I'm really in the last string of major Franco titles to review. These are particularly darker and more trying films from his more depressive and destitute days. I don't enjoy them as much, but they fit my current mood and reveal more of Franco's character and inner battles.
The Bloody Judge is some prime Franco. It could be the best work but maybe not the best film from his soaring commercial career in the late 1960s. Its just as disturbing yet alternately beautiful. Its smart and not at all exploitative. It feels sincere to its historical influences and you can measure it favorably to Hollywood of the period or this current age. Its plot-themes are very pressing: a psychotic conservative authoritarian and probable secret society member who is persecuting the impoverished population he presides over. Scary stuff. This and the other Franco roles are Christopher Lee at his most effective as an actor and a scary "horror movie" presence. Highly recommended!
The Demons follows the same vein but its made for a much sleazier producer with cheaper resources and questionable tastes. Robert de Nestle replaces Harry Allan Towers, which is not a totally skewed trade-off. Its so tawdry and lurid, you can't help but admire it. And a stoned Franco does a great job on damage control. I think this is probably the most tightly plotted and classically shot of de Nestle's time with Franco. It could be the most polished overall and its one of the most erotic and aren't Franco's film supposed to be erotic primarily? The film has some surreal, absurd, camp and kitsch treats as usual. Jess was really in a free-form mood with some impressive resources to bounce off of.
Doriana Grey fits the 70s definition of a porno. You can't quite interpret it the same as the traditional commercial narrative film or even the arthouse experiments or even the sleaziest softcore movies. But it can have the same value. Doriana Gray has the loosest of loose stories about twin Linda Romay's who are soul mates and need to make lesbian love... and maybe its all a dream. Its some heavy, artful, technically brilliant stuff to prop up a lot of graphic sex scenes. And it works. I wasn't thrilled by plot or character because thrills weren't the goal. I find the sex scenes alluring in concept and cathartic and beautifully staged. Pornographic cinema has always had its place and been an influential genre steeped in important cultural art. Franco channels something ancient in these erotic period pieces of the 1970s. I favor this to some more narrative but less erotic films.
Lorna the Exorcist came out earlier (another de Nestle film). Again, the plot is small and lifted essentially from merging Eugenie with other shit, Rumpelstiltskin perhaps (Faust is mentioned). This film sets the stage for following explicit sex films by Jesus Franco: hotels, long takes of scenery, extended love scenes and very obtuse but effective dialogue and minor action. Actually, Franco's Other Side of the Mirror led to this mini-genre in its X-rated cut. Lorna has a wonderfull psychedelic rock/electric jazz score and otherworldly photography and the performances are sharp. Its plot is more strange than anything that precedes it, but maybe more easy-to-follow than what follows it. This is not for everyone but Francophiles will rank it highly.
Sexy Sisters is one of many films where blonde actress Karine Gambier is masochistically tied up and abused mentally and physically by a brunette. I very much enjoy the film Franco made for producer Erwin Dietrich but apparently he stunted Franco's experimental camerawork. Their collaborations are always minimalist, polished and focused on erotica over statements or creativity. Thats fine. Sexy Sisters is one of the weaker of their films but it has decent dramatic plot, performances and great design on a dime.
Sinner is probably the biggest slam dunk out of this batch of reviews. It integrates an original story structure, haunting music, nightclub atmosphere, feminist romance and melodramatic tragedy. And it remains classy by rejecting the hardcore sex or sadism you might expect. This is more of a personal statement or responsible professional job. And it has that rare kind of Franco ending that is so open-ended that it drives you mad and forces you to meditate on the story's reality and its metaphors. I like when Franco's films are personal and still can easily convince the mainstream of his genius. I hope this film was a grindhouse smash because its one of the purest examples of drive-in aesthetics you can find. It might have been too sexy and unadulterated for most suburban drive-in's though.
Showing posts with label Jess Franco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jess Franco. Show all posts
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Friday, February 16, 2018
Love Camp / Tropical Inferno / Women Without Innocence / Kiss Me Monster / Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun
All of the Jess Franco films I'm reviewing have a feminist edge and the first 3 are all produced by Erwin Dietrich, a Swiss who focused his productions on political subtext, extreme sexual content and moody, lavish locations. He's possibly my favorite producer Franco had in the 1970s as all of their collaborations have been strong so far.
1977's Love Camp tells the story of women abducted to be concubines for a communist rebel army. Most of the girls don't really care but our protagonist becomes torn in her heart between her bourgeois husband at home and the brutish but idealistic freedom fighter who rapes her. The film, if taken literally, will offend feminists but its merely an ironic satire of 1970s political movements, especially feminist and communist hypocrisy. Its brisk but heavy and entertaining.
78's Tropical Inferno is another Women in Prison film, this being the most brutal. The plot is a reworking of 99 Women, Sadomania and other Franco WIP films, with innocents and political radicals being oppressed by a fascist couple (a lesbian & male surgeon, naturally). But Franco is unleashed in this newest rendition, sparing no detail of gory torture or sexual manipulation. This is one of the most serious Franco films I've seen. Zero humor and the performances are as human as the production level can allow.
From the same year comes Women Without Innocence. Its the strongest WIP film of the trio with a tight, unorthodox and detailed plot, plus a supremely impressive performance from Lina Romay (who is absent from the other films). She plays a mental patient being triggered to remember details of a murder she witnessed. There's lots of bizarre subplots and very gorgeous cinematography, even for Franco. Most surprising is the unrealistic Romantic ending that the film receives. With the other 2 films it creates a satisfying dialectic where Franco delivers 3 vastly different worldviews of the same basic narrative.
The more I watch his films, the more impressed I am with this idea of "syncopated cinema" (a term coined in Obsession: The Films of Jess Franco). He returns again and again to themes, plots, characters, even locations to play jazz with broken expectations and new, biographic detail. He's not just creating new work but commenting and critiquing his old work. Its deconstructionism, self-analysis and creating a totally personal grammar of cinema from taking as little outside influence as possible. Its so much more authentic emotionally than most so-called postmodernists like Tarantino or De Palma who crib from other actors but don't actually bring much to it but fanboy or film critic commentary. Thats how Franco started out as a maker of mainstream exploitation films, but he quickly outgrew that while proudly retaining or parodying his roots in cheap mimicry. He parodies the parody he once was.
Kiss Me Monster from 1969 is evidence of this. After directing a couple decent Bond-esque spy films, Franco returned to the more liberal, hipster, feminist films he started his career with. His 2nd film ever followed the Red Lips detective agency, two cute Spanish girls who are prototype Mary Sue's, but who are so flippant and self-aware that the film becomes cute satire. KMM resurrects these characters as more mature post-oo7 super spies with a mean sense of humor and enormous sexual identity. The plot is thin and convoluted so we can have early touches of minimalism, long takes, expressionist lighting, cartooned gags and nifty dialogue. A lot of it is lost in the bland English dub, unfortunately. Still this film is worth a watch and sets up much better films. The film doesn't shy away from exposing assassination, secret societies, corrupt government officials and institutional abuses of power by elites and bottom feeders.
8 years later, Jess releases Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun. Amazing how much less money he's allowed but how much more creative freedom and experience he attained. This is why you can't down this director for working on small projects so frequently. And while Nuns isn't a masterpiece, its high above the quality of most grindhouse of what was the golden age of B-movies. Barring some heavy nods to Ken Russell & Roman Polanski and the basic theme of his own films Justine and The Bloody Judge, Nuns is a beautiful, tasteful, non-exploitative and respectful study of victimhood. Franco takes serious meditation in showing the hypocrisy of the Catholic church and decosntructing the inherent Satanic qualities of Christianity, while condemning dark occultism and libertine sadism. This film too ends with a Romantic and implausible ending, but Franco intended to show his own spiritual beliefs in karma and justice prevailing.
Apparently, Love Letters is a remake of his film The Demons. Expect a review soon! As that is a Robert De Nestle production, I'm sure its heavier on Gothic design and horror tropes. Dietrich as a producer gives Nun a polish, a cold calculated design, a sincere parallelism with Nazism that gives the film undertones of high art. This wasn't just S&M porn for German audiences. This was anti-fascist propaganda and medicine to cure the hearts and minds of survivors of institutional terror. That brave assault on German white nationalism is why this period of Franco's oeuvre ring so loudly today. He was one of cinema's great moralists and, as a villain says in Faceless, a "deep sentimentalist" underneath his spooky, sex-loving mystique.
1977's Love Camp tells the story of women abducted to be concubines for a communist rebel army. Most of the girls don't really care but our protagonist becomes torn in her heart between her bourgeois husband at home and the brutish but idealistic freedom fighter who rapes her. The film, if taken literally, will offend feminists but its merely an ironic satire of 1970s political movements, especially feminist and communist hypocrisy. Its brisk but heavy and entertaining.
78's Tropical Inferno is another Women in Prison film, this being the most brutal. The plot is a reworking of 99 Women, Sadomania and other Franco WIP films, with innocents and political radicals being oppressed by a fascist couple (a lesbian & male surgeon, naturally). But Franco is unleashed in this newest rendition, sparing no detail of gory torture or sexual manipulation. This is one of the most serious Franco films I've seen. Zero humor and the performances are as human as the production level can allow.
From the same year comes Women Without Innocence. Its the strongest WIP film of the trio with a tight, unorthodox and detailed plot, plus a supremely impressive performance from Lina Romay (who is absent from the other films). She plays a mental patient being triggered to remember details of a murder she witnessed. There's lots of bizarre subplots and very gorgeous cinematography, even for Franco. Most surprising is the unrealistic Romantic ending that the film receives. With the other 2 films it creates a satisfying dialectic where Franco delivers 3 vastly different worldviews of the same basic narrative.
The more I watch his films, the more impressed I am with this idea of "syncopated cinema" (a term coined in Obsession: The Films of Jess Franco). He returns again and again to themes, plots, characters, even locations to play jazz with broken expectations and new, biographic detail. He's not just creating new work but commenting and critiquing his old work. Its deconstructionism, self-analysis and creating a totally personal grammar of cinema from taking as little outside influence as possible. Its so much more authentic emotionally than most so-called postmodernists like Tarantino or De Palma who crib from other actors but don't actually bring much to it but fanboy or film critic commentary. Thats how Franco started out as a maker of mainstream exploitation films, but he quickly outgrew that while proudly retaining or parodying his roots in cheap mimicry. He parodies the parody he once was.
Kiss Me Monster from 1969 is evidence of this. After directing a couple decent Bond-esque spy films, Franco returned to the more liberal, hipster, feminist films he started his career with. His 2nd film ever followed the Red Lips detective agency, two cute Spanish girls who are prototype Mary Sue's, but who are so flippant and self-aware that the film becomes cute satire. KMM resurrects these characters as more mature post-oo7 super spies with a mean sense of humor and enormous sexual identity. The plot is thin and convoluted so we can have early touches of minimalism, long takes, expressionist lighting, cartooned gags and nifty dialogue. A lot of it is lost in the bland English dub, unfortunately. Still this film is worth a watch and sets up much better films. The film doesn't shy away from exposing assassination, secret societies, corrupt government officials and institutional abuses of power by elites and bottom feeders.
