The Image (1975) – Review

When it comes to bondage and erotica in film French director Just Jaeckin’s adaptation of author Anne Cécile Desclosthe The Story of O pretty much set the bar for which all movies with this subject matter would be measured by, while over in America director Radley Metzger took note of this, seeing what Jaeckin had done with The Story of O and said “Is that what you call sadomasochism?” and with that mindset, this American director brought us the film known simply as The Image, a film that is not at all shy with its subject matter.

The Image may have been an American production but it was shot in Paris, France and is based on the novel L’Image by Jean de Berg, which leaves one to believe that France must have been one incredibly kinky place in the 70s. The story follows the life of bored playboy Jean (Carl Parker) who, while mingling amongst a group of wealthy socialites at a literary party, spots Anne (Mary Mendum), a ravishing blonde that he immediately wants to know better. Also at the party, and looking equally as bored, is Claire (Marilyn Roberts), an old friend of his who he approaches so as to learn more about this beautiful and mysterious blonde. Jean is quite surprised to find out that Clair and Anne are an item, as he had no idea that Clair swung that way.

I would not be surprised if Mary Mendum turned women bisexual on a daily basis.

Turns out that Claire is the mistress of young Anne, cause sure, why not, and she begins to draw Jean into her world of sadistic pleasures. Claire is a strong and powerful force, cold and cruel, while Anne’s submissive nature hides a volcanic desire that hints at just who might actually be in charge of this relationship, and then there is Jean, who is so drab and boring that it almost hurts to watch him on screen. He’s also the one who provides the godawful narration that is so intrusive at times that it’s almost as if we are watching an Audio Book version of the novel.

Who needs narration over stuff like this?

The nature of Claire and Anne’s relationship becomes quite apparent to Jean when they visit a public garden and Claire orders Anne to steal a rose and hide its thorny stem under her garter, she then made to squat and pee right in front of him. I must say this caught me quite off guard and not just the kinky act of public watersports, but the fact that we get quite the graphic close-up of Mary Mendum peeing. This is not softcore porn, this is the real deal, and later Claire forces Anne to perform many sexual acts with Jean as well, adding more moments of humiliation for Anne, but when we see that twinkle in her eyes we know she is getting more out of this than her tormentors are.

The movie is broken into eleven chapters as we follow this bizarre and somewhat twisted threesome as they bounce from one sexual escapade to another, whether that be playing hide the fruit in a restaurant or oral sex in an alley, and at one point Claire offers Anne to Jean so that he to take her on an outing to shop for lingerie that results in a threesome with a cute shop girl (Valerie Marron).

All films could be improved by a little girl-on-girl action.

The tenth chapter “The Gothic Chamber” is the most intense, and the one that may put off some viewers (though if you made it through all the graphic sexual acts and humiliations so far I’m betting you’ll make it the rest of the way) as the torture level is amped to eleven as Claire chains up Anne, fits her with a rubber bit gag and proceeds to stick her with heated pins. Jean joins in with some brutal flogging – not wanting to feel left out – but it’s when he has a passionate and sensual sexual bout with her that Claire loses it and attacks him with the whip. Jean tries to restrain Claire, as she goes totally bananas, but what’s really nice is that Anne steps in and clobbers Jean with a bottle of champagne and he is driven out of the house. “I’m going to leave now,” Anne says quietly to Claire. “But what will I do?” asks Claire, and right there we get a solid inkling as to who was really in charge the whole time.

A bit much, you say?

This film is hot and by that, I mean super-hot, also not for everyone as the graphic nature of the sex scenes could certainly make some people a little squeamish, and the sexual torture and humiliation makes modern erotica like Fifty Shades of Grey look like family entertainment to be found on the Disney Channel. For me what makes this film a stand-out among films of this genre is Mary Mendum and Marilyn Roberts’ performances as they both felt pure and with a level of authenticity that one doesn’t expect to see in this type of film. With this film director Radley Metzger gave the world one of the best S&M films to date but it would have been even better if they had lost that awful narration.

The End.