Story of O (1961)
USA. Directed by Kenneth Anger – unfinished (apparently survives as a short film in the collections of a small number of connoisseurs). In an interview Kenneth Anger recalls having made four ten minute films sold to a small handful of collectors in France and Germany.
The films have never been shown. Story of O is one of these and starred a nineteen year old girl who was set upon rebelling against her high society family by appearing in Anger’s movie. Permission to film Histoire d’O had been granted by both Jean Jacques Pauvert and ‘Pauline Reage’ who had requested, “as long as it’s like a private thing, for a few people.”
Anger thought it could be done like a ‘poetic film’, – “Well, Story of O would have been beautiful because I was doing it in the style of Robert Bresson, like Les dames du Bois de Boulogne which is very understated.” Anger maintains the collectors’ item was produced in a designed box, “It’s a 400ft can which fits inside a fake book.” Each edition carried a simple title and edition number, “In a sense, it was my exercise in snobbism.” Anger had planned the film to be longer but the finance dried up after the girl’s boyfriend, who offered to pay for the film, was jailed for a kidnapping (the boyfriend had been one of the kidnappers of Eric Peugeot, heir to the Peugeot car company fortune). Anger maintains, “So despite the film not being finished, there actually remains twenty minutes at the Cinemateque Francaise. Someday possibly I can screen it.”
O – FILMS
Historical Note: In 1970, Alan Klein – who was the manager of the Beatles and Rolling Stones – proposed to the singular Alexander Jodorowsky to film Story of O, and tempted him with a million dollar contract; For some reason, Jodorowsky fled negotiations to work on a script for Dune.
O – FILMS
Story of O (1975)
It is said, for a very long time, French director Henri-Georges Clouzot dreamt of adapting the novel. Finally, a film, The Story of O, was made in 1975 by director Just Jaeckin. It is a much maligned but wholly praise worthy film version of the Réage novel with Bond-girl Corrine Clery suffering at the hands of her ‘lovers’.
A dreamlike atmosphere pervades the whole footage, helped by careful illumination, filters and of course the excellent score by Pierre Bachelet (that recalls briefly Listz’s “Dream of 
Love”, a very fit inspiration, with its blending of sensuality and religiosity). A departure from the book comes at the close, when O claims her due from Sir Stephen, providing a happy ending. One satisfied customer wrote, “The quality of the film is first class, it is well acted, and is a classic. IMO, it is a must have film. It is the only erotic film in our house – the rest are just so bland.”
Fr/Ger. Directed by Just Jaekin, based on Histoire d’O. Screenplay: Sebastian Japrisot. Photography: Robert Fraissa. Music: Pierre Bachelet; with Corrine Clery, Martine Kelly, Alain Noury, Udo Kier and Anthony Steele.
Shown for the first time in London December 1999 (with a Camden Council 18 certificate for a short run at the ABC Leicester Square) 24 years after its British ban. (A word about “cut” and “uncut” versions: In the English language version about 8 minutes are omitted. They include some dialogues between René and O and some nudity of the latter. The reason for the omission was not censure and nothing fundamental is missed in this English version.)
O – FILMS
Lars von Trier’s
Menthe – la bienheureuse (1979 )
“Menthe – the Blissful”
Curious black & white homage to Reage and Story of O directed with style by Lars von Trier. Lars von Trier was a twenty one old year student and member of the Filmgruppe 16 (an amateur nonprofit association) when he made Menthe – la bienheureuse in 1979.
In the same year he was accepted to the National School of Denmark as a directing student.
Both Histoire d’O and the works of de Sade made a lasting impression and around 1990 von Trier had serious plans of adapting de Sade’s Justine and Reage’s Story of O for the screen. Neither project got off the ground and Menth – la bienheureuse remains von Trier’s solitary stab at the erotic classic. ( see Lars von Trier Interviews edited by Jan Lumholdt (pp.168) pub 2003 )
“Various brief notices of the film identify it as Lars von Trier’s homage to Histoire d’O but it also draws on the narrative style of Marguerite Duras as if retouched by Jean Genet. The title has been translated into English as Menthe – the blissful but it would probably be more accurate (if apparently awkward) to translate it as Mint – the blessed one.” (Cinema of the World)
Writing credits:
Dominique Aury (novel), Lars von Trier.
Cast: Inger Hivdtfeldt … The Woman Annette Linnet … Menthe
Car-Henrik Trier … The Gardener
Lars von Trier … The Driver
Jenni Dick … The Old Lady
Brigitte Pelissier … Voice of The Woman
Runtime 31′ Language French, Denmark
O – FILMS
Fruits of Passion (1981)
Jap/Fr. Directed by Shuji Terayama. With Isabelle Illiers and Klaus Kinski and Arielle Dombasle.