8 years later, Jess releases Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun. Amazing how much less money he's allowed but how much more creative freedom and experience he attained. This is why you can't down this director for working on small projects so frequently. And while Nuns isn't a masterpiece, its high above the quality of most grindhouse of what was the golden age of B-movies. Barring some heavy nods to Ken Russell & Roman Polanski and the basic theme of his own films Justine and The Bloody Judge, Nuns is a beautiful, tasteful, non-exploitative and respectful study of victimhood. Franco takes serious meditation in showing the hypocrisy of the Catholic church and decosntructing the inherent Satanic qualities of Christianity, while condemning dark occultism and libertine sadism. This film too ends with a Romantic and implausible ending, but Franco intended to show his own spiritual beliefs in karma and justice prevailing.
Apparently, Love Letters is a remake of his film The Demons. Expect a review soon! As that is a Robert De Nestle production, I'm sure its heavier on Gothic design and horror tropes. Dietrich as a producer gives Nun a polish, a cold calculated design, a sincere parallelism with Nazism that gives the film undertones of high art. This wasn't just S&M porn for German audiences. This was anti-fascist propaganda and medicine to cure the hearts and minds of survivors of institutional terror. That brave assault on German white nationalism is why this period of Franco's oeuvre ring so loudly today. He was one of cinema's great moralists and, as a villain says in Faceless, a "deep sentimentalist" underneath his spooky, sex-loving mystique.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
"Budget, plot, continuity, suspense, action and drama are nonexistent.
Absurdity abounds, and only Franco’s staunchest admirers will think the
“comedy” is deliberate."
Thats from a review of a Franco b-movie. Dude, I think only a small handful of films weren't comedic. He worked in absurdism, deadpan, dark satire, spoof and slapstick from the very start of his career. He just learned to direct dramatically thanks to Welles. I would argue this is true of a lot of "serious" arthouse or cult directors. They are humorists.
Franco's running joke is similar to "The Aristocrats". He shows horror, immorality, insanity, transgression and personal themes of evil with the punchline that its always a mirror to society's collective Id. This he learned from Marquis de Sade and other bleak satirists like Voltaire and horror writers like Poe. Odd how so many decipher the lyrical quality of his films for biographical merit but don't see the obvious social commentary, philosophy and political-religious protest. These are the preoccupations of lifelong artists, so its beyond all critics.
Thats from a review of a Franco b-movie. Dude, I think only a small handful of films weren't comedic. He worked in absurdism, deadpan, dark satire, spoof and slapstick from the very start of his career. He just learned to direct dramatically thanks to Welles. I would argue this is true of a lot of "serious" arthouse or cult directors. They are humorists.
Franco's running joke is similar to "The Aristocrats". He shows horror, immorality, insanity, transgression and personal themes of evil with the punchline that its always a mirror to society's collective Id. This he learned from Marquis de Sade and other bleak satirists like Voltaire and horror writers like Poe. Odd how so many decipher the lyrical quality of his films for biographical merit but don't see the obvious social commentary, philosophy and political-religious protest. These are the preoccupations of lifelong artists, so its beyond all critics.
Exorcism 1975 / Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein 1972
2 solid mid-tier Franco films, both stronger than they are weak.
Exorcism is a very small, restrained effort from Franco. He made it for EuroCine's Marius LeSoeur, maybe his most cheap and gritty producer of the 1970s, so its heavy on sexuality and low on plot action or even visual style. But the film is notable for 2 things: its wonderfully satiric plot & Jess Franco playing the lead. Perhaps this film is one of his most ordinary visually because he's usually the cameraman. Its a decent trade off because he IS a great on-screen performer. Jess plays a sadistic priest who mistakes a faked black mass as a real one and feels compelled to murder the participants to save them. Its a fairly lyrical, personal and darkly hilarious spoof of the Catholic church who censored and persecuted Franco for his Marquis de Sade-inspired works. It words doubly as the classic interpretation of people who can't read de Sade properly, like the murderer of Pier Paulo Pasolini. So while a minor film, Exorcism is still meaningful and effective.
Dracula Conta Frankenstein kind of blew me away. Its a campy tribute to old Universal horror films, intentionally absurd and yet evocative of the great influence those monster movies had on Franco's cinema. What do I mean? The film is packed full of mood, grim images, violence, archetypal villains and sorcerors. But its rendered in a cartoon style. The film is almost completely a silent film. Franco admits that he was inspired by Eerie horror comics and stages everything in the same rigid but larger-than-life style. DCF has some of Franco's most inspired direction outside of his more personal work. This is pulpy commercialism obviously, but Franco is having fun and is a real fan of the genre he's mocking. I can't tell if I like this more than its sequels Daughter of Dracula & Erotic Rites of Frankenstein. Its a perfect synthesis of both. Its probably a much more lavish and cohesive film than both.
I have to say I was disappointed that both films showed animal cruelty. I would've hoped Franco was kinder than this, but he did come from a totally different time and place, so I won't judge given his other philosophical contributions, but its very sad and disturbing. Be warned.
Exorcism is a very small, restrained effort from Franco. He made it for EuroCine's Marius LeSoeur, maybe his most cheap and gritty producer of the 1970s, so its heavy on sexuality and low on plot action or even visual style. But the film is notable for 2 things: its wonderfully satiric plot & Jess Franco playing the lead. Perhaps this film is one of his most ordinary visually because he's usually the cameraman. Its a decent trade off because he IS a great on-screen performer. Jess plays a sadistic priest who mistakes a faked black mass as a real one and feels compelled to murder the participants to save them. Its a fairly lyrical, personal and darkly hilarious spoof of the Catholic church who censored and persecuted Franco for his Marquis de Sade-inspired works. It words doubly as the classic interpretation of people who can't read de Sade properly, like the murderer of Pier Paulo Pasolini. So while a minor film, Exorcism is still meaningful and effective.
Dracula Conta Frankenstein kind of blew me away. Its a campy tribute to old Universal horror films, intentionally absurd and yet evocative of the great influence those monster movies had on Franco's cinema. What do I mean? The film is packed full of mood, grim images, violence, archetypal villains and sorcerors. But its rendered in a cartoon style. The film is almost completely a silent film. Franco admits that he was inspired by Eerie horror comics and stages everything in the same rigid but larger-than-life style. DCF has some of Franco's most inspired direction outside of his more personal work. This is pulpy commercialism obviously, but Franco is having fun and is a real fan of the genre he's mocking. I can't tell if I like this more than its sequels Daughter of Dracula & Erotic Rites of Frankenstein. Its a perfect synthesis of both. Its probably a much more lavish and cohesive film than both.
I have to say I was disappointed that both films showed animal cruelty. I would've hoped Franco was kinder than this, but he did come from a totally different time and place, so I won't judge given his other philosophical contributions, but its very sad and disturbing. Be warned.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Broken Dolls 1999
Broken Dolls is maybe my favorite Franco film. It's his most personal, following the family of an incestual father who has damaged his aging family members sexually (a lesbian sadist mother, a whore wannabe-Aryan daughter, a transgender simpleton daughter and the passive voyeur of abuse and sex in... Franco's viewer) creating in the film's form a dark meditative erotic film that is only erotic in that it's not real, thanks to Jess' Id-developed "dream" aestheticism. But the subtext is so personal that it never turns pornographic but flows as a harsh analysis of the psychosexual and Hegelian dialectic, thus being a true work of Marxist rebellion to the white patriarchal binaries of Romanticism, religion, modernism, structuralism and all of the ruling empire moralities of hate, inequality and evil. In desecrating his father, Franco finds late in life catharsis to his original issues with women and intimacy.
This film, while professing a Jungian study of family archetypes, is one of the most Freudian works of cinema with Jess casting his own girlfriend as his mother. In this way, he draws scary parallels to his own father to address his conflicted relationship to him. The final scene is one of the most moving I've ever seen.
This film, while professing a Jungian study of family archetypes, is one of the most Freudian works of cinema with Jess casting his own girlfriend as his mother. In this way, he draws scary parallels to his own father to address his conflicted relationship to him. The final scene is one of the most moving I've ever seen.
Monday, February 12, 2018
Macumba Sexual 1983 / Voodoo Passion 1977 / Revenge in the House of Usher 1983 / Devil Hunter 1980 / Death Whistles to the Blues 1964 / Mondo Cannibal 1980 / How Seduce a Virgin 1974 / Mansion of the Living Dead 1982 / Fall of the Eagles 1989 / Dr. Orloff's Monster 1964 / The Awful Dr. Orloff 1962
11 Jess Franco reviews for you, bitch... Franco-mania!
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Macumba Sexual is an almost masterpiece. Franco remakes "Vampyros Lesbos" with a transgender theme! Replacing the irreplaceable Soledad Miranda is the commanding Ajita Wilson, the most beautiful black she-male in cinema history. She's seducing Lina Romay (as her blonde actress title "Candy Coaster") to take her role as some pan-sexual goddess of lust. The plot is low on incident and keeps to maybe 3 locations, all around a hotel. Its a breathtaking experience despite this, gorgeous and alive with subversive sexual metaphors. Throughout the film, Lina is haunted by physical objects
that are both masculine and feminine at the same time while Franco never hides the fact that Ajita is transgender. He attacks the gender binary and really scrambles what an erotic horror film can be. For him this is an exploitative ride to attack homophobia and sexual insecurity. I don't know if its respectful to trans people, but I think its firmly on their side and is the most brave, entertaining and early examples of the subject in cinema.
Voodoo Passion is likewise a minor classic. Playing similarly to both "Virgin Among the Living Dead" and the formula of "Succubus" and "Nightmares Come at Night", I think Voodoo Passion plays better than all three. It has an impressive production, flawless cinematography, a beautiful score, truly erotic sex scenes, a game cast and some fabulous direction. It also irons out some flaws in the highly disjointed narratives of those previous films. You could only dock it points for being predictable, but Jess provides enough twists visually and narratively that you can call this a successful jazz variation.
Revenge/Usher is "final level Franco". You can't appreciate this until you know his oeuvre, biography and financial limitations. I would call it something of a no-budget masterpiece if Eurocine producers didn't poorly edit it into the kitsch it is today. Franco shot a fairly personalized but tonally correct version of Poe's classic with no budget. Had Jess had a few dollars more, it would be comparable to his Dracula. But Eurocine didn't like it, added 10 minutes of footage from Dr Orloff(!) and then added poorly done inserts to try and smooth it out. They did the same to "Virgin" apparently. If you know the story behind this film, its quite an eye-opener and an amazing demonstration of Franco's genius, but this is NOT for casual fans or horror fans.
Devil Hunter is a solid Eurotrash ride. Its a camp spoof of racist cannibal films made in Italy at the time and it still works as an anti-racist horror film. Franco shows great kindness for black people in his films, especially primitive tribes. This film paints the white characters as just as barbaric and maybe twice as depraved. Like the transgressive bits of transgenderism in Macumba, Franco displays his radicalism not in preachy dialogue, righteous characters or obvious gestures. He uses the power of ironic montage, contrast, dialectical materialism that he learned as a young admirer of Eisenstein. Devil Hunter is surprisingly long and quite absurdist, but its an epic enjoyment for his fans or anyone who is in on the joke. Also, just remember that the bug-eyed native is essentially "Morpho". This will make sense later...
