Sins (miniseries)

Last updated
Sins
Sins (1986) - DVD 2011.jpg
2011 DVD cover
Based onSins
by Judith Gould
Screenplay byLaurence Heath
Story byJudith Gould
Directed by Douglas Hickox
Starring
Theme music composer Francis Lai
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes3
Production
Executive producers Joan Collins
Peter Holm
Producer Steve Krantz
Production locations
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Studios de Billancourt - 50 Quai du Point du Jour, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France
  • Venice, Veneto, Italy
Cinematography Jean Tournier
Running time320 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseFebruary 2 (1986-02-02) 
February 4, 1986 (1986-02-04)

Sins is a 1986 CBS television miniseries starring Joan Collins. An adaptation of the 1982 novel of the same name by Judith Gould, it is the story of a woman who survives the horrors of the Nazi occupation of France and endures a succession of challenges as she rises in the world of fashion.

Contents

Produced by New World Television with a budget of $14 million, [1] Collins also served as executive producer with her then-husband Peter Holm, and the miniseries contained 85 costume changes for her role (reportedly a record for a single production);[ citation needed ] Collins retained all of her costumes after filming as part of her contract. [2] Carly Simon co-wrote and performed the theme song, "It's Hard to be Tender."

Plot

Helene Junot is a successful businesswoman and a leading name in the world of fashion. In 1980s New York, she attends a reception for the launch of her new magazine, Woman Of Today, which could make or break her publishing company. Meanwhile, several people from Helene's past are conspiring to destroy her.

In France during World War II, 13-year-old Helene is raped and brutalized at the hands of the Gestapo (led by the sadistic Nazi commander, Karl Von Eiderfeld) as they murder her pregnant mother, caught sending messages for the Allied Forces. Though Helene later escapes, her younger brother and sister, Edmund and Marie, are deported to a concentration camp. In 1949, with the war over, Helene goes to work as a dressmaker with her aunt at the grand home of the Count and Countess De Ville. There, she begins to show her talents as a fashion designer and also is wooed by the Count's son, Hubert. However, Hubert's parents do not approve of him seeing a "servant girl", which ends their romance.

In 1955, Helene moves to Paris and begins working for leading fashion designer Odile as a model. Odile soon makes Helene a director at her fashion house. In 1959, Helene meets and falls in love with American army officer David Westfield when he is visiting Paris, but their affair is short-lived when David is transferred to Vietnam and is killed in action. At the same time, Helene has hired an investigator named Otto Mueller, as she wants to find her brother and sister and the Gestapo commander responsible for the death of her mother years earlier. However, the search will be costly, and Helene agrees to become the mistress of the abusive Count De Ville (Hubert's father) in order to finance her search, much to Hubert's dismay and humiliation. Mueller succeeds in finding Helene's brother Edmund, now a grown man but living in a mental institution in a permanently catatonic state after years of torture and abuse at the hands of the Nazis. Helene takes him home with her and hires a doctor and a nurse to bring him back to health.

Helene also meets American composer Eric Hovland, an older man with whom she falls in love and later marries. However, their marriage is short-lived when Hubert De Ville, still obsessed with Helene, breaks into their home and tries to rape her. When Eric tries to protect her, Hubert murders him, but threatens to use his family connections to blame Helene for the crime if she reports him. Helene reluctantly agrees and tells the police it was an accident, but then discovers that the incident and their conversation afterwards had been taped as Eric was recording music at his piano at the time. She then blackmails the De Villes for 100 million francs, or she will have Hubert arrested for murder and destroy their family's reputation. Count De Ville reluctantly agrees and Helene uses the money to begin her own fashion magazine, Couture. However her victory over the De Villes is bittersweet as she finds out she is pregnant with Eric's child, but miscarries and learns she can never have children because of an injury she sustained after being raped by the Nazis during the war. Soon after, Mueller informs Helene that he has tracked down the ex-Nazi commander Von Eiderfeld, who is now a wealthy businessman living in Austria. Helene and Edmund have him prosecuted as a Nazi war criminal and he is sentenced to life imprisonment, but vows to have revenge on Helene.

