story of sin

Bracketed between a career full of beautiful, but often erotically offensive films, Walerian Borowczyk returned to his native Poland in 1975 to film The Story of Sin, a faithful and relatively demure adaptation of the novel by Stefan Zeromski, which details the romantic, moral and spiritual struggles of Ewa Pobratynska, a virginal innocent whose obsession with a married lodger that moves into the family home leads her astray from the church, her family and her own dignity.

Yes, this is the same director responsible for The Beast (1975), one of the most ridiculously sexually explicit fairy tales ever filmed, and who continued pursued his obsession with genitalia into the horror genre with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981). Borowczyk apologists seem to be able to look beyond his rather grotesque fascinations, admiring the craft that lies underneath. And The Story of Sin is one of the few feature films that support their argument.

Ewa believes she's found true love with Lukasz, who has come to Warsaw in hopes that the church will grant him a divorce. But circumstances conspire to tear them apart, first in the form of a duel that leaves Lukasz shot through the lung. After a long recuperation he leaves once again...but also leaves Ewa pregnant. Ostracized and struggling to make ends meet, Ewa gives birth but kills the child in a fit of desperation and shame.

A series of men, including a wealthy Duke who fired the shot that nearly killed her beloved, gravitate around her with mixed intentions. Still pining after her lost love, who's now in prison, Ewa agrees to almost anything to earn his freedom. But when it comes - and their reunion is tragically thwarted once again - she succumbs to a life of sex, crime and bitter grapes.

Borowczyk is playing in the same sandbox as other "erotic historical epics" like Justine and Emmanuelle (a franchise to which the director would later contribute), but his approach is much more respectfully restrained. The only exploitation occurring in The Story of Sin is poor Ewa's push-pull relationship with the opposite sex. Manipulated, manhandled, blackmailed and raped, her life is a series of bad choices and poor timing, all in pursuit of a noble cause. There's no pleasure to be had in her fall from grace, unlike the clumsy erotic fumblings of a Jess Franco film. Here, the body is merely a vessel for suffering until the soul can be released.

Borowczyk shoots with his usual eye for composition, layered behind an intentionally foggy gauze of Old World authenticity. Even with a limited budget that often shows at the seams (the climactic gun battle sports plenty of awkward cuts and "You got me!" stage falls to avoid effects work and/or the censors), his film looks intricately detailed, down to the grimy rooms and dirty fingernails. What The Story of Sin lacks is a real connection with its main character, Ewa. Borowczyk curiously shoots actress Grazyna Dlugolecka at angles that obscure her behind furniture, faces or floppy hats, never allowing her eyes to do any acting outside of a few key scenes. It leaves the film with a calculating sense of cruelty with no mirror to put things into perspective.

Arrow Films have been a champion of Borowczyk's work from the very beginning, releasing several stand-alone titles and a box set that document his career from posters and shorts to internationally renowned filmmaker. And the latest Blu-ray / DVD combo continues the trend, packaged with an impressive amount of extras to go along with the new 2K restoration from the original film negative. An audio commentary is paired up with several interviews from the cast, filmmakers, poster artists and film critics - plus another essential video essay - that shed light on the director's particular obsessions. But even more noteworthy are the 2K restorations of a trio of Borowczyk's early film shorts: Once Upon a Time, Dom and The School, paired with optional audio commentaries. Add in a collectible booklet and reversible covert art and even those on the fence about the director's work have to be impressed with the effort Arrow has made to convince them otherwise.