Death/Blues is a small political thriller from Franco's early film period. Its gorgeous, well-paced and extremely heavy on dialogue. While its a refreshing break from many films of its time, it lacks the unique style that Franco would patent later. But it still has his hallmarks: anti-racism, proletariat sympathies, revenge, a sexy tropical atmosphere and a good soundtrack. Its evidence of Franco's ability to handle your regular commercial film but such a solid B&W caper is a footnote to his career and thats a compliment. I still recommend it for the time capsule appeal and the biographical nature of the story.
Mondo Cannibal is known as a piece of shit, but it has its moments. Its hated by fans of the cannibal genre because its low on gore, cannibals and action. But the plot is quite good and would be resurrected for "Diamonds...". This film is a bit of a chore because its maybe Franco's slowest and least artistic film, but it has (shockingly) some of the best photography of this period and the real sell is Sabrina Siani, who is inhumanly attractive and naked throughout the film. I wish this film was as progressive as the other Franco jungle films, but its no big loss because all of the natives are played by Italians! Actually, I suspect that was a joke and that the film is lampooning Italians taste for gore and their rampant anti-black racism. I've heard Franco diss Italian directors for their desire to be seen as white/American and this film is his rejection of the Italian schlock directors he is still lumped in with. In retrospect, this film was an intentionally "bad" anti-gore film.
How to Seduce a Virgin is a not-as-strong remake of the exquisite Eugenie, but it has its areas of supremacy. The sexual content here is excellent, the cast is different but equal, the production is smaller but more moody. This is kind of a dark X-rated doppelganger of a classic. There are some plot tweaks and maybe the best substitution is Lina Romay as the helpless minion. This might be her best role, likewise the underrated Alice Arno.
Mansion/Living Dead is basically a re-do of Bloody Moon, but serving Franco's sensibilities. We have some sexy Spanish girls at a hotel with a slasher. I still prefer Moon, but Mansion is close in quality. It leans towards a smaller, more absurd plot and a more hypnotic, dreamy style of directing. What Mansion does have is better dialogue, sexier lesbian action and a phenomenal female gimp character who steals the entire film each time she arrives. This film becomes a personal account of Franco's relationship with Lina and his own guilt in keeping this much younger, wilder woman to himself, a rather bookish man of small means. Many films from this period revolve around their real world romantic dynamic, its up's and down's and sadomasochism. Lina is more than a muse in these films. She's a strong actress with the unique gift of having a film told through her and about her.
Fall of the Eagles is the cheapest Franco film I've ever seen. It literally a couple really well-directed scenes about a Nazi love triangle before, during and after WW2 with some stock footage linking it together. The performances are strong from Christopher Lee and Mark Hamill (TWO fucking Jedi's directed by the guy who helped inspire Yoda!!!!) while Joe Estavez's son gives what might be the worst acting performance ever. The entire film is so uneven yet so watchable, a perfect time waster. Considering it cost nothing, I didn't feel cheated. It reminds me of the much worse Full Moon films that obsessively use WW2 as a backdrop. Despite its many limitations, Eagles IS a very serious, crafted and poignant story.
Dr Orloff's Monster is a well-made little thriller, way more conservative than its radical predecessor, but it introduces some important tropes into the Franco canon: adultery turning to murder (But Who Raped Linda?) and a young girl inheriting a dark castle of evil secrets (Virgin..., Daughter of Dracula). The plot and style of this film provides the gist of the much more entertaining Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, but you won't be disappointed in the noir-esque photography and what was once groundbreaking treatment of sex and violence. But its no match for...
The Awful Dr. Orloff. Finally I review the one that made Jess Franco a famous international genre director. I've watched it before but its much better with more context of what it spawned. Its been written that Orloff is a rip-off of Eyes Without a Face. Franco denies it and I believe him as The Brain That Wouldn't Die is also ridiculously similar to these two films. I think we have a case of 3 people thinking the same thing at once: surgical horror. They all were deconstructing Gothic horror films and predicting the rise of abused plastic surgery. Eyes is the classiest of the 3, Brain the most vulgar and Franco's little film is a perfect blend of both. Its evident how much the suggestive dialogue and rape-themed violence was in such a Catholic, conservative culture. And this is really the most expressionist and epic film of Franco's career. Its just a finely directed old school horror film that no one can fault. But Francophiles will take sweet pleasure in how personal the film reveals itself to be all these years later.
We witness the birth of Franco's most personal and repeated plot device: The Master and Slave. Dr Orloff (who would return so many times) is a mad surgeon based on Jess' army doctor father and in extension the Generalissimo Franco. He's an affluent, cruel, bourgeois monster, but physically and emotionally human in every way. Early on its revealed that his deep seated obsession with female flesh comes from his own insecurity about control, aging and dying. This rings as a confession of Jess' later lustful work as Orloff's violence is carried out by his demeaned bug-eyed relative, "Morpho". This is an obvious placeholder for Jess and Jess would even play the Morpho role in following films. Is Franco's entire filmography as actor/director his working through a tyrannical Father complex? Definitely.
This film has a solid climax but the rather hollow Dr Orloff's Monster might be even more personal as that film ends with the Morpho monster actually striking down the evil father character. Now read into Orloff killing women to preserve the image of his own daughter? (Or sister in "Faceless") The maternal side of Franco's anxieties would be explored in Jack the Ripper, sibling & daughter incest would pop up later. Having a Mexican father and Cuban mother, I suspect Jess' mother was dark-skinned, explaining his fetish for light skin but his distanced but bleeding heart for darker skinned women. Its so obvious why he found special balance in Soledad Miranda and then Lina Romay. The strange abusive childhood Jess had with some 8 siblings in a fascist militaristic surgeon's home spawned a lifetime of traumatic confessions on celluloid and video. The racial tension between his parents and the mixed heritage in Latin communities also left a huge impact on the little Jesus, turning him to jazz, political radicalism and becoming a malcontent who purposely deprived his genius from popularity.
I hope this sad but beautiful little genius is at peace now and that this amazing body of work will live on forever and become more legendary than it already is.
Macumba Sexual is an almost masterpiece. Franco remakes "Vampyros Lesbos" with a transgender theme! Replacing the irreplaceable Soledad Miranda is the commanding Ajita Wilson, the most beautiful black she-male in cinema history. She's seducing Lina Romay (as her blonde actress title "Candy Coaster") to take her role as some pan-sexual goddess of lust. The plot is low on incident and keeps to maybe 3 locations, all around a hotel. Its a breathtaking experience despite this, gorgeous and alive with subversive sexual metaphors. Throughout the film, Lina is haunted by physical objects
that are both masculine and feminine at the same time while Franco never hides the fact that Ajita is transgender. He attacks the gender binary and really scrambles what an erotic horror film can be. For him this is an exploitative ride to attack homophobia and sexual insecurity. I don't know if its respectful to trans people, but I think its firmly on their side and is the most brave, entertaining and early examples of the subject in cinema.
Voodoo Passion is likewise a minor classic. Playing similarly to both "Virgin Among the Living Dead" and the formula of "Succubus" and "Nightmares Come at Night", I think Voodoo Passion plays better than all three. It has an impressive production, flawless cinematography, a beautiful score, truly erotic sex scenes, a game cast and some fabulous direction. It also irons out some flaws in the highly disjointed narratives of those previous films. You could only dock it points for being predictable, but Jess provides enough twists visually and narratively that you can call this a successful jazz variation.
Revenge/Usher is "final level Franco". You can't appreciate this until you know his oeuvre, biography and financial limitations. I would call it something of a no-budget masterpiece if Eurocine producers didn't poorly edit it into the kitsch it is today. Franco shot a fairly personalized but tonally correct version of Poe's classic with no budget. Had Jess had a few dollars more, it would be comparable to his Dracula. But Eurocine didn't like it, added 10 minutes of footage from Dr Orloff(!) and then added poorly done inserts to try and smooth it out. They did the same to "Virgin" apparently. If you know the story behind this film, its quite an eye-opener and an amazing demonstration of Franco's genius, but this is NOT for casual fans or horror fans.
Devil Hunter is a solid Eurotrash ride. Its a camp spoof of racist cannibal films made in Italy at the time and it still works as an anti-racist horror film. Franco shows great kindness for black people in his films, especially primitive tribes. This film paints the white characters as just as barbaric and maybe twice as depraved. Like the transgressive bits of transgenderism in Macumba, Franco displays his radicalism not in preachy dialogue, righteous characters or obvious gestures. He uses the power of ironic montage, contrast, dialectical materialism that he learned as a young admirer of Eisenstein. Devil Hunter is surprisingly long and quite absurdist, but its an epic enjoyment for his fans or anyone who is in on the joke. Also, just remember that the bug-eyed native is essentially "Morpho". This will make sense later...
Death/Blues is a small political thriller from Franco's early film period. Its gorgeous, well-paced and extremely heavy on dialogue. While its a refreshing break from many films of its time, it lacks the unique style that Franco would patent later. But it still has his hallmarks: anti-racism, proletariat sympathies, revenge, a sexy tropical atmosphere and a good soundtrack. Its evidence of Franco's ability to handle your regular commercial film but such a solid B&W caper is a footnote to his career and thats a compliment. I still recommend it for the time capsule appeal and the biographical nature of the story.
Mondo Cannibal is known as a piece of shit, but it has its moments. Its hated by fans of the cannibal genre because its low on gore, cannibals and action. But the plot is quite good and would be resurrected for "Diamonds...". This film is a bit of a chore because its maybe Franco's slowest and least artistic film, but it has (shockingly) some of the best photography of this period and the real sell is Sabrina Siani, who is inhumanly attractive and naked throughout the film. I wish this film was as progressive as the other Franco jungle films, but its no big loss because all of the natives are played by Italians! Actually, I suspect that was a joke and that the film is lampooning Italians taste for gore and their rampant anti-black racism. I've heard Franco diss Italian directors for their desire to be seen as white/American and this film is his rejection of the Italian schlock directors he is still lumped in with. In retrospect, this film was an intentionally "bad" anti-gore film.
How to Seduce a Virgin is a not-as-strong remake of the exquisite Eugenie, but it has its areas of supremacy. The sexual content here is excellent, the cast is different but equal, the production is smaller but more moody. This is kind of a dark X-rated doppelganger of a classic. There are some plot tweaks and maybe the best substitution is Lina Romay as the helpless minion. This might be her best role, likewise the underrated Alice Arno.
