Flowers of Perversion (2005)

AKA Jess Franco’s Perversion

Although portions of his written legacy were destroyed in his day by government imposed censorship and simply lost to time or environmental factors, the Marquis de Sade nonetheless left a prolific bibliography of everything consisting from novels, short stories and plays to philosophical musings and political pamphlets, so it’s a curious thing that most film adaptations of de Sade’s work tend to be based off only his most well known works. Jess Franco turned to de Sade for inspiration more than any other filmmaker and its true that Franco’s go-to de Sade tale was Philosophy in the Bedroom, having adapted it numerous times and using the story as a template for several other films. Franco also adapted Justine in 1968 but he also explored other de Sade writings like Eugenie de Franval which became Eugenie de Sade (1970) and Franco’s de Sade obsession even carried over into his digital era with the abstract Helter Skelter (2000) which, despite not being based on one specific de Sade text was inspirited by spirit of de Sade’s writings, featuring several voice-over’s reciting de Sade quotes. Franco would again think outside the box when it came to de Sade in 2005, taking on de Sade’s Augustine de Villeblanche, ou le Stratagème de l’amour found in the collection Historiettes, Contes et Fabliaux with Flowers of Perversion, one of Franco’s most challenging yet rewarding films from his digital era.

Two prostitutes (Carmen Montes and Fata Morgana) arrive at the brothel of Madame Villeblanche (Lina Romay) looking for work. Villeblanche takes them on, although hers is no ordinary brothel as Villeblanche indoctrinates them into her philosophy of sadomasochistic pleasure which has no use for men. The two are instructed to learn to punish any fellow worker who dares love a man and to lure potential male victims to the brothels torture chambers where Villeblanche and her pupils gleefully put their philosophy into action.

Fitting in snugly with Franco’s other films from this period, if there’s one film that Flowers of Perversion (Flores de perversión) shares many familiarities with it would be Helter Skelter and not simply because of the de Sade connection. Obviously the biggest difference between the two would be Flowers of Perversion having a central idea that comes full circle whereas Helter Skelter was a plotless exercise in abstraction but both films are structured in a remarkably similar fashion. While Franco never looses sight of Villeblanche’s tutelage of the two girls, he prefers a random succession of scenarios ala Helter Skelter rather than coherent storytelling. The film drifts from one random situation to another, be it a lovemaking session between Romay and Rachel Sheppard hilariously interrupted by unending phone calls, Montes and Morgana torturing the male lover of a fellow employee and most unusually, numerous cutaways to Montes and Morgana gyrating in large afro wigs. The length of each scene varies and the longer situations will no doubt test the patience of many, but for those in tune with Franco, the longer a scene goes on, the more hypnotic it becomes. The film is also one of the most visually interesting from Franco’s digital period with moments when Franco will switch from color to black and white or if blood makes an appearance the only visible color will be red. Its an intriguing experiment as are the various image contortions, a constant from Franco’s video productions, that make select appearances during the torture scenes.    

Its important to note that despite being made during Franco’s tenure for One Shot Productions, Flowers of Perversion is not a One Shot film but rather a product of Manacoa Productions, Franco’s own production company. This might cause a bit of confusion in that the film was released on DVD by Germany’s X-Rated Kult as “Jess Franco’s Perversion”, not to be confused with the Sub Rosa released double feature of Franco’s Mari-Cookie and the Killer Tarantula (1998) and Incubus (2002), two One Shot films, under the banner of “Jess Franco’s Perversion”. X-Rated also released Franco’s Flowers of Passion as “Jess Franco’s Passion” with similar looking artwork. Passion also starred Montes and Morgana who both worked very closely with Franco during this period with Morgana first appearing in Vampire Junction (2001) and staying on all the way up to Franco’s two Crypt of the Condemned (2012) films and Montes going on to becoming one of Franco’s greatest later day muses with exceptional turns in Snakewoman (2005), Paula-Paula (2010) and Franco’s final feature Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies (2013). Given the extra-polarizing nature of Franco’s later works, it should go without saying that Flowers of Perversion is only going to appeal to a select audience but said select audience just might find it be to a stand-out in Franco’s digital oeuvre and a quintessentially Franco treatment of one of de Sade’s more obscure stories.