king of Anne is too much for Clare, who attacks him and drives him from the house. Anne announces that she is leaving Claire. The next morning, Claire visits Jean dressed as Anne and confesses her love for him after he orders her about and then screws her.The enigmatic ending raises a number of questions as to what has gone before. Was Clare using Anne as a way of seducing Jean? When we first meet Clare, Jean's narration suggests that her invulnerable nature put paid to his desire for her – was Anne really a role Clare played all the while, an invention the two of them have come up with in order to make their relationship work? This makes retrospective sense of the early scene in which Clare shows Jean a number of images of Anne followed by an image of an unnamed other woman, who by implication is herself. Is the action of the film a visualisation of the content of their sado-masochistic game? This would suggest that the masochistic woman is a willed character the female subject in a heterosexual sex-game invents in order to satisfy her own and her partner's needs. It is also possible that the action of the film is the story which Jean says that he has just completed at the outset… Whichever is the case, the film is enough to give most mainstream and, especially, liberal-minded viewers some qualms. There is no hardcore penetration shots, but there is non-simulated fellatio, cunnilingus and urination. The torture sequences are probably simulated, yet they pack a visceral intensity which may well have physical and emotional affects on the viewer, as well as raising various issues of feminism and power in representational and actual sado-masochism. The film is beautifully shot and directed by one of Metzger, one of erotic cinemas most advanced and professional stylists, but its visual beauty and technical acumen won't story some commentators dismissing the film as mere filth. Yet the film deserves to be treated as a serious cinematic account of a type of sexuality which may not be mainstream but which many viewers, male and female, will have an attraction towards. The film is offers both a turn-on for those viewers and a view of the dynamics of S&M relationships for anyone interested.As a piece of 1970s cinema, the film now offers some amusement in terms of its costumes and music. Yet some of the images are intense and almost surreal in their power – Anne urinating on the rose, or erotically fingering a rosebud, are moments which offer a cinematic equivalent of the writings of Bataille or even the paintings of Georgia O'Keefe. As one of the few Golden Age of Porn available in a remastered DVD with an excellent transfer in a widescreen aspect ratio (Synapse's 2002 edition), it does offer a particularly good insight into the possibilities that 70s narrative porn were exploring in terms of hardcore elements combined with mainstream production values.

The_Void What we have here is a classic slice of pornography, which is wrapped up in excellent production values in spite of the lurid and sleazy nature of most of it's action. Indeed, this film has just about everything a porn fan could want and more, as we get to watch the title character go through a number of 'pleasures' including whipping, public humiliation and mutilation. The film takes place in the upper society of France, and this serves in making the film more shocking as it features an eloquent voice over from the central character, which runs over most scenes, and offsets the gratuitous sex sequences nicely. The plot focuses on a man named Jean, who bumps into his friend Claire at a dull cocktail party that the pair are attending. It's not long before he is introduced to Claire's "friend" - the completely submissive Anne, who delights in bending to her mistress' will, even if that means having to urinate in public or undress in front of strangers. We then follow the trio through a series of sex scenes, most of which see the title character bear the brunt of the less savoury acts.One thing I've learnt about porn flicks is that there often isn't much of a plot to speak of; and this one is no different, although the slim plot is excellently fleshed out by the three central characters; who are very different and equally interesting. The beautiful Rebecca Brooke takes the lead role and does well with it thanks to her good looks and willingness to show off her 'assets' at every opportunity. Marilyn Roberts plays the older, yet equally sexy woman who is also the labyrinth character of the piece and provides the film with a degree of intrigue. Carl Parker rounds it all off with a brilliantly sleazy performance, and his character actually goes through a bit of development, which is rather odd for a porn film. This film is really head and shoulders above its counterparts, as the production values are good and director Radley Metzger actually seems to care about how good his locations look, as he succeeds in capturing France at its best. Overall, The Punishment of Anne comes highly recommended to anyone that interested in high-class porn films!

wade1979 I bought several erotic movies for my girlfriend and me and out of all of them I have found this one to be the best so far. The DVD has some scenes where there are lines in the picture but they do not take away from the movie, for being such an old movie it transferred well to DVD. I have to admit that I did not think that the movie would get so explicit in some of the scenes, but I think that just made it even better.If you want a very erotic movie then this one is great. There are some scenes that are a little annoying, like screaming for five or so minutes, but overall it is great. I would not buy it if you are looking for a porno, but there are several scenes that you would see in a porno.