Mansion/Living Dead is basically a re-do of Bloody Moon, but serving Franco's sensibilities. We have some sexy Spanish girls at a hotel with a slasher. I still prefer Moon, but Mansion is close in quality. It leans towards a smaller, more absurd plot and a more hypnotic, dreamy style of directing. What Mansion does have is better dialogue, sexier lesbian action and a phenomenal female gimp character who steals the entire film each time she arrives. This film becomes a personal account of Franco's relationship with Lina and his own guilt in keeping this much younger, wilder woman to himself, a rather bookish man of small means. Many films from this period revolve around their real world romantic dynamic, its up's and down's and sadomasochism. Lina is more than a muse in these films. She's a strong actress with the unique gift of having a film told through her and about her.
Fall of the Eagles is the cheapest Franco film I've ever seen. It literally a couple really well-directed scenes about a Nazi love triangle before, during and after WW2 with some stock footage linking it together. The performances are strong from Christopher Lee and Mark Hamill (TWO fucking Jedi's directed by the guy who helped inspire Yoda!!!!) while Joe Estavez's son gives what might be the worst acting performance ever. The entire film is so uneven yet so watchable, a perfect time waster. Considering it cost nothing, I didn't feel cheated. It reminds me of the much worse Full Moon films that obsessively use WW2 as a backdrop. Despite its many limitations, Eagles IS a very serious, crafted and poignant story.
Dr Orloff's Monster is a well-made little thriller, way more conservative than its radical predecessor, but it introduces some important tropes into the Franco canon: adultery turning to murder (But Who Raped Linda?) and a young girl inheriting a dark castle of evil secrets (Virgin..., Daughter of Dracula). The plot and style of this film provides the gist of the much more entertaining Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, but you won't be disappointed in the noir-esque photography and what was once groundbreaking treatment of sex and violence. But its no match for...
The Awful Dr. Orloff. Finally I review the one that made Jess Franco a famous international genre director. I've watched it before but its much better with more context of what it spawned. Its been written that Orloff is a rip-off of Eyes Without a Face. Franco denies it and I believe him as The Brain That Wouldn't Die is also ridiculously similar to these two films. I think we have a case of 3 people thinking the same thing at once: surgical horror. They all were deconstructing Gothic horror films and predicting the rise of abused plastic surgery. Eyes is the classiest of the 3, Brain the most vulgar and Franco's little film is a perfect blend of both. Its evident how much the suggestive dialogue and rape-themed violence was in such a Catholic, conservative culture. And this is really the most expressionist and epic film of Franco's career. Its just a finely directed old school horror film that no one can fault. But Francophiles will take sweet pleasure in how personal the film reveals itself to be all these years later.
We witness the birth of Franco's most personal and repeated plot device: The Master and Slave. Dr Orloff (who would return so many times) is a mad surgeon based on Jess' army doctor father and in extension the Generalissimo Franco. He's an affluent, cruel, bourgeois monster, but physically and emotionally human in every way. Early on its revealed that his deep seated obsession with female flesh comes from his own insecurity about control, aging and dying. This rings as a confession of Jess' later lustful work as Orloff's violence is carried out by his demeaned bug-eyed relative, "Morpho". This is an obvious placeholder for Jess and Jess would even play the Morpho role in following films. Is Franco's entire filmography as actor/director his working through a tyrannical Father complex? Definitely.
This film has a solid climax but the rather hollow Dr Orloff's Monster might be even more personal as that film ends with the Morpho monster actually striking down the evil father character. Now read into Orloff killing women to preserve the image of his own daughter? (Or sister in "Faceless") The maternal side of Franco's anxieties would be explored in Jack the Ripper, sibling & daughter incest would pop up later. Having a Mexican father and Cuban mother, I suspect Jess' mother was dark-skinned, explaining his fetish for light skin but his distanced but bleeding heart for darker skinned women. Its so obvious why he found special balance in Soledad Miranda and then Lina Romay. The strange abusive childhood Jess had with some 8 siblings in a fascist militaristic surgeon's home spawned a lifetime of traumatic confessions on celluloid and video. The racial tension between his parents and the mixed heritage in Latin communities also left a huge impact on the little Jesus, turning him to jazz, political radicalism and becoming a malcontent who purposely deprived his genius from popularity.
I hope this sad but beautiful little genius is at peace now and that this amazing body of work will live on forever and become more legendary than it already is.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Count Dracula 1970 / Night Has a Thousand Desires 1984
Christopher Lee played Dracula many times for Hammer Studios but famously disliked their treatment of the character. Franco directs Lee's single non-Hammer Dracula film and, because of its faithfulness to the plot and tone of the source material, this became Lee's favorite outing as the count. And its easy to see why. Lee shows off some fearsome acting that brings a deadness and evil that is lacking in his more famous roles. The entire film is modestly budgeted, but the minimalism serves the foggy atmosphere and Gothic staging. This is one of Franco's finest examples of restrained directing. His touch is evident in the moments of extreme horror (like Dracula's brides eating a baby) and his excellent use of inner montage through zooms and understated motion. The highlight of this impeccable production is probably the fine casting, including Soledad Miranda in her first vampire role. From the get-go, she is as elegant and seductive as possible. Her tragic aura was never more pronounced and useful to a film and you can see Franco slowly falling for her beauty. This film is an important step in Franco's career as he finds a special muse and gravitates to truly tonal, disturbing horror and away from the simpler, poppier horror stylings of his Orloff films.
I revisited "Other Side of the Mirror" and it feels like a tone poem to Soledad's abrupt death and the dashed romantic feelings he held for her. Its interesting how that film is the rare example of Franco indulging in realism and overt dialogue about philosophy. I bring that film up to highlight that Franco's spacey minimalist indulgence in imagery was a concentrated style that he could break away from if he desired. That helps process his more extreme explorations in style. He knew exactly what he was doing.
NHATD is the most extreme work of cinematic style Franco ever gave us. It makes Diabolical Dr Z look like a Dragnet episode. Its essential in understanding Franco's aims and roots as an artist. The entire experience is not dependent on its thin plot for anything but visual tone and a physical stage for his actor subjects. Almost nothing of incident or attraction happens. I'm blanking on anything happening at all besides some love-making and a 30 second shot of Lina Romay walking slowly towards frame. How is this the most beautiful film I've seen? Because its almost pure documentary of reality except for Franco's experiment with time and editing. All actors are shown lifeless, tranced, ghostly, subjected. Are they in a dream or a ghost world? By simply erasing the action, cutting and sounds we expect, Franco uses our expectations against us and lets our imagination create its own sense of dream space. Its comparable to the effect of Charleton Heston spending reels of "The Omega Man" wandering alone through a psychological warzone to minimalist jazz. But this is way more radical. Franco doesn't give us any surreal or supernatural reason for this affected realism. Its simply his darkly romantic vision of life.
My theory is that Franco's entire aesthetic derives from Soviet montage theorists like Eisenstein and Pudovkin. Franco, perhaps more than any director ever, synthesized their unique views into a style of montage adaptable to any and all narratives. His entire career is practice in applying his profound knowledge of montage to as many films as possible but as economically as possible. NHATD is maybe the culmination of a lifetime of craft and his analysis of the very hypnotic effect of cinema itself. He is asking "What is cinema"? At the depths of finance and obscurity, he finally has the courage to make a film that is anti-commercial and only interested in exploring the power of the camera. And it is triumphant & transcendent.
I revisited "Other Side of the Mirror" and it feels like a tone poem to Soledad's abrupt death and the dashed romantic feelings he held for her. Its interesting how that film is the rare example of Franco indulging in realism and overt dialogue about philosophy. I bring that film up to highlight that Franco's spacey minimalist indulgence in imagery was a concentrated style that he could break away from if he desired. That helps process his more extreme explorations in style. He knew exactly what he was doing.
NHATD is the most extreme work of cinematic style Franco ever gave us. It makes Diabolical Dr Z look like a Dragnet episode. Its essential in understanding Franco's aims and roots as an artist. The entire experience is not dependent on its thin plot for anything but visual tone and a physical stage for his actor subjects. Almost nothing of incident or attraction happens. I'm blanking on anything happening at all besides some love-making and a 30 second shot of Lina Romay walking slowly towards frame. How is this the most beautiful film I've seen? Because its almost pure documentary of reality except for Franco's experiment with time and editing. All actors are shown lifeless, tranced, ghostly, subjected. Are they in a dream or a ghost world? By simply erasing the action, cutting and sounds we expect, Franco uses our expectations against us and lets our imagination create its own sense of dream space. Its comparable to the effect of Charleton Heston spending reels of "The Omega Man" wandering alone through a psychological warzone to minimalist jazz. But this is way more radical. Franco doesn't give us any surreal or supernatural reason for this affected realism. Its simply his darkly romantic vision of life.
My theory is that Franco's entire aesthetic derives from Soviet montage theorists like Eisenstein and Pudovkin. Franco, perhaps more than any director ever, synthesized their unique views into a style of montage adaptable to any and all narratives. His entire career is practice in applying his profound knowledge of montage to as many films as possible but as economically as possible. NHATD is maybe the culmination of a lifetime of craft and his analysis of the very hypnotic effect of cinema itself. He is asking "What is cinema"? At the depths of finance and obscurity, he finally has the courage to make a film that is anti-commercial and only interested in exploring the power of the camera. And it is triumphant & transcendent.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Nightmares Come At Night (2nd review) 1970 / The Girl From Rio 1969
Nightmares Come At Night was one of my early favorites when I'd only seen a handful of Jess Franco films. I'm still rather impressed but its clearly 2nd tier Franco, more of an experimental film than a big personal work or radical storytelling. But it IS quite shocking, moving and timeless as I stated in the first review. But this time I was more aware of how the film has Franco really juggling his familiar tropes in a big departure. This film explores his usual dark vixens as victims of oppressive Aryan so-called feminism. He subverts and deconstructs the subtly racist "Betty and Veronica" tropes in Western media, as David Lynch would much later and Hitchcock had already done to a more conservative degree. Franco pulls no punches in exploring the sexual intimidation and systemic degradation by white Europeans to their Latin brothers and sisters. Around this period Jess moved further to a so called "primitivism" and tribal art. The film is full of African and Eastern sounds and shapes and our heroine has a Hindu ceremony before transcending her bleak situation. I imagine Franco was deeply moved by Thich Quang Duc, the Vietnamese Buddhist who set himself on fire famously in 1963, and is lampshading his sacrificial suicide with this film's climax.
The Girl From Rio is a film I can watch endlessly. Its a James Bond-sploitation film that finds its star in "Goldfinger" actress Shirley Eaton who plays a villain more clever, cruel and human than Blofeld. The narrative concerns a Feminist revolution standing in the way of our generic male lead and his useless MacGuffin. In the end, the women triumph and its the greedy nationalist agency that suffers. Its a great plot that luckily has a budget to allow lots of toys for Jess to play with. The film is full of gags, action, setpieces, powerful compositions and elaborate staging. Here he is allowed to run wild into pure surrealism and create a phantasmagorical experience of the cinematic world. This was a major break for him. He never again got a budget to make anything so visually explosive or epically designed, but this solidified his hallucinogenic trademarked style. Maybe he knew this was his final big commercial work and decided to go out with a bang and abuse his budget to make a film as challenging and stylistically daring as possible, career be damned. And he never looked back.
