The Garden of Torment (Blu-ray)

In rebellious and unstable 1920s China, Antoine, a naive young French doctor finds himself increasingly involved with a depraved group of pleasure-seeking Colonial settlers who use the misery and desperation of the local population for their own entertainment. As Antoine is drawn further and further into the sadistic and perverted world of the beautiful but evil Clara and her powerful and corrupt father (Tony Taffin, Maitresse), has to decide what matters most to him – his desire to reduce the suffering around him or his desire for the cold and seductive mistress of the Garden of Torment.

Adapted from Octave Mirbeau’s notorious fin de siècle decadent classic Torture Garden, this rarely-seen study of Sadean pleasures and wanton cruelty emerged at the height of the French erotic cinema revolution and was originally banned in the UK thanks to its hedonistic collision of sensuality – courtesy of the stunning Jacqueline Kerry (in her only film appearance) and future novelist and pop singer Ysabelle Lacamp (Emmanuelle 2) – and grotesque horror. As outrageous, stylish, politically astute and constantly unsettling now as it was on original release, The Garden of Torment is the great lost film of 1970s Euro erotica, now on Blu-ray, restored and uncut for the first time with brand new bonus features.