Story of Joanna, The (Alpha Blue) Review

Reviewed by classix comment  on  1/15/2007

Tis a shame that great film like this are treated like dirt by the companies that release them. Gerard Damiano's powerful and majestically shot masterpiece inspired by the great French Novel "The Story Of O" is one of the finest hardcore films EVER made by one of the genre's finest directors.
Jamie Gillis is Jason, a wealthy socialite who discovers he is dying of a rare (although unnamed) desease. He thus "adopts" a young woman, Joanna (Teri Hall) to keep him company during his final days. She however is unaware of his ailments.
Their relationship quickly turns from one of short term lovers to a violent bondage filled endurance test for poor Joanna who is tormented in just about every way possible. Slowly, as their profane relationship continues to develop, Jason becomes weaker and weaker due to his mysterious ailment while Joanna grows stronger and stronger through her torments...
Damiano's great strengths as a director are present in every aspect of this masterpiece. From the luxurious and sumptuous photography, locations, and costumes to his skilful weaving of strong psychological undertones into just about every scene in this film, to the remarkable and beautiful original score. Critically acclaimed upon its release, Joanna is still just as powerful and important a film 31 years on. Damiano's brilliant blurring of the lines between pain and pleasure all set in a timeless fantasy world which is neither the present, the past, nor the future, creates a strong ambience not present in 90% of good Hollywood films.
Thus is a shame to see such a film given such poor treatment on DVD. Culled from a HORRIBLE condition 35mm print riddled with Fuji-rot and missing close to 15 minutes of footage due to splices and frame jumps. Not only that but reels two and three are OUT OF ORDER, completely destroying the finely tuned narrative of this film. The one positive aspect of this production is the fact that it is properly shown in its original 1.66:1 aspect ration. However, considering the other abysmal aspects of this film, that fact hardly makes up for the rest.

I'd recommend that people who really want to see this film search for the original AVC and VHL VHS releases from the early 80s but considering the fact that this will be hard to do, the TVX release which is almost uncut and has superior picture quality will have to suffice.