I can't believe these films were made a year apart. That year shows everything Franco gave up and everything he gained. And in short he did it to be the feminist director that was not yet tolerated in mainstream world markets. Two films in two different arenas and decades but both baring the same bold genius.
The Girl From Rio is a film I can watch endlessly. Its a James Bond-sploitation film that finds its star in "Goldfinger" actress Shirley Eaton who plays a villain more clever, cruel and human than Blofeld. The narrative concerns a Feminist revolution standing in the way of our generic male lead and his useless MacGuffin. In the end, the women triumph and its the greedy nationalist agency that suffers. Its a great plot that luckily has a budget to allow lots of toys for Jess to play with. The film is full of gags, action, setpieces, powerful compositions and elaborate staging. Here he is allowed to run wild into pure surrealism and create a phantasmagorical experience of the cinematic world. This was a major break for him. He never again got a budget to make anything so visually explosive or epically designed, but this solidified his hallucinogenic trademarked style. Maybe he knew this was his final big commercial work and decided to go out with a bang and abuse his budget to make a film as challenging and stylistically daring as possible, career be damned. And he never looked back.
I can't believe these films were made a year apart. That year shows everything Franco gave up and everything he gained. And in short he did it to be the feminist director that was not yet tolerated in mainstream world markets. Two films in two different arenas and decades but both baring the same bold genius.
Lucky the Inscrutable 1967 / She Killed In Ecstasy 1971
Watched 2 more Franco movies and its amazing the growth of this director within a few years.
"Lucky" is a very polished, commercial spy spoof with heavy NeoRealism influences. It builds to a shocking ending that totally changes the context of everything you've watched. Even as a young populist Spanish director, Jess was transgressive and never afraid to lampoon Western ideas, especially the sexist, racist and morally corrupt greed of the US & UK. But he makes sure to deliver a stunning and well-executed product for his producers. Here he works on a Spanish-Italian coproduction so he ups the slapstick, eye candy actors, lavish color and obligatory Romantic elements. The films most understood by Franco's own fans are ones like "Lucky" where he flirts with selling out only to finally transgress or TRANSCEND the restrictive, repressive nature of the subject matter to make a statement of protest. There's a scene where the hero makes love to the Communist female villain (played fabulously by the legendary Rosalba Neri). Franco's following love scene is a bizarre montage of comic book and porno mag images with the faces of Karl Marx and Mao floating through. His anti-hero makes love literally to the idea of Communism within a film thats supposed to sell Nationalism, fascism, white supremacy. There are plenty of 60s James Bond spoofs but how many are well informed Anti-Bond films?
Flash forward a few years and Franco is within a dark, lonely yet liberating transition. His films are becoming much smaller, depressed, sensual and outspoken. "Ecstasy" has the same revenge plot of so many Franco films like Venus in Furs, Other Side of the Mirror and Jack the Ripper (which follow an arc). But Ecstasy's inspiration is a shattered romance, cultural and generational revolution, economic disenfranchisement, scientific liberalism and many other themes that can be tied to his producer's strict "plot" necessities. Its been said that Franco hated plot. Wrong. He simply saw it as tool for artistic expression and, when forced to work within the conservative genres of low budget filmmaking in Europe, he used the Nationalist or Capitalist issued "plot rules" to simply deconstruct themselves and call attention to the futility, materialism and unreality of mass media propaganda.
So again he returns to films about corrupt authorities, spies, detectives, prisons, Nazis, predatory lesbians, criminals, psychopaths and abusers of power to cut them down and exorcise the psyche of the viewer and himself to create films that are closer to reality at least in psychology. He uses the absurd dreamlike phenomenology of fantasy films to unlock the truths that the timid and conservative call frightening or unpleasant. Jess Franco used commercial cinema like a sugarpill to deliver the medicine of existentialist, nihilist and ultimately socialist thoughts of democratic revolution and utopian change. His films are political protest films but they hide their academic meanings in lurid masks that appeal to the sadomasochistic voyeur in a bourgeois culture of slaves labor and exploitation. His films were for the people who don't need entertainment. They needed art, the one thing the powerful don't want them to have.
"Lucky" is a very polished, commercial spy spoof with heavy NeoRealism influences. It builds to a shocking ending that totally changes the context of everything you've watched. Even as a young populist Spanish director, Jess was transgressive and never afraid to lampoon Western ideas, especially the sexist, racist and morally corrupt greed of the US & UK. But he makes sure to deliver a stunning and well-executed product for his producers. Here he works on a Spanish-Italian coproduction so he ups the slapstick, eye candy actors, lavish color and obligatory Romantic elements. The films most understood by Franco's own fans are ones like "Lucky" where he flirts with selling out only to finally transgress or TRANSCEND the restrictive, repressive nature of the subject matter to make a statement of protest. There's a scene where the hero makes love to the Communist female villain (played fabulously by the legendary Rosalba Neri). Franco's following love scene is a bizarre montage of comic book and porno mag images with the faces of Karl Marx and Mao floating through. His anti-hero makes love literally to the idea of Communism within a film thats supposed to sell Nationalism, fascism, white supremacy. There are plenty of 60s James Bond spoofs but how many are well informed Anti-Bond films?
Flash forward a few years and Franco is within a dark, lonely yet liberating transition. His films are becoming much smaller, depressed, sensual and outspoken. "Ecstasy" has the same revenge plot of so many Franco films like Venus in Furs, Other Side of the Mirror and Jack the Ripper (which follow an arc). But Ecstasy's inspiration is a shattered romance, cultural and generational revolution, economic disenfranchisement, scientific liberalism and many other themes that can be tied to his producer's strict "plot" necessities. Its been said that Franco hated plot. Wrong. He simply saw it as tool for artistic expression and, when forced to work within the conservative genres of low budget filmmaking in Europe, he used the Nationalist or Capitalist issued "plot rules" to simply deconstruct themselves and call attention to the futility, materialism and unreality of mass media propaganda.
So again he returns to films about corrupt authorities, spies, detectives, prisons, Nazis, predatory lesbians, criminals, psychopaths and abusers of power to cut them down and exorcise the psyche of the viewer and himself to create films that are closer to reality at least in psychology. He uses the absurd dreamlike phenomenology of fantasy films to unlock the truths that the timid and conservative call frightening or unpleasant. Jess Franco used commercial cinema like a sugarpill to deliver the medicine of existentialist, nihilist and ultimately socialist thoughts of democratic revolution and utopian change. His films are political protest films but they hide their academic meanings in lurid masks that appeal to the sadomasochistic voyeur in a bourgeois culture of slaves labor and exploitation. His films were for the people who don't need entertainment. They needed art, the one thing the powerful don't want them to have.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Jack the Ripper 1976 / The Perverse Countess 1974
The Jess Franco train ride continues...
I'm back to reviewing that wonderful cult director who was the king of a few subtly influential genres. This time its a horror period piece and an S&M sexploitation piece.
There are Jess Franco films that are beautiful works of surrealist extravagance and moral radicalism. These two fit that effort. Jack the Ripper finds a lyrical tragedy and masochistic love of "grotesque monstrosity". Ofcourse its done in a camp heir of social satire and historical mirror that is tasteful and actually a blissful thrill. He codified a type of poetic means to producing proud, intelligent thought through the most raw excommunicated self-evolution on the bottom of the economic totem pole. He relates through his jazz and his cinema the pain of indigenous cultures that are colonized, reprogrammed and treated as self-hating cattle. Franco has grown to be one of my favorite humanistic directors and storytellers. I think his philosophy is mostly his own so I can't classify him neatly as anything but a Marxist. And he doesn't use his art for lucrative commerce or egomanicial statements (because he's far too shy and feeling to compete or hurt others). Franco is one of the pure souls in filmmaking who seems scary, craven or mad, but he was simply a genius who was so ghettoized that he looks insane to those who only sip the mainstream.
Whew! Thats all in these films but - ideology ignored - the technical aesthetics are fabulous. Some of the most emotionally directed films I've ever watched but it may lose viewers with his paper-thin plot details, totally faked "dream logic" and lack of fear for "the extreme". Franco revels in the fact that he is not castrated or forced to be timid. He makes his films his way and only the pure hearted such as him can hope to make art. Its commerce or propaganda without a soul's voice fighting to remain independent but unify the world. I think Franco identified as communist but that doesn't fully explain his brilliant viewpoint which seems shaped by a Napoleonic complex of stifled popularity and lust for respect. But he also grew up under the Nationalist leader Generalissimo Franco so he had no chance of reaching leadership or uncensored journalism, so he rejected Franco and adopted a stylized synthesis of both his namesakes - "Jesus Franco". He explores the dichonomy of Self, of man, of a Spaniard, or a beatnik, of a jazz musician, of a person of color. He purges the psyche of the world in each film for each moment of time during production and release, but most importantly prep.
His films always feel worked on in a blustery drug-assisted creative upheaval in his soul or vomit from his eyes... or Third Eye as he often acknowledged beliefs of Eastern mysticism. Often he highlights the creative properties of tribal music, jazz, classical music, African, Renaissance & Baroque painters. Like Picasso, he grew up in a Latin Europe that was still honest and not yet so colonialized, programmed or commercialized. He's a big art class whiz kid who suffers having to work to sell his art. Its the classic case. His work is evidence that it pays off. Imagine how his Earth would've lost such a pure voice of human honesty if he sold out for any master or group. He's a true independent, a true socialist and a true leader that influenced all of cinema from absolute obscurity. The rock band The Residents has a theory that this is the only way true world-changing art is made. Franco is one of those who creates his own story to change the world's story. There are similar and comparable artists but, at least in cinema, Jess Franco is my favorite.
I guess he saw himself a Jesus messiah to a Franconian satanism. In a sense, he sums up most perfectly the psychological "illness" of the modern Ego. He deconstructs and mythologizes The Bible while indulging in anti-pulpit politics and systemic exploitation, enslavement and monetary control. Researching his work in the first half of 2017 and then engaging in the learned ideologies helped me survive such a Hellish 2nd half of friends committing suicide, sinners repenting, injustices coming to light and balance violently taking control from fascist wars.
And as a cinephile I feel like I've come into my own finally finding a director I can unapologetically name as an influence. Thanks for inspiring me, Jess. I hope to spread more of your positive influence through filmmaking.
I'm back to reviewing that wonderful cult director who was the king of a few subtly influential genres. This time its a horror period piece and an S&M sexploitation piece.
There are Jess Franco films that are beautiful works of surrealist extravagance and moral radicalism. These two fit that effort. Jack the Ripper finds a lyrical tragedy and masochistic love of "grotesque monstrosity". Ofcourse its done in a camp heir of social satire and historical mirror that is tasteful and actually a blissful thrill. He codified a type of poetic means to producing proud, intelligent thought through the most raw excommunicated self-evolution on the bottom of the economic totem pole. He relates through his jazz and his cinema the pain of indigenous cultures that are colonized, reprogrammed and treated as self-hating cattle. Franco has grown to be one of my favorite humanistic directors and storytellers. I think his philosophy is mostly his own so I can't classify him neatly as anything but a Marxist. And he doesn't use his art for lucrative commerce or egomanicial statements (because he's far too shy and feeling to compete or hurt others). Franco is one of the pure souls in filmmaking who seems scary, craven or mad, but he was simply a genius who was so ghettoized that he looks insane to those who only sip the mainstream.
