A young woman (Grazyna Dlugolecka) is used and abused by several men.
Director Walerian Borowczyk, the "genius who also happened to be a pornographer", had already made an award-winning short film ("Dom") and stunned the world by this time with "Immoral Tales" (1973) and its follow-up "The Beast" (1975). Showing just how low an artist could sink for his art, what was the director going to do next? And would actress Grażyna Długołęcka be brave enough to follow his lead?
"Story of Sin" was quite Polish, in contrast to the director's primarily French work. In fact, the story was adapted from an unloved Polish novel ("Wages of Sin") by the otherwise popular novelist Stefan Żeromski (1864-1925). Poland was (and is) a deeply Roman Catholic country, and the film is not without some religious overtones. Eve is said to be "the first sinner" and we know the director liked to use "religion as a way to express erotic behavior".
Strangely, although the women in his films are clearly being exploited and his films are rightly described as exploitation, the argument has been made that in many ways the women of the films get the upper hand or have free agency -- perhaps they make poor choices or are in bad situations, but they are not merely passive. This fact makes these films actually, dare we say, feminist. "Story of Sin" is an interesting ethical mix; the lead makes questionable choices (leading to prostitution and abortion), but for a very admirable reason -- she is tracking down her true love. Can we fault her for her choices? And can we fault the director for showing a strong woman making such hard choices?
The 2017 Blu-ray from Arrow Video is packed ridiculously full. We have an audio commentary by the impressively knowledgeable Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger, best known for their Daughters of Darkness podcast. There is a new introduction by poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and a new interview with lead actor Grazyna Dlugolecka. Furthermore, film critic David Thompson talks on the use of classic music in Borowczyk's films; Daniel Bird presents a video essay concerning the director's obsessions; there is a video essay on Borowczyk and Lenica's contributions to newsreels and documentaries on art history; a short news reel documentary about poster art co-written by Borowczyk; an interview with Juliusz Zamecznik, son of photographer and graphic artist Wojciech Zamecznik; and an interview with poster artist Teresa Byszewska.
Those hours of bonus content not enough for you? Arrow even threw in 2K restorations from the original negatives of Borowczyk's ground-breaking Polish shorts: "Once Upon a Time" (co-directed by Jan Lenica), "Dom" (co-directed by Lenica) and "The School", each with optional audio commentaries. It is nigh impossible to imagine a greater tribute to the work of Borowczyk in video form.
