Vice And Virtue - DVD

Set against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of France, VICE AND VIRTUE La vice et le vertu is a stylized retelling of the Marquis de Sades Justine, as envisioned by one of cinemas most provocative filmmakers. Roger Vadim Blood and Roses, Barbarella. Two sisters navigate very different courses as they struggle to survive within the morally corrupt fascist regime. Juliette Annie Girardot, The Piano Teacher is surrounded by the spoils of war, being the mistress of an SS colonel Robert Hossein. Meanwhile, Justine Catherine Deneuve, Repulsion, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, whose husband is seized by fascists on their wedding day, is taken to a chateau in the country, where she is groomed to become a concubine for the Nazi elite.

Set against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of France, VICE AND VIRTURE is a stylized retelling of the Marquis de Sade's Justine, as envisioned by one of cinema's most provocative filmmakers Roger Vadim (Blood and Roses, Barbarella). Two sisters navigate very different courses as they struggle to survive within the morally corrupt fascist regime. Juliette (Annie Girardot, The Piano Teacher) is surrounded by the spoils of war, being the mistress of a colonel (Robert Hossein). Meanwhile, Justine (Catherine Deneuve, Repulsion, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), whose husband is seized by fascists on their wedding day, is taken to a chateau in the country, where she is groomed to become a concubine for the Nazi elite.

Adapted from Noël Coward, this silent melodrama follows Isabel Jeans' Larita through scandal, divorce, and a second chance she must protect from gossip. Hitchcock stirs sympathy and irony in equal measure, using intertitles like whispered asides. A reminder that his pre-sound work could be as emotionally exact as anything that came later.