Whew! Thats all in these films but - ideology ignored - the technical aesthetics are fabulous. Some of the most emotionally directed films I've ever watched but it may lose viewers with his paper-thin plot details, totally faked "dream logic" and lack of fear for "the extreme". Franco revels in the fact that he is not castrated or forced to be timid. He makes his films his way and only the pure hearted such as him can hope to make art. Its commerce or propaganda without a soul's voice fighting to remain independent but unify the world. I think Franco identified as communist but that doesn't fully explain his brilliant viewpoint which seems shaped by a Napoleonic complex of stifled popularity and lust for respect. But he also grew up under the Nationalist leader Generalissimo Franco so he had no chance of reaching leadership or uncensored journalism, so he rejected Franco and adopted a stylized synthesis of both his namesakes - "Jesus Franco". He explores the dichonomy of Self, of man, of a Spaniard, or a beatnik, of a jazz musician, of a person of color. He purges the psyche of the world in each film for each moment of time during production and release, but most importantly prep.
His films always feel worked on in a blustery drug-assisted creative upheaval in his soul or vomit from his eyes... or Third Eye as he often acknowledged beliefs of Eastern mysticism. Often he highlights the creative properties of tribal music, jazz, classical music, African, Renaissance & Baroque painters. Like Picasso, he grew up in a Latin Europe that was still honest and not yet so colonialized, programmed or commercialized. He's a big art class whiz kid who suffers having to work to sell his art. Its the classic case. His work is evidence that it pays off. Imagine how his Earth would've lost such a pure voice of human honesty if he sold out for any master or group. He's a true independent, a true socialist and a true leader that influenced all of cinema from absolute obscurity. The rock band The Residents has a theory that this is the only way true world-changing art is made. Franco is one of those who creates his own story to change the world's story. There are similar and comparable artists but, at least in cinema, Jess Franco is my favorite.
I guess he saw himself a Jesus messiah to a Franconian satanism. In a sense, he sums up most perfectly the psychological "illness" of the modern Ego. He deconstructs and mythologizes The Bible while indulging in anti-pulpit politics and systemic exploitation, enslavement and monetary control. Researching his work in the first half of 2017 and then engaging in the learned ideologies helped me survive such a Hellish 2nd half of friends committing suicide, sinners repenting, injustices coming to light and balance violently taking control from fascist wars.
And as a cinephile I feel like I've come into my own finally finding a director I can unapologetically name as an influence. Thanks for inspiring me, Jess. I hope to spread more of your positive influence through filmmaking.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Faceless 1988
I started this year (and this blog) with a review of Jess Franco's Faceless. Now lets come full circle and re-review it. If 2017 taught me anything its that Franco was ahead of his time.
Faceless is still his masterpiece for me. Its extremely well-made but the script gives him the most substance to explore his established vocabulary. In the DVD commentary, he reveals that it was written by producer Rene Chateau for his aesthetic exactly. Chateau was a pure Franco fan so this obviously is the film for Franco fans. Franco is forced to stick to his better judgment and not lose sight of his audience with excessive sex or minimal plot. Its the commercial version of Franco's usual Dr. Orloff plot, but its so much stronger as Chateau organizes Franco's psychological obsessions and political leanings into something his haters can understand. Franco admitted that he didn't work with conscious meanings while shooting. But he read and contributed to Faceless and agreed that it is his story. He understood all of the symbolism, helped build its language and cosigned it as true to his vision. In commentary he even shoots down the claim that this is not a true Franco film.
All of that is preface for exploring the deep messages that make this the purest example of Franco's worldview. The script deconstructs his style exactly so the master can apply his aesthetic to where it belongs.
The plot of Faceless is based not on Orloff or the eerily similar French horror film Eyes Without A Face, but on the obscure novel that inspired both. Body snatchers are abducting and killing women to provide the flesh for a plastic surgeon's scarred sister. This thin premise is the groundwork for a Freudian labyrinth of psycho-sexual fracturing of the psyche.
The ultimate metaphor of the film is the Faceless Woman as the ultimate victim of capitalism's "sex sells" culture. Without a face, she has no identity, no love, no validation and cannot enter the world. Finding a new face = filling non-existence. No capital, no communism creates a violent search, a consuming passion for blood driving her to evil exploitation and fantasy fulfillment. Capitalism is built on the pain of the public for the privately wealthy. This is all from Eyes Without A Face, but the script takes some liberties. Prostitutes and Johns are shown as equal victims of the elite's hierarchy. Franco sees sex and drugs as instruments of the same hypocrisy, both independent occupations. Cocaine is how the film's damsel is seduced by our villains. This is the horror of a system where the working class aren't allowed to thrive but are demonized for using the only means they have. The horror of no communism is community goes to Hell where its "dog eat dog" and the artificial surface rules and spirituality is lost, sex is corrupted and cosmetic surgery is an enterprise.
Finding her New Face becomes the obsession of her plastic surgeon brother, the Ego - a cold Germanic genius, amoral, perverse and bourgeois in taste - a perfect example of Franco's villains. He is assisted by his cold blonde female nurse who represents Franco's feminine side - dangerous, anti-aging, anti-reproduction, a Lolita. The Id is represented by their manservant who is innocent, manipulated, confused but full of savage violence and obedient loyalty. They drag beautiful working class girls to their Parisian clinic to be diced up for old women to become beautiful again... until they abduct a rich daughter of a powerful elite man (the ultimate crime).
From the beginning, the Ego is torn between Sister and his nurse, the Other Woman. He is happy with both until an older woman whose beauty he damaged (representing The Mother) destroys his sister's face and ruins the balance of female energy in his psyche. With his beloved sister's life destroyed and the reality of aging clear, he is driven mad trying to resurrect his childhood memory of her. But the Other Woman become jealous of this incestuous obsession. He is torn between two vampire females who drive him to seek blood and become a vampire himself. The female assistant symbolizes Lina Romay, the famous life partner of Jess. Her character is always that of a Frozen Image, a memory, a "dream girl" he cannot satisfy. Dream Girl turned Nightmare Girl. In a brief cameo, Lina appears as a photograph! One amazing sequence has the surgeon and nurse hunting a girl in a disco. The young woman rejects this aging man and his nurse uses false lesbian wiles to seduce the victim. Another great cinematic reflection of Franco and Lina's arrangement. Franco's women are often the slasher in his stories (Bloody Moon) Perhaps she was jealous of the grief Franco expressed for his original love and leading lady Soledad Miranda, who is represented by The Damsel the Ego keeps locked away.
The Damsel is in the mold of classic Franco girls. She is his version of The Virgin, but a coke-taking "daddy's girl" whore who sleeps with all races of men. Franco defends and praises her for this. The SuperEgo, a detective assigned by her Father, pursues her. He is flippant, bored, a hotshot Americanized tool of authority wunderkind destined to fall. This is the archetypal Franco male hero. Franco pokes fun at his younger self, the stifled commercial director who learned under Orson Welles but was barred from Hollywood success. At one point, Franco self-identifies with a stereotypically gay photographer of cokehead models, the best summary of his extremely castrated aesthetic fetishization of the female image in film. This gay Id combats the SuperEgo with a muscle man named "Doo Doo". Project what you will.
Franco belongs to that group of psychoanalytical directors including Hitchcock, Lynch, Maya Deren, DePalma, Fellini, Argento, Bunuel (call them the "Caligari Club") who use cinema as a dreamscape. They use so may of the same tropes like Blonde vs Brunette, Virgin or Whore, The Father-In-Law's Challenge, Familial sexual tension. Its about the sex NOT shown. Romantic Horror + Sexual Horror. The quest for hidden desire and the fear of exposed fetish. When the Ego's female slaves are discovered by a woman, the Id overreacts and tortures her. This mistake haunts him in the end and destroys him (finally stopped by spikes to the base of the brain by the SuperEgo).
Even with its luxurious surface and fantastic budget, the film is crude, abstract and obsessed with The Primal. I find the commercialism's contrast only raises the darkness and animal magnetism in Franco's style. Unable to use his own experimental jazz, Franco makes ironic use of pop songs to attack consumerism (notice in which scenes they play). Franco satirizes the style of other directors with a style purposely static. The uniqueness of scenes lies in the details and deviations, which he learned as a jazz musician. He is free from the storytelling and experimentation to have fun with each scene. He wants you to grade each individually on execution as he sprinkles weirdness in each scene but only extends himself when it counts. This film follows his hardcore porn days so it has a heavy softcore vibe that is soothing enough to be disarming. The gory scenes replace the "money shots".
In the end, this film is about the creation of a perfect Frankenstien woman: a beautiful stranger's face on one's defaced sister. The vampire Sister buys her new face - the final capitalist prize for jealousy, murder and illegal gain - becoming the ultimate kinky love object. Freud's nightmare. In maybe the greatest ending to a Franco film, the SuperEgo fails to save The Virginal "dream girl" because of her rich vacationing Father. The Father-in-Law's false hopes doom them. He kills his own daughter by raising her to be the cokeheaded sexual victim of capitalist vampires. Its slut-shaming, victim-blaming perhaps, but Franco still damns the "predators of the night" but puts the blame back on the corrupt authority father figure who lost control. It, like the work of David Lynch and Hitchcock, may be mistaken for rape apologizing, but these "meninist" Marxists were simply showing the intersectionality of sexual abuse and the abuse of power from the leaders of state and business. This is Franco's last smoldering attack on Generalismo Franco, the fascist dictator who defined the cynical worldview and radical politics of Spain and his own life path. In the end, maybe all of his work was psychologically about Replacing The Father. This was his struggle. He was left so damaged, so anti-mother, anti-reproduction, anti-children, anti-Nazi and thus anti-women he was naturally drawn to (blond women). He found solace in a sister fetish for darker, younger women. "Faceless" is a perverted biographical confession to this sexual damage.
Jess Franco is an artist who psychoanalyzes himself brutally with every personal film. With 100+ films made, he became more self-aware than almost anyone. He contextualized his beliefs and prejudices into his work effortlessly and could still make a deceptively commercial film. As bizarre, excessive, mad, drug-damaged or awkward as it might get, he owns his funny psyche because he knows it compares favorably to the collective man's.
Faceless is still his masterpiece for me. Its extremely well-made but the script gives him the most substance to explore his established vocabulary. In the DVD commentary, he reveals that it was written by producer Rene Chateau for his aesthetic exactly. Chateau was a pure Franco fan so this obviously is the film for Franco fans. Franco is forced to stick to his better judgment and not lose sight of his audience with excessive sex or minimal plot. Its the commercial version of Franco's usual Dr. Orloff plot, but its so much stronger as Chateau organizes Franco's psychological obsessions and political leanings into something his haters can understand. Franco admitted that he didn't work with conscious meanings while shooting. But he read and contributed to Faceless and agreed that it is his story. He understood all of the symbolism, helped build its language and cosigned it as true to his vision. In commentary he even shoots down the claim that this is not a true Franco film.
