"They decided that I would be punished. And what the
punishment should I choose
myself to inflict... "What to me" the punishment
"?
The humiliation of captive locked up in a seedy Lyon
hotel, undressed, abandoned in a sordid room... Her anguish as soon as the
light dies out. Her resignation in front of the customers who paid to appease
on her their particular defects. Her hatred against the procurers who inflict
this sanction. And her revolt when she hears the cries of Gloria, the other
captive one made insane of suffering "I did not want to save anybody. I
simply wanted to make Gloria known, and through it, the others, all the
others... "
-Xaviere, from the source novel from which La Punition is based
Xaviere is not Xaviere Hollander, but a French prostitute who wrote several books about being in the life, one, most ironically entitled, Thank You Monsieur.
I reviewed this film as part of the Karin Schubert retrospective in Sleazoid #4, but it continues to haunt me and I watch it often, too often…I have always observed my life from a slight distance though I am not psychiatrically inclined.
I always felt I was all the four
leading characters in La Punition in equal proportions… Karin, the
person who falls into the situation of heavy S&M people… Amidou, who can
bring himself to show empathy but not affection… Claudie Lange, the Madame who
is able to psychologically terrify people by merely showing them grotesque
sexual objects… Georges Geret, the merciless vice lord who has women do as he
commands – until he picks the wrong one… And shards of me are in all the
other characters... from the people who worked in and visited the hotel to the
person who snaps rather publicly at the end (played, in no small irony, by the
director’s wife, Anne Jolivet)... The film is the scary funhouse mirror
world of Bill Landis. The movie is
about death as much as it is about the many variants of sex; it begins and ends
with a murder. Perhaps it illuminates
something I don’t want to admit about myself but haunts me nevertheless.
Anway, here’s some
hyperlink treats of rare lobby cards and stills for those so inclined
The
iconographic scene of Karin trapped, stripped and beaten in the hotel room
One of the
typical clients about to sexually terrorize Karin in the seedy hotel room
Karin, beautiful, before the true victimization starts
The innkeeper who runs the seedy Lyon hotel makes sure Karin is still alive after the treatment
Little Toulouse Lautrec wants Karin to play dominant and gets more than he expected
The first john who beats Karin severely
Before the chaos: Karin enjoying a lyrical shower in the Madame’s bathroom
Karin dresses down for her boss, Georges Geret
Karin struggles with the first john, who tortures and overpowers her
The john with the bizarre religious obsession who makes Karin his supplicant
Placing Karin in dominatrix garb, which triggers her explosive rage more than her masochism
Karin as dominatrix with the innkeeper voyeuristically savoring on her appearance in this role
Karin, working at Georges Geret’s club, complete with crucifix, before her punishment
Amidou and Karin: Pimpin’ ain’t easy, especially when you’re a Moroccan in Paris