Based on Retour a’ Roissy. “Like Magritte let loose in Wonderland.”- Nigel Andrews, Financial Times.
Again, very little to do with Reage but the film’s oddness, and the casting of Kinski, compensates for the film’s shortcomings. Like an epic poem to melancholy Fruits of Passion rambles through a series of eccentric set pieces interspersed with moments of surreality, with a story setting the sadness of brothel life against a slim plot involving Sir Stephen financing a Cooley uprising! Fascinating.
NOTE:
In an interview, Andre Heinrich reveals Philippe d’Argila, son of ‘Pauline Reage’ and one of the producers on Borowczyk’s Blanche, wished to cash in on the success of Just Jaekin’s
Story of O by producing a sequel based upon his mother’s Retour a’ Roissy for which she retained the rights. As Associate Producer on Fruits of Passion one can only assume d’Argila had to make-do with this Hong Kong based movie which claims to be the sequal to Story of O but is as far from Return to the Chateau as one can imagine. (SP 2015)
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Story of O 2 (1984)
Fr. Directed by Éric Rochat. Screenplay/ Story: Éric Rochat and Jeffrey O’Kelly. Photography: Andres Berenguer. Music: Stanley Myers; with Sandra Wey, Manuel de Blas, Rosa Valenty, Christian Cid.
Though not without merit (the designs and staging are intriguing) this ‘sequel’ to Story of O has little to do with the Pauline Réage novel and instead tells a story of business and family intrigues after a powerful industry group engage ‘O’ to discredit the leader of an American competitor financial empire. Éric Rochat’s screenplay later found its way into print as The New Story of O (sometimes accredited to “James Jennings”) and as the third comic strip Story of O (Vol.3) by Guido Crepax.
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Story of O: the Series (1995)
Brazil. Directed by Ron Williams (actually Éric Rochat)
Screenplay Ron Williams and Jennifer Field.
With Claudia Cepeda, Paolo Reis and Nelson Freitas.
A ten hour version of Hoistoire d’O is a luxury indeed, and despite the Latin American settings, stilted acting, uneven dialogue, dubbing and irritatingly repetitive music (for some reason the German release has a different and somewhat
better soundtrack) there is much to enjoy in this long version of Storyof O with a somewhat gamine Claudia Cepeda delivering ultimately a quite charming and sincere interpretation of ‘O’. Much thought has gone into the choreography of certain scenes and additional scenes not found in the original novel are not without invention. A prologue introduces each of the ten episodes. On one edition there is a commentary track by director Éric Rochat. (Rochat was producer on the 1975 Story of O).
Passion Slave (1995)
Brazil. 82 minute adaption of the ten one hour episodes shot in Brazil and France. Produced & Directed by ‘Ron Williams’, Screenplay Ron Williams and Jennifer Field. With Claudia Cepeda, Paolo Reis
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The Story of O – Untold Pleasures (2001)
Directed by Phil Leirness, Produced by Pierre-Richard Muller (USA)
with: Danielle Ciardi, Neil Dickson, Max Parrish, Michele Ruben. (Screenplay Phil Leirness & Ron Norman)
“Your parents named you O???”… A somewhat clever reshaping of the O story has an American 1990s “O” enjoining in a battle of compliance with Sir Stephen. The film is not without imagination but lacks both grace and strength. With music reminiscent of the Emmanuelle spin-offs and action more in keeping with ‘straight to video’ this Story of O, despite its good intentions, is sadly more Red Shoe Diaries than Reage, and rather than ringing 21st century changes to the original novel it gets stuck in a dated sensibility.
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Living O (2002)
As if to complete a trilogy of ‘O’ before his demise in the following year, Éric Rochat wrote, produced and co-directed “Living O” 
with his spouse Chrystianne Rochat. The TV feature film “Living O” tells the story of a movie producer who desires to live the experiences of O’s Sir Stephen. The film was shot in Rio de Janeiro with Paulo Reis (the Sir Stephen of Rochat’s Story of O – the Series), and Jackie Sperandio. “Sam Goldbright, a successful studio executive, recreates the famous erotic “Story of O” story, in his personal life. He uses his wealth to recreate the sensual mansion setting of the story and manipulates those around him to be the cast of characters in his erotic and dangerous delusion.”