All of that is preface for exploring the deep messages that make this the purest example of Franco's worldview. The script deconstructs his style exactly so the master can apply his aesthetic to where it belongs.
The plot of Faceless is based not on Orloff or the eerily similar French horror film Eyes Without A Face, but on the obscure novel that inspired both. Body snatchers are abducting and killing women to provide the flesh for a plastic surgeon's scarred sister. This thin premise is the groundwork for a Freudian labyrinth of psycho-sexual fracturing of the psyche.
The ultimate metaphor of the film is the Faceless Woman as the ultimate victim of capitalism's "sex sells" culture. Without a face, she has no identity, no love, no validation and cannot enter the world. Finding a new face = filling non-existence. No capital, no communism creates a violent search, a consuming passion for blood driving her to evil exploitation and fantasy fulfillment. Capitalism is built on the pain of the public for the privately wealthy. This is all from Eyes Without A Face, but the script takes some liberties. Prostitutes and Johns are shown as equal victims of the elite's hierarchy. Franco sees sex and drugs as instruments of the same hypocrisy, both independent occupations. Cocaine is how the film's damsel is seduced by our villains. This is the horror of a system where the working class aren't allowed to thrive but are demonized for using the only means they have. The horror of no communism is community goes to Hell where its "dog eat dog" and the artificial surface rules and spirituality is lost, sex is corrupted and cosmetic surgery is an enterprise.
Finding her New Face becomes the obsession of her plastic surgeon brother, the Ego - a cold Germanic genius, amoral, perverse and bourgeois in taste - a perfect example of Franco's villains. He is assisted by his cold blonde female nurse who represents Franco's feminine side - dangerous, anti-aging, anti-reproduction, a Lolita. The Id is represented by their manservant who is innocent, manipulated, confused but full of savage violence and obedient loyalty. They drag beautiful working class girls to their Parisian clinic to be diced up for old women to become beautiful again... until they abduct a rich daughter of a powerful elite man (the ultimate crime).
From the beginning, the Ego is torn between Sister and his nurse, the Other Woman. He is happy with both until an older woman whose beauty he damaged (representing The Mother) destroys his sister's face and ruins the balance of female energy in his psyche. With his beloved sister's life destroyed and the reality of aging clear, he is driven mad trying to resurrect his childhood memory of her. But the Other Woman become jealous of this incestuous obsession. He is torn between two vampire females who drive him to seek blood and become a vampire himself. The female assistant symbolizes Lina Romay, the famous life partner of Jess. Her character is always that of a Frozen Image, a memory, a "dream girl" he cannot satisfy. Dream Girl turned Nightmare Girl. In a brief cameo, Lina appears as a photograph! One amazing sequence has the surgeon and nurse hunting a girl in a disco. The young woman rejects this aging man and his nurse uses false lesbian wiles to seduce the victim. Another great cinematic reflection of Franco and Lina's arrangement. Franco's women are often the slasher in his stories (Bloody Moon) Perhaps she was jealous of the grief Franco expressed for his original love and leading lady Soledad Miranda, who is represented by The Damsel the Ego keeps locked away.
The Damsel is in the mold of classic Franco girls. She is his version of The Virgin, but a coke-taking "daddy's girl" whore who sleeps with all races of men. Franco defends and praises her for this. The SuperEgo, a detective assigned by her Father, pursues her. He is flippant, bored, a hotshot Americanized tool of authority wunderkind destined to fall. This is the archetypal Franco male hero. Franco pokes fun at his younger self, the stifled commercial director who learned under Orson Welles but was barred from Hollywood success. At one point, Franco self-identifies with a stereotypically gay photographer of cokehead models, the best summary of his extremely castrated aesthetic fetishization of the female image in film. This gay Id combats the SuperEgo with a muscle man named "Doo Doo". Project what you will.
Franco belongs to that group of psychoanalytical directors including Hitchcock, Lynch, Maya Deren, DePalma, Fellini, Argento, Bunuel (call them the "Caligari Club") who use cinema as a dreamscape. They use so may of the same tropes like Blonde vs Brunette, Virgin or Whore, The Father-In-Law's Challenge, Familial sexual tension. Its about the sex NOT shown. Romantic Horror + Sexual Horror. The quest for hidden desire and the fear of exposed fetish. When the Ego's female slaves are discovered by a woman, the Id overreacts and tortures her. This mistake haunts him in the end and destroys him (finally stopped by spikes to the base of the brain by the SuperEgo).
Even with its luxurious surface and fantastic budget, the film is crude, abstract and obsessed with The Primal. I find the commercialism's contrast only raises the darkness and animal magnetism in Franco's style. Unable to use his own experimental jazz, Franco makes ironic use of pop songs to attack consumerism (notice in which scenes they play). Franco satirizes the style of other directors with a style purposely static. The uniqueness of scenes lies in the details and deviations, which he learned as a jazz musician. He is free from the storytelling and experimentation to have fun with each scene. He wants you to grade each individually on execution as he sprinkles weirdness in each scene but only extends himself when it counts. This film follows his hardcore porn days so it has a heavy softcore vibe that is soothing enough to be disarming. The gory scenes replace the "money shots".
In the end, this film is about the creation of a perfect Frankenstien woman: a beautiful stranger's face on one's defaced sister. The vampire Sister buys her new face - the final capitalist prize for jealousy, murder and illegal gain - becoming the ultimate kinky love object. Freud's nightmare. In maybe the greatest ending to a Franco film, the SuperEgo fails to save The Virginal "dream girl" because of her rich vacationing Father. The Father-in-Law's false hopes doom them. He kills his own daughter by raising her to be the cokeheaded sexual victim of capitalist vampires. Its slut-shaming, victim-blaming perhaps, but Franco still damns the "predators of the night" but puts the blame back on the corrupt authority father figure who lost control. It, like the work of David Lynch and Hitchcock, may be mistaken for rape apologizing, but these "meninist" Marxists were simply showing the intersectionality of sexual abuse and the abuse of power from the leaders of state and business. This is Franco's last smoldering attack on Generalismo Franco, the fascist dictator who defined the cynical worldview and radical politics of Spain and his own life path. In the end, maybe all of his work was psychologically about Replacing The Father. This was his struggle. He was left so damaged, so anti-mother, anti-reproduction, anti-children, anti-Nazi and thus anti-women he was naturally drawn to (blond women). He found solace in a sister fetish for darker, younger women. "Faceless" is a perverted biographical confession to this sexual damage.
Jess Franco is an artist who psychoanalyzes himself brutally with every personal film. With 100+ films made, he became more self-aware than almost anyone. He contextualized his beliefs and prejudices into his work effortlessly and could still make a deceptively commercial film. As bizarre, excessive, mad, drug-damaged or awkward as it might get, he owns his funny psyche because he knows it compares favorably to the collective man's.
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Venus In Furs 1969 (2nd review)
Writing reviews this year has opened up my appreciation of cinema and I've learned a lot. Much of that credit belongs to Jess Franco, the obscure Spanish surrealist/grindhouse director I covered for the first half of 2017. Studying his work properly introduced me to tons of concepts & artistic grammar that I was only fuzzy about. Postmodernism, Dada, Existentialism. These themes perfectly reflect the dark crises Earth is handling now. I'm a totally different viewer after this harsh year and my outlook has widened tremendously.
I can admit I'm now embarrassed by one of my early reviews. Rewatching "Venus in Furs" last night, the film was a richer, more clear experience and it deserves a new review. But I will not erase my initial, less informed opinion. We should all give things an educated perspective.
https://hollyweedbabylon.blogspot.com/2017/01/venus-in-furs.html
Now Venus is a case like Blade Runner or Night of the Demons where a young ambitious artist made a deeply existential work of art and producers interfered to make it more commercial, thus losing a lot of the intended power. Funny how all 3 of these films revolve around the concept of perception, an essential component of cinema but maybe the least understood or examined.
I wrote off Venus as a clunky, sexy supernatural slasher like Franco's later work because thats what it is on the surface. Even on first viewing I could tell the film was heavily inspired by Vertigo, Carnival of Souls & Dr. Caligari, as its a dream narrative with dream logic and heavy political symbolism. Franco's film is a uniquely Spanish work examining themes of chauvinism/feminism, racism/colorism, sadism, schizophrenia, memory and probably LSD. The sex & supernatural is only a hook for audiences, but the producers re-edited the narrative to highlight these elements at the expense of any meaning. The film can seem convoluted if you aren't keenly aware of the lyrical storytelling that is mostly intact.
One of my favorite writers of the film blog era, Jeremy Richey of "Moon in the Gutter", detailed a connection between Franco's Venus and Lynch's Lost Highway. I originally thought he was off-base but now the similarities are glaring. The way Franco uses surreal photographic techniques and jazz scoring to highlight the dreaminess and artificiality of certain plot points. Franco gives clues and absurdist touches the way Lynch would after him. There's also the shared sensibility in ghostly, unreal femme fatales, unholy affluent boules and a confused, jazz playing spectator to all of the violent insanity who is oblivious to his role in everything. Franco & Lynch both imply that the world's depravity is at the heart of our sick culture, not a byproduct or separate fringe entity. You have to seriously ask if David Lynch, a monolithic American artist of our times, is a fan of this totally ignored cult director.
Its a hard argument for those uninitiated to Franco because Lynch is so quiet about his influences, unlike Franco in his day. Also Lynch fans are a bit dogmatic in praising Lynch's originality and genius. How can that great unique savant be compared to an inconsistent director of lesbian vampire pornos? As I've tried to argue in the past, Franco was a true auteur and genius and I'm sure his infamy is well-known to enormous film fans WITHIN the directing field. Jess Franco's films predicted so much because they were so structuralist and eventually post-structuralist. By "Venus", every shot is a reversal of the expected. Its a totally fresh experience despite its debts to other films. Because Franco, a super movie buff, was combining all of the radical ideas of his contemporaries (Godard, Antonioni, Bunuel, Welles, Fellini) and boiling them down to a level Spanish & American teenagers could even understand. Following these postmodern directors, it could be argued Franco was the original major post-postmodern & remodernist director like De Palma, Tarantino, Rodriguez and so many later.
I see now how seminal this film is to Franco's oeuvre, even if it wasn't the career gateway he wanted. It really summarizes his aesthetic well and explains the frustrated vision of his later, cheaper work. Many times he tried to execute the misunderstood mysticism of Venus in different terms. Some more mature (Other Side of the Mirror), some more juvenile (Virgin Among the Living Dead). I think Venus is more successful and watchable. But maybe Franco's best and most original take on this type of film poetry was "Succubus". But Venus is right next to it as Franco's attempt at a Roger Corman-esque drive-in mindblower. And to be honest, its a perfect hybrid of Corman's LSD and Gothic horror films, but better than both.