In the 1960s, Helene then throws herself into her work and Couture becomes a huge success, while Edmund marries his nurse, Jeanne. However, when she is pregnant with their first child, Jeanne becomes ill. The baby is born prematurely and Jeanne dies, leaving Edmund to raise their daughter, Natalie, alone. Meanwhile, Helene meets Italian publisher Marcello D'Itri, who tries to secure a loan from her to save his floundering fashion magazine. Helene offers to buy his magazine, on the condition that it is renamed Couture Italiana, but with Marcello kept on as editor-in-chief, to which he agrees. But while she is in Venice, Helene runs into David, who had not died in Vietnam as reported and has been trying to find her for years. Now a U.S. congressman, David asks Helene to marry him. David's mother does not approve of their engagement, feeling that Helene's somewhat chequered past will taint David's future career. Also knowing that she cannot give David children, Helene reluctantly breaks off their engagement. Some years later in the 1970s, Helene's empire has expanded and she hires American architect Steve Bryant, and his jealous wife Zizi, to design and build a new skyscraper in New York named the Junot Tower. Steve falls in love with Helene, much to Zizi's annoyance, but their relationship remains platonic.

In 1982, at a fancy dress ball in Venice to mark the 50th issue of Couture Italiana, Helene learns that Marcello has been embezzling from the magazine behind her back, and she forces him to resign. At the party, Helene once again meets David, who is now a married U.S. senator. Moments later, Hubert arrives at the ball to gloat that Von Eiderfeld was released from prison that day. Some time later, Helene finally begins a relationship with Steve, but when Zizi finds the two of them together, Steve suffers a heart attack and dies, for which Zizi blames Helene.

A couple of years later, Helene's enemies Von Eiderfeld, Hubert, Marcello and Zizi join forces in a conspiracy to destroy her. Helene has launched a new magazine, Woman Of Today, but has taken out huge loans and sold off a large amount of stock in her company, Junot Publications, in order to finance it. When the first issue is a failure, Helene's enemies buy up large portions of the stock between them. They also manage to lure Helene's long-time editorial associate, Luba Tcherina, away from her, while bribing her banker, Adam Gore, into calling in her outstanding loans so that she will become bankrupt. However, Marcello and Zizi are not content to merely ruin Helene, they want to kill her and hire a hitman with an attack dog to mutilate her. Helene's enemies are foiled, first when her banker Gore is exposed for fraud and commits suicide, saving Helene from bankruptcy, and then when an attempt on her life fails. Her enemies then turn on themselves, and in an ensuing struggle, Zizi shoots and kills Von Eiderfeld. Meanwhile, Helene has gained precious time to relaunch her new magazine, this time with her talented niece Natalie at the helm. The second issue is a huge success, but not before Helene is shot by the hitman who was hired to kill her as he attempts to carry out his contract. However, she is only wounded and survives, while David kills the hitman. After Helene recovers, David divorces his wife and he and Helene later marry. Finally finding true happiness, Helene decides to hand her publishing empire over to Natalie to run.

Cast

ActorRole
Starring
Joan Collins Helene Junot
Jean-Pierre Aumont Count De Ville
Marisa Berenson Luba Tcherina
Steven Berkoff Major Karl Von Eiderfeld
Joseph Bologna Steve Bryant
Élizabeth Bourgine Jeanne
Judi Bowker Natalie Junot
Capucine Odile
Neil Dickson Hubert De Ville
Arielle Dombasle Jacqueline Gore
James Farentino David Westfield
Paul Freeman Mueller
Allen Garfield Adam Gore
Giancarlo Giannini Marcello D'itri
Lauren Hutton ZZ Bryant
Gene Kelly Eric Hovland
Catherine Mary Stewart Young Helene Junot
William Allen Young Jacques Danvers
Timothy Dalton Edmund Junot
Also starring
Féodor Atkine Chameleon
Faith Brook Julie Westfield
John McEnery Defense Lawyer
Régine Madame Liu
Alexandra Stewart Countess
Peter Vaughan Chief Prosecutor

Production

Adapted from the 1982 novel Sins by Judith Gould, the teleplay was written by Laurence Heath. The miniseries was produced by, among others, Collins and her then-husband Peter Holm. Directed by Douglas Hickox, Sins was filmed in 1985 at Studios de Billancourt in Paris, and on location in France, Italy, and New York. Many of Collins' costumes were designed by Valentino. [3]

Broadcast and reception

The seven-hour miniseries was broadcast in three parts on CBS starting on February 2, 1986. Jon Corry of The New York Times called Sins "a very pretty production" and "a hymn to consumerism." [3] He wrote:

