A year after outraging the film community with The Beast and making a one-film retreat back to Poland for The Story of Sin in 1975, filmmaking Walerian Borowczyk took another unexpected turn with this adaptation of an award-winning, sexually provocative 1967 novel by surrealist André Pieyre de Mandiargues (also the source author for the first story in Immoral Tales and the later Immoral Women and Love Rites). Here thanks to brother producers Raymond and Robert Hakim (who struck gold with films like Belle de Jour and Purple Noon but made life hell for Joseph Losey on Eve), Borowczyk had an unusual amount of star power thanks to two of the biggest cinema sex symbols at the time, Sylvia Kristel, a global sensation thanks to Emmanuelle, and Paul Morrissey star Joe Dallesandro who had just embarked on a lengthy period of work in Italy thanks to Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula.

Here Dallesandro is Sigismond, who lives happily in the suburbs with his wife (Audibert) and their little son, Elie. When he's sent to Paris on an extended business trip after an afternoon of floral-themed lovemaking and a promise to never betray each other, he ends up at a hotel and bar that serves as home base for a large number of prostitutes. He becomes intrigued by one of the workers, Diana (Kristel), and pays up the two hundred francs she keeps clutched in her hands during their first encounter. After receiving a letter from home and being able to only read one final, heartbreaking sentence, he seals it back up and plunges into a state of carnal denial over the course of several subsequent days with Diana. When he gets up the nerve to finally read the full letter, things will never be the same.

At this point Borowczyk was known for shifting from animation to ornate, dreamy period films with high levels of often humorous or at least ironic sexuality. He certainly doesn't skimp on the sex scenes with his two leads here, but this time the setting is most definitely modern complete with an incredible soundtrack studded with two 10cc songs (including "I'm Not in Love," later used in The Virgin Suicides, The Stud, and Guardians of the Galaxy), Square's "Song for You," a wild third act interlude set to Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," a stunning climax with Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend," and a curtain dropper with Sailor's "A Glass of Champagne." Borowczyk still keeps one feet rooted in the past here with occasional vintage chansons percolating in the background, while regular cinematographer (at the time) Bernard Daillencourt pulls out all the stops once again with his erotic flair for turning mirrors, windows, and clothing textures into a visual playground.

A surprising box office flop in France, La marge (or The Margin) earned some underwhelming theatrical play in a handful of other countries like West Germany, Japan, Sweden, and Canada before sinking into oblivion for a few years. The reedited U.K. version titled The Streetwalker turned up on VHS there in the mid-'80s from Palace Video, the only source for the gray market copies that circulated well into the '90s once Borowczyk auteur fever started to catch hold. A beautiful remastered 1.66:1 version eventually turned up from rights owner StudioCanal streaming on Netflix in several European countries starting around 2022, in French with a multitude of subtitle options including English.

That same master made its way to German Blu-ray (and separate DVD) from Plaion Pictures featuring the uncut theatrical version with German (restored or raw), French, or English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono audio with German or English subtitles. The French is definitely the best option as it features the superior mix and more authentic voices for everyone except Dallesandro. Extras include the Borowczyk doc "Obscure Pleasures" (63m13s), previously seen on Arrow Video's Blanche release but only with German subs here, the 1975 Borowzcyk impressionistic 16mm short Brief von Paris (40m31s) for German broadcaster ZDF, a Diana from Amsterdam (5m34s) collection of black-and-white 8mm production footage shot by camera operator Noël Véry with English narration by Kristel, an English interview with Borowczyk collaborator Noël Simsolo (7m55s) about working together for the first time on this film for the Hakim brothers, an interview with camera operator Noël Véry and assistant director André Heinrich (4m44s) in French with German subs, and an 8m24s gallery. Also on a separate Blu-ray is a reconstruction of Borowczyk's director's cut (91m53s), most of it in comparable quality in German (restored or standard), French, or English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with German or English subtitles. Extras on that disc are a 10m56s batch of VHS-sourced alternate credits and brief scenes from the U.K. tape release, the 86m31s German-release version of the film (with Emmanuelle 77 credits), the German trailer, and a 4-minute gallery. The differences between the director's and theatrical cuts are mostly negligible, basically adding some extra character beats (with the pimp, etc.) and featuring an alternate version of the egg love scene. It's worth noting that the two versions each have exclusive footage; you can see a full breakdown of the differences here. Surprisingly, the film popped up much later for streaming in the U.S. for the first time via The Criterion Channel -- as the subtitled director's cut.

In 2026, Radiance Films managed to outdo that release with a three-disc set for the U.K. including its world premiere on UHD (the theatrical cut, as that's the only one that exists on film). In keeping with many StudioCanal catalog titles, it's presented SDR but looks gorgeous with extremely fine detail and convincing film grain throughout. Here audio for all the presentations is DTS-HD 1.0 mono, in this case French and English with improved translated English subtitles. The first Blu-ray features the theatrical cut and ports over the alternate U.K. VHS scenes, the Simsolo interview, the Véry and Heinrich interview (now subtitled), Diana from Amsterdam, and Brief von Paris. In "The Erotic Surrealism of Walerian Borowczyk and André Pieyre de Mandiargues" (15m27s), Samm Deighan examines the relationship between sex and violence in this film and its relationship to the source novel (which was set in Barcelona but is otherwise pretty much the same), with the author also involved in films like The Girl on a Motorcycle and the narrator of Borowczyk's short film, A Private Collection. An interview with director and cinematographer Sean Price Williams (10m2s) focuses on his own first exposure to the film at the age of 18 in Delaware and its impact on his young artistic sensibilities, which led to him introducing a screening at Lincoln Center and thinking about its handling of the rare theme of "the horniness of grief." A 1967 TV interview with Mandiargues (14m37s) is very interesting as he explores the meaning of the title and some themes running through the book as well as his writing process. A 49-image gallery is also included, and the second Blu-ray is devoted to the director's cut (same details as above) which is exclusive to the limited edition along with an insert with a new essay by David Jenkins.

Radiance (UHD)

Radiance (Blu-ray)

Plaion (Blu-ray)

Reviewed on October 14, 2026