Vice & Virtue

Roger Vadim made a career out of combining visual elegance and sexual spectacle in romantic dramas and literary adaptations, as demonstrated in this 1963 film that is loosely based on two Marquis de Sade works, Justine and Juliette, which Vadim has reframed as a morality tale set in Nazi-occupied France. Annie Girardot and Catherine Deneuve (in her first major role) star as sisters representing diametrically opposed responses to the occupation. Girardot's Juliette, aka “le vice,” turns collaborator and becomes the willing mistress of the ruthless and equally opportunistic SS Colonel Erik Schörndorf (Robert Hossein), while Deneuve's idealistic young Justine, aka “la vertu,” defies the Nazis and is sent to a brothel for German officers in a country castle. Vadim seems to revel in the decadence and suggestions of sadism and sexual enslavement, embracing a kind of art house version of sexploitation by way of high melodrama and gothic horror, but the effort comes across as tasteless and confused. No serious thought or theme lies behind the narrative, which is merely a calculated attempt to titillate audiences with the suggestion of innocent beauties degraded at the hands of Nazis. An unsavory, cynical film, this is not recommended. (S. Axmaker)