Sins isn't improbable or unlikely; it's something grander than that: preposterous, say, or absurd. At the same time it's not really about what it's supposed to be about; it's really about Joan Collins and her Valentino clothes ... they wear one another ... Sins isn't good, great or uplifting television; it's just television. Actually, it's like the star herself. She is a professional, although we don't expect to see her as one of Chekhov's three sisters. We don't want to, either. [3]

An episode of the hit ABC series Growing Pains entitled "Reputation", which was also originally telecast in February 1986, made multiple indirect references to the miniseries, including the audio of a faux television advertisement and the reading aloud of a fictitious listing description in TV Guide . [ clarification needed ]

Some retrospective reviewers consider Sins to be emblematic of the campy excesses of 1980s-era television, with Collins playing a "superhuman version of the sort of tough-as-tacks heroine Joan Crawford used to play in her Hollywood heyday," [4] and the lavish production design being described as the "aesthetic apex" of melodramatic miniseries. [5]

Home media

Sins was released on home video in the 1980s and 90s, and released on DVD in the UK (as a 3-disc set) in 2003. Although the miniseries was originally shown in three parts, the DVD has the version shown on syndicated television and is split into seven episodes of varying lengths (between 30 minutes and 55 minutes each). Only the first episode includes the opening credit sequence. The DVD "special features" consist of written profiles for Joan Collins, Timothy Dalton, Marisa Berenson, Jean-Pierre Aumont, and Joseph Bologna, as well as a photo gallery section and weblinks for Collins and Dalton.

The DVD was released in the US in 2011. This edition was a 2-disc set and retains the miniseries' originally broadcast format as three episodes, though there are no bonus features.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Collins</span> English actress and writer (born 1933)

Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist; her career spans nearly eight decades. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. In 1983, Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services, presented to her by the then Prince of Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dita Von Teese</span> American vedette, burlesque dancer, model, and businesswoman

Heather Renée Sweet, known professionally as Dita Von Teese, is an American vedette, burlesque dancer, model, and businesswoman. She is credited with re-popularizing burlesque performance, earning the moniker "Queen of Burlesque".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Holm</span> Swedish singer

Peter Holm is a former pop singer and Swedish playboy who was married to actress Joan Collins between November 1985 and August 1987. He became her manager and together they co-produced two of her television mini-series, Sins and Monte Carlo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judith Krantz</span> American writer (1928–2019)

Judith Krantz was an American magazine writer, fashion editor, and novelist. Her first novel Scruples (1978) was a New York Times best-seller and was translated into 50 languages. Scruples, which describes the glamorous and affluent world of high fashion in Beverly Hills, California, helped define a new sub-genre of the romance novel - the bonkbuster or "sex-and-shopping" novel. She also became a "celebrity author" through her extensive touring and promotion. Her later books included Princess Daisy (1980), Mistral's Daughter (1982) Till We Meet Again (1988), Dazzle (1990), and Spring Collection (1996). Her autobiography, Sex and Shopping: The Confessions of a Nice Jewish Girl, was published in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chanel</span> French fashion house

Chanel is a luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by the Wertheimer family and has been headquartered in London since 2018.

Givenchy is a French luxury fashion and perfume house. It hosts the brand of haute couture and ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, perfumes and cosmetics of Parfums Givenchy. The house of Givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer Hubert de Givenchy and is a member of Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture et du Prêt-à-Porter. It is currently owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie de Villepin</span> French model, actress and singer (born 1986)

Marie Galouzeau de Villepin is a French artist, model, actress and singer. The daughter of former Prime Minister and diplomat Dominique de Villepin, she spent most of her childhood in India before moving to various countries in Latin America and Africa, Through her many travels, she began developing drawing and musical skills at an early age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Kemp</span> English actor (1935–2019)

Edmund Jeremy James Walker, known professionally as Jeremy Kemp, was an English actor. He was known for his significant roles in the miniseries The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, the film The Blue Max, and the TV series Z-Cars.

David Emanuel is a Welsh fashion designer who designed, with his wife, Elizabeth, the wedding dress worn by Lady Diana Spencer at her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coco Chanel</span> French fashion designer (1883–1971)

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularising a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing into jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product, and Chanel herself designed her famed interlocked-CC monogram, which has been in use since the 1920s.

Dominique Sirop is a French fashion designer and grand couturier.

<i>Scruples</i> (miniseries) Television series

Scruples is a 1980 American television miniseries based on the 1978 novel by Judith Krantz. It was produced by Warner Bros. Television and starred Lindsay Wagner. Scruples included the final screen appearance of Gene Tierney.

