Customer Reviews

The Image

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Radley METZGER's THE IMAGE (also known under the more exploitative title THE PUNISHMENT OF ANNE) is without doubt not everybody's cup of tea. Based on an infamous French bestseller this movie is shocking in its relentless depiction of a weird triangle relationship between a mature woman, her submissive young girl friend and a curious author.
Please note: If you feel uneasy when you see graphic sex, humiliation, degradation, bondage, whipping and urination, then do not watch this film. On the other hand, this is no raincoat brigade movie. Instead it is a masterly crafted piece of art with outstanding cinematography, a beautiful score and fine actors (Yes, everybody here can act better than most mainstream academy award winners.)
Regrettably the rough SM scenes could easily distract from or obscure the motivation of the characters.
THE IMAGE has an unusual book-like structure with chapters (no, I'm not refering to the DVD chapters). According to the liner notes the film is very faithful to its literary source. I liked the social setting of the film - it takes places among educated, eloquent and wealthy jet set people. And the film makes good use of its nice Paris locations. I found THE IMAGE very compelling viewing. I just didn't like the fitting room scene too much, because it seemed like a rather cliche porn situation to me.
Some words about the DVD: SYNAPSE did a real great job with the transfer. One can't praise the picture quality high enough. The uncut film is presented widescreen.
Unfortunately there aren't too many extras: the director's filmography, an isolated score and five trailers of Radley METZGER movies: SCORE, THE LICKERISH QUARTET, CAMILLE 2000, THERESE AND ISABELLE and CARMEN BABY. Kudos to Stephen R. BISSETTE for his insightful liner notes. I recommend to read it before you watch the movie, because it really enhances your understanding of the film despite some spoilers.

In the tradition of "The Story of O" and "Emmanuel"...this Radley Metzger 1975 classic is stupendous!
Beautifully filmed, with minimum fanfare, it gets straight to the point within minutes of you watching it. And that point is not pornographic...but rather sensual and erotic. The total submission of the young star, Anne, played by Mary Mendum, to her older dominatrix girlfriend Claire and her boyfriend Jean, is "a middle aged couple's dream come true". If you want your wife or girlfriend to be dripping with anticipation...turn the lights down and have her watch this film, in its entirety and I'm certain any woman will be drawn in to its lusty presentation! That being said...this is not a film for group viewing by your neighbors next door...unless????
Unlike the video taped, bluntly pornographic XXX movies of today... 1975's "The Image" was filmed, in a way when showing just enough, was good enough to be shown. Although there are some shocking scenes of oral sex between the stars, this film mostly deals with sexual tension and lustful sentiments, inside anyone (male or female) who has ever "lusted" after a youthful girl, strictly to inflict decipline, pain and pleasure upon her. Five stars is not high enough of a rating for this "must have in your erotic collection masterpiece!" I would have always enjoyed more violent sex and torture scenes, however, given what's being produced these days....this film clearly stands out as a "classic of all time" proportions!

Arguably the finest S/M movie ever made, Radley Metzger's 'The Image'(aka The Punishment of Anne) tells of Jean, a writer who meets an old friend, Claire, at a party and is soon drawn into her world of S/M along with her slave, Anne.
Based on the French novel 'L'image' by Jean de Berg, a nom de guerre for Catherine Robbe-Grillet, this may be Radley (Score!, Therese and Isabelle, The Opening of Misty Beethoven)Metzger's best film. Beautifully filmed and acted and very erotic.
The dvd transfer of the film is absolutely stunning. The picture is pristine and the colors leap out at you. The new stereo mix is great. The original mono track is also included. There is a Metzger filmography and a few trailers for his films included as well. Kudo's to Synapse for releasing this gem of a film and doing such a great job on it!
If your up for some primo euro-erotica at its finest, look no further!

The Image, also called The Punishment of Anne is widely regarded by people on the Internet as Radley Metzger's best movie. I agree with that assessment. He is an interesting director whose characters are always intelligent people who outwardly lead normal lives in society while privately pursuing out of the ordinary sex lives, such as libertines, S&M, homosexuality, especially lesbianism, prostitution, and so on. If memory serves correctly all of his movies take place in racy locations such as Europe or South America. In other words he isn't doing Desire Under the Elms or something in a sleepy rural community. It's always in a castle, or penthouse, or mansion, or beach house, etc. All of his movies could be considered art movies that are not intended for a general audience. This particular movie involves lesbianism, S&M, humiliation, dominance/submission by well-to-do people in contemporary Paris. It is a VERY faithful adaptation of the book of the same name by Jean de Berg. A thirty something male author attends a party at a socialite's house in Paris where he encounters an old friend, a woman his own age from his upscale social class (she has a Wellesley accent by the way), who is showing off her new pet. Anne, a very beautiful young blonde woman is completely under the older woman's spell and will do anything to prove it. Our hero is then invited into their world for a series of mind games, etc. divided into episodes that take place in different locations, sometimes in public, sometimes behind closed doors over a period of weeks I believe. Like all of Metzger's movies it is very well made and very beautiful. I liked the book and the movie as well. If you are interested in this kind of subject material you'll like this movie.

