IMDb information

Amy Hesketh wrote and directed this dark film set two centuries ago and inspired by the writings of the Marquis de Sade. But before we get into the story, Amy makes a brief appearance playing a modern-day character who serves as our portal into past. She is a tourist in Bolivia, looking for a particular historical site and following the directions in her trusty guidebook.

She makes her way to a small museum, housing what is left of the prison cell of the Marquis de la Croix. She finds that the docent (Eric Calancha) is about to begin an educational session with a tourist couple (Mila Joya and Jac Avila), so she’s just in time.

The docent (Eric Calancha) relates the tale of the Marquis de la Croix (Jac Avila), a nobleman who has was imprisoned but because of his wealth was able to purchase certain creature comforts to enhance his period of confinement. He used his money to stock his relatively spacious prison cell with all manner of dungeon accoutrements, as well as to procure potential victims from the ranks of accused females who had been condemned to death. While he submitted each victim to a series of tortures, he occasionally put quill to parchment to describe his experiences, his innermost thoughts, and his impressions of the doomed women.

This is the tale of the encounter between the Marquis and one of those unfortunate women, Zynga (Mila Delicia Joya), a gypsy who faces the guillotine for the crimes of arson, theft and murder. (It’s more likely that someone of Zynga’s lower social status would have been executed by hanging; beheading was considered a more merciful form of execution and was usually reserved for society’s high-born troublemakers. But, by whatever means, Zynga is toast.) She, of course, claims to be innocent, but agrees to take her chances with the Marquis.

The story-within-a-story opens as Zynga is being delivered to the Marquis. She has been tarted-up in a luxurious-looking, ruby-colored, full-length sheath dress to further please her new owner. Her ankles have been chained together, as have her wrists; she also sports a cloth gag..

The Marquis offers the hungry Zynga an apple, but insists that she must do something for it. He pulls up a chair and orders her to approach him on her knees. The Marquis has removed her gag but the shackles remain.

When she is close enough, the Marquis pulls Zynga’s head between his knees and forces her to service him. (None of this is explicit – Jac’s pants stay on). After he is satisfied, he pushes her to the floor. Thus begins a process that runs the length of the film, in which the Marquis not only tortures Zynga physically but also mentally.

As Zynga lies on the floor, seemingly ashamed and disgusted with herself, the Marquis offers her the apple that she earned. When she refuses it, he tries to shove it in her mouth. But she'll have none of it.

Next, the Marquis has her stand up facing the wall while he affixes her shackles. Then he rips open the back of her dress, all the way down past the butt crack. A good strategic move - since Zynga’s voluminous, untamed hair covers much of her upper back and shoulders, the Marquis focuses his whipping on her lower back and butt.

After he has whipped her for a long time, he leaves her hanging chained to the wall all night while he rests from his labors.

Next morning, he takes Zynga down and offers her bread and wine. There is some nice interaction here between Jac and Mila as he puts victuals up to her lips, only to pull them away, and does this repeatedly. Every possible emotion shows up on her face – annoyance, frustration, forbearance – she seems determined to both demonstrate compliance and keep her dignity. But once again she must “earn” what she wants. This time the Marquis shackles her to the wall facing forward and rips her dress open almost entirely down to the bottom. Mmmm...exposed goodies.

This is followed by another lengthy and severe whipping, during which Zynga loses what’s left of her clothing.

The Marquis then humiliates by making her eat the promised bread off the floor.

As she focuses on her hard-earned meal, he readies the ropes that he will use to put her in a strappado-like position.

After he hoists her up with her arms tied behind her, he beats Zynga’s butt, back legs and belly with a cane

He offers her a drink, but then pulls it away, making her stretch out and put more strain on her shoulders in order to reach it. Occasionally he raises the rod, she readies herself for the pain, and he pauses - then strikes just as the thought enters her mind that he might stop.

Next, he moves Zynga directly from the ropes to the rack. At this point Mila is quite lacerated and sweaty, and the racking stretches her out for a very tasty view of her luscious figure.

The Marquis turns the rack scene into a kind of interrogation: if she is innocent of her crimes, why did she agree to this alternative to execution? He never gets an answer.

While she’s on the rack, the Marquis also administers a vicious foot-whipping with a cane, which elicits the loudest screams yet from his victim. Zynga passes out, and the Marquis returns to his writing.

The Marquis revives her and once attaches her wrists to the rope suspended by a pulley in the ceiling. He hoists her into a standing AOH and proceeds to whip her again, front and back and every exposed inch of her body.

At one point, he tells her, “Just a little more.” She may have believed him before, but seems to be approaching despair that this will ever end.

The Marquis lets her hang there, barely conscious, while he goes to his desk to scribble and have some more wine. "She makes a thousand promises when the whip hits her torso," the Marquis writes, but we don't see this happen. Perhaps he is embellishing his account?

The Marquis finally loosens her arms and Zynga drops to the floor. He produces a thick wooden stick to use as a patibulum to which he ties and then nails her hands to it.

He uses the pulley to suspend her vertically, feet hardly touching the floor and most of her weight transferred to her limbs. Finally, he nails her feet to a wooden block. The nailing elicits Zynga’s most stentorian expressions of pain yet.

Slowly, but surely, Zynga passes away. But not before Mila gives us some nice squirming and expressions of agony. IMO, this is the best performance and best appearance by Mila in the entire movie, right up to the moment she dies.

But just when you start thinking how much this reminds you of the earlier Red Feline works that focused on the torture and death of a single victim, Amy pulls us back to the present and wraps up the story with a pleasant – that is to say, nasty – little twist.

Those who like to see interaction between the villain and the victim will need to contend with the fact that the dialog is very sparse. The Marquis speaks mostly through his inner musings and writings, which Jac delivers in a voice-over. Zynga says little, aside from a few phrases – e.g., “I'm thirsty”, “I'm hungry”, and “Please” – and these are spoken by Mila in Spanish as subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen.

But Mila communicates well, through body language and facial expressions, what she is feeling – frustration, pain, resignation, determination even pride. Whatever happens on the screen, the viewer is always drawn to her – even when she hangs in the background while the Marquis scribbles – such is the magnetism she projects.

Jac has delivered low-key performances in each RF flick in which I've seen him. In this case it’s an advantage, since he is playing a cold, dissolute aristocrat who writes about how “excited” he gets performing violent actions but seems equally driven to hide his emotions.

Ultimately, the allure of this movie rests upon the performance of the victim. Mila’s gifts include not only her wonderful physical beauty but also the way she moves, focuses her eyes, changes her expressions along with the torture she’s going through. As the tortures progress in their level of cruelty and painfulness, Mila adjusts the volume and frequency of her cries. At one point, when the whip hits her nipple, she yelps from the pain. A developing actress – remember that she was “discovered” while working as a receptionist – she gives the film-making company a very strong potential presence to plug into future roles.

Individually, GIMPers have different tastes and some may not be drawn to this presentation because there is no rape action. But it has a lot going for it in other respects. Long after one views them, the images of the suffering, sweating, naked Mila stay in the mind, along with many unanswered questions. For example, we never find out if Mila is indeed guilty of the crimes for which she has been charged.

Regarding the inner thoughts and motivations of the characters, much is open to the interpretation (imagination?) of the viewer; however, it helps that there is a separate commentary option which allows the viewer to hear Jac and Amy provide their own perspectives on each scene.

Another viewing option – which I chose because I've experienced some slight hearing loss over the years – is to watch a completely subtitled version (the subtitles include Jac's voice-over parts).