<i>Blind Faith</i> (miniseries) 1990 film directed by Paul Wendkos

Blind Faith is a 1990 NBC miniseries based on the 1989 true crime book of the same name by Joe McGinniss. It follows the 1984 case in which American businessman Robert O. Marshall was charged with the contract killing of his wife, Maria. Adapted by John Gay and directed by Paul Wendkos, the miniseries was originally broadcast in two parts with a total runtime of 190 minutes.

<i>Hitler: The Rise of Evil</i> 2003 Canadian television miniseries

Hitler: The Rise of Evil is a Canadian television miniseries in two parts, directed by Christian Duguay and produced by Alliance Atlantis. It stars Robert Carlyle in the lead role and explores Adolf Hitler's rise and his early consolidation of power during the years after the First World War and focuses on how the embittered, politically fragmented and economically buffeted state of German society following the war made that ascent possible. The film also focuses on Ernst Hanfstaengl's influence on Hitler's rise to power. The miniseries, which premiered simultaneously in May 2003 on CBC in Canada and CBS in the United States, received two Emmy Awards, for Art Direction and Sound Editing, while Peter O'Toole was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Madame Grès (1903–1993), also known as Alix Barton and Alix, was a leading French couturier and costume designer, founder of haute couture fashion house Grès as well as the associated Parfums Grès. Remembered as the "Sphinx of Fashion", Grès was notoriously secretive about her personal life and was seen as a workaholic with a furious attention to detail, preferring to let her work do the talking. Grès, best known for her floor-length draped Grecian goddess gowns, is noted as the "master of the wrapped and draped dress" and the "queen of drapery". Grès's minimalistic draping techniques and her attention to and respect for the female body have had a lasting effect on the haute couture and fashion industry, inspiring a number of recent designers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Smalls</span> Puerto Rican model (born 1988)

Joan Smalls Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican model and television personality. In 2011, she became the first Latina model to represent Estée Lauder cosmetics. In 2013, she entered Forbes magazine's "World's Highest-Paid Models" list for the first time, ranking at number eight with over $3 million in earnings, In January 2014, Smalls appeared on the "Return of the Supermodel" cover of American Elle. In 2012, Smalls was ranked the number #1 model in the world by Models.com.

The Battle of Versailles Fashion Show was a historic fashion show held on November 28, 1973, in the Palace of Versailles to raise money for its restoration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Rosenbaum</span> American fashion designer, war correspondent and RMS Titanic survivor

Edith Louise Rosenbaum Russell was an American fashion buyer, stylist and correspondent for Women's Wear Daily, best remembered for surviving the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic with a music box in the shape of a pig. The papier-mâché toy, covered in pigskin and playing a tune known as "The Maxixe" when its tail was twisted, was used by Edith Russell to calm frightened children in the lifeboat in which she escaped. Her story became widely known in the press at the time and was later included in the best-selling account of the disaster A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. Russell was also portrayed in the award-winning British film produced by William MacQuitty that was based on Lord's book.

<i>Monte Carlo</i> (miniseries) American TV series or program

Monte Carlo is a 1986 American two-part, four-hour television miniseries starring Joan Collins and George Hamilton. An adaptation of the 1983 novel of the same name by Stephen Sheppard, it is a spy thriller set in Monaco during World War II. The miniseries was produced by Gerald W. Abrams, Collins and her then-husband Peter Holm.

<i>The New Look</i> (TV series) American biographical drama television series

The New Look is an American biographical drama television series created by Todd A. Kessler that premiered on Apple TV+ on February 14, 2024. A second season is in development.

References

  1. Wallace, David (February 10, 1986). "Joan Collins and New Husband Peter Holm Are Partners in Sins". People. Retrieved March 16, 2023.
  2. Krefft, Vanda (August 4, 1985). "Collins's Sins in the making". Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved March 16, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Corry, John (January 31, 1986). "Joan Collins In Sins, A Mini-Series". The New York Times . Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  4. De Vito, John (2010). Epic television miniseries : a critical history. Frank Tropea. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. p. 122. ISBN   978-0-7864-5733-5. OCLC   607553816.
  5. Humphries, Scott (2023). The age of melodramatic miniseries: when glamour ruled on television, 1980-1995. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co. p. 7. ISBN   978-1-4766-9162-6. OCLC   1369320737.