Marquis de Sade: Justine
1969 film by Jesús Franco
Marquis de Sade: Justine (Italian: Justine ovvero le disavventure della virtù, lit. 'Justine or the misadventures of virtue', also released as Deadly Sanctuary) is a 1969 erotic period drama film directed by Jesús Franco, written and produced by Harry Alan Towers, and based on the 1791 novel Justine by the Marquis de Sade. It stars Romina Power as the title character, with Maria Rohm, Klaus Kinski, Akim Tamiroff, Harald Leipnitz, Rosemary Dexter, Horst Frank, Sylva Koscina and Mercedes McCambridge.
The film is set in 1700s France where Justine (Power) and her sister Juliette (Rohm) are orphans in Paris. Juliette becomes a prostitute and marries a rich noble. Justine is falsely arrested and sentenced to death, then escapes from prison to become a fugitive.
The film was an international co-production between West Germany and Italy. Justine had Franco's largest budget to date, of just under a million dollars. Franco originally wanted to cast Rosemary Dexter as Justine, but was convinced to cast Romina Power in the role, which led to Franco changing the story to suit her.
Plot
In Paris during the late 18th-century, Justine (Romina Power) lives with her sister Juliette (Maria Rohm) in a convent. When they learn of their father's death, they are ordered out of the convent with their father's remaining money - 100 coins, which is not enough to survive.
“Marquis de Sade: Justine” enters the record as 1969 film by Jesús Franco. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Marquis, Sade and Justine can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1061552. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969 and 1791.
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This entry incorporates text from “Marquis de Sade: Justine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.