The fourth live-action feature by Walerian Borowczyk, The Story of Sin is the first feature made in the filmmaker's native land of Poland, where he began his career as an animator in the fifties. At its London Film Festival screening in 1975, Nigel Andrews of The Financial Times noted:
“In the mannerist department, no director can hold a candle to Walerian Borowczyk. After the strenuous kinkiness of Immoral Tales, the director's new film is an ornate essay in period melodrama.... Story of Sin is the chronicle of a young girl's progress from her strict Victorian upbringing to a love affair with a young man which quickly blossoms into passion, jealousy and a final heroically grotesque self-sacrifice. The film is a celebration of amour fou: completely immoral, completely crazy and yet within the context of love completely logical. Borowczyk makes his usual play with fetishistic objects - shoes, corsets, underwear - but instead of being aimless eroticism they are here subsumed into a credible and organic narrative. The film looks superb....”