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“WRITER OF O” (ECRIVAIN D’O) (2005)
French/American 80 minute biopic featuring Dominique Aury, Cyril Corral, Thierry de Carbonnières, John de St. Jorre, Catherine Mouchet
Director: Pola Rapaport / Writer: Pola Rapaport / Producers: Anne Schuchman, Sylvie Cazin 
Language: English, French
“WRITER OF O is a unique drama/documentary hybrid about the author of the notorious erotic novel STORY OF O, who kept her identity a closely guarded secret for 40 years. Filmmaker Pola Rapaport explores the writer’s clandestine romantic inspiration, re-creating the world of ’50s literary Paris and setting it against provocatively dramatic sequences that bring the infamous book to life.” (Amazon.com)
“- essential past interview with the original author when she was younger…”
O
Not O: Mirrored Themes & Motifs
Niccole… The Story of O (1972)
A fifty minute US porn film ‘roughie’ with elements of Story of O tossed into the mire. Stars Suzanne Fields. Director: Anthony Spinelli (as Sam Gibbs) “A pretty young masochist named Nicole finds sexual gratification by submitting to male and female sadists.”
The Image (1973)
Rumoured to have been co-written by Catherine Robbe-Grillet and her husband French novelist and filmaker Alaine (Eden & After, Glissements progressifs du plaisir, La belle captive , Gradiva…) Robbe-Grillet, L’Image by Jean de Berg was published in 1956, just two years following the publication of Histoire d’O. It carried a preface by ‘PR’ (Pauline Reage), a fabrication on the part of the writer/s.
The film version (also known under the
more exploitative title The Punishment of Anne) from American director Radley Metzger, is about as faithful to the novel as a film can be and for this fact alone is worthy of a favorable reputation. Though now a little dated, its principle players pleasingly make credible the Paris based tale.
One Amazon reviewer maintains,
“Arguably the finest S/M movie ever made, Radley Metzger’s ‘The Image’ tells of Jean, a writer who meets an old friend, Claire, at a party and is soon drawn into her world of S/M along with her slave, Anne. Based on the French novel ‘L’image’ by Jean de Berg, a nom de guerre for Catherine Robbe-Grillet, this may be Radley Metzger’s best film. Beautifully filmed and acted and very erotic.”
The Story of Joanna (1975)
A stand-out movie from the genre, which in its dark and graphic sexual melodrama borrows themes and motifs from Story of O, is American director Gerard (Deep Throat , The Devil in Miss Jones) Damiano’s The Story of Joanna. It combines motifs from one of the book’s chapters and from Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit.
Cast: Terri Hall, Jamie Gillis, Juliet Graham, Zebedy Colt, Steven Lark.
The Journey of O (1976)
Directed by Chris Latham (C.F. Kennedy) with Georgina Spelvin, Clair Dia, Marilyn Berg, Susan Hurley, Serena (Serena Robinson) USA 1975. 74 min.
Again, nothing to do with Story of O: “Ever since she was a child, Ophelia has had a urinal fixation. Her psychologist sends her to a house in the country where a group session with a lot of men relieves her of this fixation.” (IMDb)
Untold Story of Lady O (1984)
is a film directed by Bruno Gaburro. It has nothing to do with Story of O and is in fact a re-title of Maladonna (1984), with Paola Senator and Maurice Poli. “In late XIX century, rich and bored Maria seeks a more sexually interesting life” etc
Historia Sexual De O (1986)
Directed by Jess Franco: “My film used the title and nothing else…” with: Alicia Principe, Carmen Carrion, Daniel Katz, Mamie Kaplan, Mauro Rivera. Eurotrash movie borrowing the ‘O’ tag is typical Jess Franco fare from the 1980s and has nothing to do with Story of O, with Alicia Principe (a.k.a. Alicia Pedreira) as Odile, the ‘O’ of the title, who ultimately comes to a sticky end at the hands of a sadistic couple who lure young women to their private island home. Lots of nudity, bad music and awful furniture, with subtitles which translate the “Aahs” and “Mhms” to exactly that, “Aah… Mhm…”.
“O” (2000)
Dark teen drama version of Shakespeare’s Othello with Mekhi Phifer, set in a modern-day private high school. Director Tim Blake Nelson.
O: The Power of Submission, (2006) /Surrender of O, /The Truth About O are among the numerous porn film productions of busy LA kinkster Ernest Greene, XXX features for porn label Adam & Eve. Key words on the www.imdb.com entry are ‘big breasts’ and ‘high heels’. I would add ‘Californian sunshine’. Not my cup of tea, but they might do it for you?