THE IMAGE is a disturbing, erotic, scary, elegant movie that probably only Radley Metzger could have made. Most directors of 'erotica' concentrate on gynecological close-ups to the exclusion of all else; Metzger's hallmark has always been to tell a story and explain the characters and their situation without ever resorting to the patronizing smirk, relying as much on the actors' eyes as on the dialogue. The S&M scene is as alien to me as peanut-butter-and-pickle sandwiches (which I am also told some enjoy), but in THE IMAGE I can see the gamesmanship, the role-playing and the unspoken psychological leveraging that makes it all so compellingly complex. Would I show this film to Grandma? Uh-uh. But then, that's just MY grandma, yours may well have a side you never suspected. This film is hot, fascinating, and, in this gorgeous and UNCUT (thank you, thank you!) video transfer, stunningly beautiful as well.

`The Story of O' directed by Just Jaeckin and `The Image' directed by Radley Metzger are both based on famous and critically well received French erotic novels written, I believe, in the 1960s by Pauline Reage (a pseudonym) and Jean de Berg respectively. In turn, the two movies are both considered masterpieces of erotic moviemaking. Yet the latter is clearly better than the former, in spite of the fact that the two books are, to my mind, roughly equal in quality. I may even believe that `The Story of O' is superior as a novel to de Berg's fiction.

While both are of a very high quality, they approach roughly the same subject in very different ways. In `The Story of O', everything is seen and told through the eyes of the submissive, `O'. In `The Image', everything is seen through the eyes of the bystander become dominant, Jean. That does not mean that `O' can tell us nothing of the dominant psychology or `Image' tell us nothing of the submissive psychology. In fact, it is one of the strengths of `The Image' that it probably tells us more about true psychological submissiveness than the movie, `O'.

The primary problem with `The Story of O' film is that while its source is certainly a very well constructed fantasy, the director does not hide this fact and play it as reality. This may be comparable to our not taking the confrontation between Gandalf and the Balrog at the bridge in the mines of Moria (in `Lord of the Rings') because we know this is all a fantasy. The power of great fantasies is that they allow us to totally suspend disbelief for the course of the experience. In Jaeckin's commentary, he states over and over that this is all a fantasy and was intended as such by author, Reage. But, one of Reage's great skills was to minimize the improbable aspects of the story to sustain the sense that this plot is actually being played out by real people.

The second problem for me with `The Story of O' is the fact that it did not improve on my imagination while I was reading the book. Going back to that other fantasy, `Lord of the Rings', one of its great successes is the fact that at every turn, it improved on the constructs of my imagination. The black riders, the Uruk-hai, and Shelob were all far scarier than what I read, and the reading was pretty scary. At but one scene does the film outdo my imagination.

The third problem, which the movie shares with the book, is the improbability of a woman's so easily moving her affection from one dominant to the next. The book's original ending makes great use of the chasm this reliance on a master opens at the submissive's feet. The movie squanders the great original ending in a muddle of alternatives.

`The Image' easily sidesteps the last problem by being a very simple `menage a trois'. And, while the submissive is asked to perform with outsider, Jean, she is always devoted primarily to dominant Claire. As far as improving on my imagination, I will only say that from what you think you are seeing on the screen, director Metzger is pulling no punches and Mary Mendum playing the submissive is about as convincing as I can imagine in her role, in comparison to `O''s actress, Corinne Clery, who sometimes seems to be simply working through the boredom in some scenes.

Part of the reality of `The Image' is based on the immediacy of all the settings. Like some films by Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, where New York City is almost as much a character in the movie as the actors on the screen, several locations in Paris are important contributors to the lush, overripe feel of the film. In contrast, `The Story of O' could have as easily been filmed in Quebec or Sidney, and no one would have noticed the difference.

On the other hand, while the two films are of roughly the same lengths, `The Image' spends a lot more time conveying the relationship by showing its fruits rather than by talking about it.

