Le Vice et la vertu (1963)
Directed by Roger Vadim

Film Review

A year after Le Repos du guerrier, director Roger Vadim was back with a new Franco-Italian drama entitled Le Vice et la vertu, which came out in Parisian cinemas on the 1st March 1963.  Based on the Marquis de Sade's novel Justine, Vadim rises to the challenge of re-imagining Sade's characters in a fictitious story, transposed to the Nazi Occupation of WWII.  After the film's premiere, the film was condemned both by the critics and by fans of the Marquis de Sade, who were unimpressed by Vadim's attempts to associate the writer with the traumatic period of the Occupation.

Whilst his direction is sometimes impressive, Vadim appears to be a little overwhelmed by the subject and his awkward attempt to deliver a kinky philosophical metaphor.  His secondary characters often appear inconsistent, something that weakens the story and undermines its conclusion.  The vice and virtue of the title are exemplified by Justine and Juliette, two sisters who are placed in opposition to one other and who both become prisoners in the web of Nazi intrigue.

True to his reputation as a discoverer of talented actresses, Vadim offers the first major role to Sylvie Dorléac, better known as Catherine Deneuve.  This film led Deneuve to be chosen by director Jacques Demy for his film Les Parapluies de cherbourg.  In common with several of her early film appearances, Deneuve is not always at her best but she is extraordinarily beautiful, all the more so thanks to Vadim's insistence that her hair colour be blond (thereby creating the actress's iconic look).  Vadim chose blond to emphasise the virtuous nature of Justine's character, someone who refuses to give in to the enemy.  Annie Girardot is equally impressive in her role as Juliette, the less noble of the two sisters, someone who is prepared to do anything to survive.  It would appear that Vadim is torn between creating symbolic characters or believable women, since Girardot is not exactly vice incarnate and Deneuve is not really a model of pristine virtue. 

Robert Hossein is fabulous as the fearless and relentless SS colonel whose silences creates a mood of anxiety.  German actor O.E. Hasse leaves a deep impression as an imposing SS General.  Philippe Lemaire is cast against type but is perfect as a German officer. The supporting cast includes Howard Vernon, Henri Virlojeux, Michel de Ré, Georges Poujouly (discovered in René Clément's Jeux interdits) and Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi (seen as the villainous bond girl in Thunderball).  Fifty years on, Le vice et la vertu may be able to pass itself off as a classic wartime drama, but it is visibly weakened by Vadim's lack of boldness and offers a reinterpretation of the Marquis de Sade's universe that is too crude and decorative to be entirely satisfying.

Film Synopsis

Paris 1944.  Justine is about to about to marry Jean, a member of the resistance, when the latter is suddenly arrested by the Gestapo.  To save Jean, Justine appeals to her sister Juliette, who is the mistress of a German officer, General von Bamberg, to help her.  When Jean succeeds in escaping from his captors, Justine mistakenly believes that this is through Juliette's efforts and she goes to thank her sister.  She unwittingly witnesses the killing of  von Bamberg and ends up being sent to a Tyrolean castle to service the lustful desires of the Nazis.  Meanwhile, Juliette becomes the mistress of the S.S. officer Colonel Schorndorf, a ruthless opponent of Hitler who took great pleasure in arranging von Bamberg's death...