Britt and Raymond sit in aftershock at a crowded diner off the road.  A bratty kid throws a beach ball, upsetting a waitress' tray and several things on neighboring tables, including that of the protagonist..  Raymond smirks.  The laughing kid gets a glass of water poured over his head by his mother, immediately making the connection between sadism and anger.  A john recognizes Britt and attempts a free reconnection.  He follows her into the restroom, where he boorishly sticks his hands up her dress.  She ignores and him rejoins Raymond.

Then it's back to the past, where Britt and Raymond attend a hip happening.  A pinball machine has mannequin legs extending from it in a coital manner.  A joker in a devil's outfit falls to the floor as he plays table hockey against Britt and Françoise.  A fox is part of the dinner buffet.  The guests include various art-world hipsters and journalists.

Karin, beautiful, before the true
victimization starts

La Punition demands you invent the internal lives of its protagonists through an amazing power of suggestion.  It becomes clear from queues and gestures that Britt is a foreign prostitute who came to Paris.  Françoise is a madam who has been married to her business partner Manuel.  Manuel is a gangster acting as overlord to a vice ring.  Raymond is a pimp who works for Manuel.  He's Moroccan, which has the same racial overtones of a black pimp in America.  This is an upper class vice ring, as Manuel's entourage is as socially acceptable as having Madame Claude and French whores at the soiree. 

The situation is further clarified in the next scene, as Françoise takes Britt clothes shopping.  Britt submissively strips before her in the dressing room and puts on a form fitting black one-piece dress.  Back at her low lit and luxurious apartment, Françoise tries to keep Britt intimidated and off balance.  She flashes such grotesque collectibles at Britt as a dildo held by a prosthetic hand stuck with pins in a glass case.  "Is Raymond your guy?" she asks Britt casually.  Raymond arrives, followed by Manuel.  At dinner Manuel sits at the head of the table, flanked by minions on each side, reinforcing the chess motif.  Britt's glass is filled in close-up and the soundtrack reinforces the visual image of urine filling a toilet.  The waiter spills food near her, almost deliberately, but cleans it up.  Afterwards, Britt strips before Manuel, who sits on the couch and sternly looks over the merchandise.

One of the typical clients about to sexually terrorize
Karin in the seedy hotel room

Britt cries to Françoise in her apartment.  "Why?"  Françoise phones Manuel and says that, "she's refusing."  Raymond, looking extremely depressed, walks Britt through a dank hotel lobby occupied only by its staff.  Manuel takes Britt to a room, which is empty except for a bedframe with springs and a cabinet containing a variety of whips, dildos and other devices.  He smacks her across the face, orders her to strip, collects her clothes and hands her a white smock.  She's locked in.

A succession of S&M fiends arrives to abuse her.  A businessman chases her down and whips her with two white cat o' nine tails.  He leaves her tied in the bathroom barely conscious, her body covered in welts, her face bloodied. 

Raymond briefly holds her in his arms, then suddenly fists her battered pussy.  There is a constant drone of horrific shrieks from the room next door.  Britt is briefly allowed out of her room as her neighbor, Gloria, tries to crawl away.  Karin looks at Gloria in terror; she has two black eyes and cannot stand.  She collapses and Raymond casually drags her by the ankle back to her room.

Britt grasps at straws of tenderness.  She has a wordless encounter with the bellboy and blows him after she dresses in his clothes.  The passage of time is indicated by all the woodchips in the room made by her clawing at the walls.  The hotel owner feeds her and gives her a trinket from Raymond. It's the only token of any affection

Karin dresses down for her boss, Georges Geret

in her universe, and she clings to it.  An anxious man arrives in the room and motions for her to whip him.  Asking Britt to be dominant in this situation is the straw that breaks the camel's back.  She overturns the bed at him and hurls the sex toys at the cabinet.  After this session she mentally regresses to tossing a rubber ball against the wall.

          Manuel pays an inspective visit to see if the training as been effective.  Britt sits nude under an overcoat, trembling and teary eyed as Raymond anxiously looks to his boss for approval.  Back at Françoise's apartment, Britt wears wearing a wig, makeup and clothing that mimics Françoise's look.  Britt walks out, and meets Raymond in a bar.  She takes the wig, makeup, and rings off, leaving them in the bathroom sink.

Karin as dominatrix with the innkeeper voyeuristically
savoring on her appearance in this role

Flash-forward to the present, currently a desolate area enveloped by rocks. The blond hitman points a gun at the john who had battered Gloria at the hotel. He marches his prey into a meat freezer and swiftly deals him a cleaver blow to the chest.

Suddenly we're at the orgy party leading up to the pre-credit murders.  Gloria angrily storms over to Manuel and says "Bastard. You think you're funny?"  Suddenly, she breaks a glass, cuts Manuel's throat and gouges him in the face.  There is no surprise or resistance on Manuel's part. Throughout the film he's been merciless vice lord who demands women do as he commands, pure sadism, but with one percent terminal masochism.  When he goes, it's in the most theatrical and public manner possible.  

Françoise falls trembling to the floor before him.  Raymond hustles Britt into a car and they flee.  He brings her to the deserted cave-like area.  Raymond cradles Britt and the hitman shoots her to death.  Raymond emits a primal scream and weeps, her corpse in his arms.

          On one obvious level, La Punition is portrays a worst nightmare for sex professionals - you'll be abused and then snuffed because your proficiency in S&M draws a crowd.  Moving under the surface, and more shockingly, it's been a death trip all along.  You always get the impression the gangsters Manuel works are observing events from above.  Many people witness Manuel's murder, so it's less of a matter of eliminating the witnesses than a situation of disposing of people that knew what happened at the hotel.  And, most disturbingly, why else would Raymond bring Britt to a deserted area that's a perfect setup for snuff?

Karin, working at Georges Geret’s club,
complete with crucifix, before her punishment

La Punition is Eurosleaze superstar Karin Schubert's finest role.  Her Britt is beautiful and willingly vulnerable, but also strong and never pathetic.  Schubert's presence is haunting, and it's almost like she became Britt for the rest of her life.  Karin's history dates back to the late 1960s, and she has always been admired for her exhibitionistic skills.  She also appeared in films like the Richard Burton vehicle Bluebeard but never became an established star, remaining firmly entrenched in the exploitation world in films like Black Emmanuelle.  When she was middle-aged she turned to doing hardcore porn for the money.  Laura Gemser, her Black Emmanuelle co-star, has mentioned that Karin once attempted suicide.

Director Jolivet, the son of a prominent orchestra conductor, only made three movies - Le Grande Ceremonial, from a script by surrealist Fernando Arrabal; and Haute Surveillance, an all-female adaptation of Genet's terminal prison drama, Deathwatch.  His work in La Punition indicates great talent, and it's a surprise he didn't make more films.  Jolivet accomplishes an aesthetic innovation in that La Punition sustains the mood of a surrealist dream state while interpreting the reality of personal story, down to its last bitter detail.  He has created a perfect memory piece, the type that Robbe-Grillet theorized about more than actually made, where past and present slowly collide.

La Punition's hypnotic quality is further enhanced as its narrative emerges internally.  The characters and situations are so sharply and unapologetically defined by the cast and director that they need not discuss the whys and wherefores of their being.  The movie shows their external actions and everyday exchanges without need for exposition in actions or dialogue. And this is the key to what makes La Punition a great movie.  It involves you as much as the characters. You're with them for the entire ride and know what they've about.  You can imagine their pasts and how their actions fit in with a larger scheme.

Amidou and Karin:  Pimpin’ ain’t easy,
especially when you’re a Moroccan in Paris