Both movies are easily 1000% better than any other movie on these subjects, but `The Image' is clearly the better of the two in a very small field.

This movie could easily have been done differently. Radley Metzgar made movies that were very high on style and settings and generally of a softer erotic nature. More high on tease than delivery. He went on to make some of perhaps the best hard core movies of the 1970's under the name of Harry Paris. This is not one of the hard core movies, but is certainly more explicit than his usual European soft core movies. Start out by reading the insert that gives background in the making and marketing of this movie, as it will put in into the context of the time it was filmed. This DVD also comes with a parental lock feature, and if there are young people that could see this movie, this would be important. The role of Anne is listed as Mary Mendum, although the IMDB indicates that is a non-de-plume. Regardless, she is a stunning model of great beauty even if the role is not Oscar material. This movie is sensuous and erotic, and highly charged. Some might think it too slow or not enough action. But, this movie is about exciting the senses, not the spirit. The S&M scene in the Gothic chamber is high on sounds and visuals and even over-acting, rather than explict beatings and that is a positive. The print is from the original 35mm print, and is very good quality. The male narration may become annoying but then harken back to the background insert which touches on that issue.
This movie would probably not get a NC-17 rating, but it certainly is a very strong R rating.

i'm waiting for the s&m b&d film that doesn't have a voiceover. even so, the young blonde sex slave in this film is very attractive and terribly naughty; her mistress is appropriately severe, and the man she's led to service is a pleasant guy who's pretty happy with his good luck. of course, the slave is abused in a variety of ways (she can't be a real slave unless she's handed around for sampling), and she really seems to suffer/thrill about it. some fleeting oral sex shots, but otherwise excellent photography, sound and acting, and one of the best examples of late 20th century softcore.

Radley Metzger's finest film in many exploitation film fans' eyes. It is certainly an interesting film if for nothing but for it's very existence. It is a rarity to see careful and meticulous hands take on a story that is so explicit and amoral in many viewer's estimation. Metzger is a wizard at his craft, no doubt about that, but it's a shame that his craft was and still is considered to be filth, as this film is by no means mainstream or even nearing social acceptability in terms of even what today's typical NC-17 film offers as far as sexual content limits. This film has scenes that are well past that limit.

The story is about a writer named Jean who meets an old girlfriend named Claire at a party and upon reestablishing some relationship, he finds her life is basically saturated in sadomasochism. Her slave, Anne, is obviously a major part as well and makes for the most insightful character analysis. The film cuts sharply straight into it's themes of dominance and submission in an anterior sense for Jean, in a deeply experienced sense of authority for Claire, and of course in a vulnerable and docile role for Anne. The character commentary is pretty solid, mainly because these kinds of roles are seen so infrequently. I don't want to insinuate that the film is a study, because it's not. It is vintage exploitation, so it's priority's are for the most part elsewhere.

It's difficult to comment on in detail, but this movie pulls off being a decent film while at the same time containing elements that most would think were gratuitous. Let's face it, in today's American Culture any nudity is deemed gratuitous nudity and as artists, film makers are bound to create films that don't touch on so many elements in this area of the human psyche. This is no surprise as films like this one, In the Realm of the Senses, Ken Park, some of Catherine Breillet's work, and many others are often reduced to being called filth despite containing the majority of elements it takes to tell an important story, make a crucial observation and pull at some strong sense of the human spirit. The image does just that.

It also does something all films should consider. That is allow for total freedom of creativity regardless of consequences. Metzger took a story that was about genuinely graphic things and in turn made something few people consider possible, a quality film that explores these unconventional and offensive elements. There are and were some directors who did this, but none I can recall that were quite as carefree as Metzger was for his time. I recommend this film, but do remember that this is a low budget foreign film that one may only come across if ever taken a keen interest in this tiny and bizarre sub-genre.

It's a good thing the batteries in my smoke detector are dead cause this movie would've set it off!

In the swanky part of Paris a man attending a fancy snob party runs into his ex-wife who oddly enough is accompanied by her young, hot blonde slave girl. His ex-wife invites him to join them and over the next month or two they subject the girl to all kinds of punishments, humiliations and pleasures including: public urination, beatings, poking with hot needles, object insertions, bathing and lots of sex.

Told in the sensual, classy, and artistic Metzger style that we all love I'd say this is the best Metzger movie I've ever seen.

Rebecca Brooke who played the slave was hot, but the lady who played the ex-wife, while energetic, did absolutely nothing for me. Needs to be remade with Jenna Jameson and Brittany Daniel. Oh! I got lightheaded just thinking about that.