I can admit I'm now embarrassed by one of my early reviews. Rewatching "Venus in Furs" last night, the film was a richer, more clear experience and it deserves a new review. But I will not erase my initial, less informed opinion. We should all give things an educated perspective.
https://hollyweedbabylon.blogspot.com/2017/01/venus-in-furs.html
Now Venus is a case like Blade Runner or Night of the Demons where a young ambitious artist made a deeply existential work of art and producers interfered to make it more commercial, thus losing a lot of the intended power. Funny how all 3 of these films revolve around the concept of perception, an essential component of cinema but maybe the least understood or examined.
I wrote off Venus as a clunky, sexy supernatural slasher like Franco's later work because thats what it is on the surface. Even on first viewing I could tell the film was heavily inspired by Vertigo, Carnival of Souls & Dr. Caligari, as its a dream narrative with dream logic and heavy political symbolism. Franco's film is a uniquely Spanish work examining themes of chauvinism/feminism, racism/colorism, sadism, schizophrenia, memory and probably LSD. The sex & supernatural is only a hook for audiences, but the producers re-edited the narrative to highlight these elements at the expense of any meaning. The film can seem convoluted if you aren't keenly aware of the lyrical storytelling that is mostly intact.
One of my favorite writers of the film blog era, Jeremy Richey of "Moon in the Gutter", detailed a connection between Franco's Venus and Lynch's Lost Highway. I originally thought he was off-base but now the similarities are glaring. The way Franco uses surreal photographic techniques and jazz scoring to highlight the dreaminess and artificiality of certain plot points. Franco gives clues and absurdist touches the way Lynch would after him. There's also the shared sensibility in ghostly, unreal femme fatales, unholy affluent boules and a confused, jazz playing spectator to all of the violent insanity who is oblivious to his role in everything. Franco & Lynch both imply that the world's depravity is at the heart of our sick culture, not a byproduct or separate fringe entity. You have to seriously ask if David Lynch, a monolithic American artist of our times, is a fan of this totally ignored cult director.
Its a hard argument for those uninitiated to Franco because Lynch is so quiet about his influences, unlike Franco in his day. Also Lynch fans are a bit dogmatic in praising Lynch's originality and genius. How can that great unique savant be compared to an inconsistent director of lesbian vampire pornos? As I've tried to argue in the past, Franco was a true auteur and genius and I'm sure his infamy is well-known to enormous film fans WITHIN the directing field. Jess Franco's films predicted so much because they were so structuralist and eventually post-structuralist. By "Venus", every shot is a reversal of the expected. Its a totally fresh experience despite its debts to other films. Because Franco, a super movie buff, was combining all of the radical ideas of his contemporaries (Godard, Antonioni, Bunuel, Welles, Fellini) and boiling them down to a level Spanish & American teenagers could even understand. Following these postmodern directors, it could be argued Franco was the original major post-postmodern & remodernist director like De Palma, Tarantino, Rodriguez and so many later.
I see now how seminal this film is to Franco's oeuvre, even if it wasn't the career gateway he wanted. It really summarizes his aesthetic well and explains the frustrated vision of his later, cheaper work. Many times he tried to execute the misunderstood mysticism of Venus in different terms. Some more mature (Other Side of the Mirror), some more juvenile (Virgin Among the Living Dead). I think Venus is more successful and watchable. But maybe Franco's best and most original take on this type of film poetry was "Succubus". But Venus is right next to it as Franco's attempt at a Roger Corman-esque drive-in mindblower. And to be honest, its a perfect hybrid of Corman's LSD and Gothic horror films, but better than both.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Succubus 1968
The deeper I travel down the rabbithole that is Jess Franco's filmography, the more I find films connecting with others, fracturing off and reassembling in new films. With Succubus I find the origin of many themes and styles and a kind of synthesis of different sub-genres.
Quickly, Succubus is about a mysterious and seemingly evil performer in a Marquis de Sade-inspired stage show. She is in love with a man who suspects she kills people in her sleep, after seducing them in her waking hours. Or something like that. Midgets and Satan arrive. Its a real headtrip because its so loose and surreal, even for Franco. Yet its one of the more classical, professional and naturalistic films he made. As his first film made outside of Spain and its censors, I would say it was quite personal to him and reflects his opinion on women at the time. Succubus feels like the first poetic Franco movie, something beyond a commercial job. We watch him slip into his comfort zone and throw away the rulebook and its very exciting to discover.
Watching this, it dawned on me that Franco was offering female characters to actresses and audiences that no one had seen before. His women are usually protagonists, strong, intelligent, sexual, manipulative, violent, often evil and always in control of themselves or others. This always pulled a memorable and visibly liberating performance from his starlets. Its no surprise women agreed to play in his films multiple times. And its also fun that his audience seems equally male, female, gay, straight. His films are feminist and egalitarian in that way.
Succubus laid the blueprint for Venus in Furs, Other Side of the Mirror, Nightmares Come At Night, was remade as Incubus and I'm sure it inspired Lorna The Exorcist as the main character in this film is named Lorna. But this is closer in tone to the early Orloff movies. Its more playful with narrative, more excited about playing with composition and you can feel Franco and the crew's giddiness about capturing the exploration of sex. Apparently critics didn't like it but audiences did. Its probably exploiting the success Rosemary's Baby, which came out a few months later. While that film is way scarier and appealing, you have to credit Succubus for its then-daring sensuality and surrealism. It willfully artificial and the fact that its downer ending isn't shocking is the sly point of it all. Its a study of evil in this world from a more street level.
I would rank it as one of Jess Franco's best and certainly most important. You get the scope, pacing, production value, acting caliber, emotional substance, phenomenal lighting and unique directing of the greater Franco films with more restraint and classical touches. All of his films are sexy, violent and strange. Its just a question of where it fits on the spectrum. Succubus hit a sweet spot for me. Not quite softcore porn. Not quite experimental. Not quite a horror movie. Its one of those films that only he could make and make work.
Quickly, Succubus is about a mysterious and seemingly evil performer in a Marquis de Sade-inspired stage show. She is in love with a man who suspects she kills people in her sleep, after seducing them in her waking hours. Or something like that. Midgets and Satan arrive. Its a real headtrip because its so loose and surreal, even for Franco. Yet its one of the more classical, professional and naturalistic films he made. As his first film made outside of Spain and its censors, I would say it was quite personal to him and reflects his opinion on women at the time. Succubus feels like the first poetic Franco movie, something beyond a commercial job. We watch him slip into his comfort zone and throw away the rulebook and its very exciting to discover.
Watching this, it dawned on me that Franco was offering female characters to actresses and audiences that no one had seen before. His women are usually protagonists, strong, intelligent, sexual, manipulative, violent, often evil and always in control of themselves or others. This always pulled a memorable and visibly liberating performance from his starlets. Its no surprise women agreed to play in his films multiple times. And its also fun that his audience seems equally male, female, gay, straight. His films are feminist and egalitarian in that way.
Succubus laid the blueprint for Venus in Furs, Other Side of the Mirror, Nightmares Come At Night, was remade as Incubus and I'm sure it inspired Lorna The Exorcist as the main character in this film is named Lorna. But this is closer in tone to the early Orloff movies. Its more playful with narrative, more excited about playing with composition and you can feel Franco and the crew's giddiness about capturing the exploration of sex. Apparently critics didn't like it but audiences did. Its probably exploiting the success Rosemary's Baby, which came out a few months later. While that film is way scarier and appealing, you have to credit Succubus for its then-daring sensuality and surrealism. It willfully artificial and the fact that its downer ending isn't shocking is the sly point of it all. Its a study of evil in this world from a more street level.
I would rank it as one of Jess Franco's best and certainly most important. You get the scope, pacing, production value, acting caliber, emotional substance, phenomenal lighting and unique directing of the greater Franco films with more restraint and classical touches. All of his films are sexy, violent and strange. Its just a question of where it fits on the spectrum. Succubus hit a sweet spot for me. Not quite softcore porn. Not quite experimental. Not quite a horror movie. Its one of those films that only he could make and make work.
Monday, February 20, 2017
Nightmares Come At Night 1970
This isn't a popular movie but I think its one the most mature film Jess Franco ever worked on. This was the film that made me search deeper in his catalogue as it showed me there was more than just a wild stylist and undervalued technician. Nightmares Comes At Night reveals an artist with his finger on the pulse of disregarded humanity.
Its the story of a woman being abused psychically by another woman. There is no supernatural element and the lesbian relationship serves more purposes than being titillating or dramatic. While definitely having his visual stamp, Franco reigns himself in and uses a more classical and realistic approach to capturing these moments. He very clearly empathized with the core of the movie and showed as much respect for this film as he did any other. There is never a moment where camp or indulgence or cynicism creeps into the filmmaking.
The themes presented here demand a rock solid performance from everyone involved. Suicide, mental illness, manipulation, obsession, sexual agony. Things that rarely left Germany and Sweden at the time! I can't put it as high as those arthouse staples because this is film uses some carnie plot elements to keep it broad and commercial, but you must respect that Franco put so much intelligence into something that was probably sold as "psycho lesbians must die!".
The cast is also wonderful and elevate this. Colette Giacobine delivers as the hypnotic and cold antagonist/love interest of the piece. She has to be the most physically endowed Franco actress next to Alice Arno. Soledad Miranda has a minor part and shines every moment, practically begging to drive her own film. And Diana Lorys, who appeared in the original Dr Orloff, returns as the lead. She has an Elizabeth Taylor quality. Vulnerable, doughy, regal and a little melodramatic, she's perfect as the crazed and sympathetic star.
If you like your Franco with more class AND A LITTLE ASS, Nightmares is perfect.
Its the story of a woman being abused psychically by another woman. There is no supernatural element and the lesbian relationship serves more purposes than being titillating or dramatic. While definitely having his visual stamp, Franco reigns himself in and uses a more classical and realistic approach to capturing these moments. He very clearly empathized with the core of the movie and showed as much respect for this film as he did any other. There is never a moment where camp or indulgence or cynicism creeps into the filmmaking.
The themes presented here demand a rock solid performance from everyone involved. Suicide, mental illness, manipulation, obsession, sexual agony. Things that rarely left Germany and Sweden at the time! I can't put it as high as those arthouse staples because this is film uses some carnie plot elements to keep it broad and commercial, but you must respect that Franco put so much intelligence into something that was probably sold as "psycho lesbians must die!".
The cast is also wonderful and elevate this. Colette Giacobine delivers as the hypnotic and cold antagonist/love interest of the piece. She has to be the most physically endowed Franco actress next to Alice Arno. Soledad Miranda has a minor part and shines every moment, practically begging to drive her own film. And Diana Lorys, who appeared in the original Dr Orloff, returns as the lead. She has an Elizabeth Taylor quality. Vulnerable, doughy, regal and a little melodramatic, she's perfect as the crazed and sympathetic star.
If you like your Franco with more class AND A LITTLE ASS, Nightmares is perfect.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
The Hot Nights of Linda 1975
I'm falling deeper in love with Jesus Franco's 70s output. This movie is bound to become one of his most popular now that it has wide release in the West. It has everything his biggest fans adore: Gothic photography, straight and lesbian sex, beautiful actresses, a cheeky sense of humor, complex internal dramas of a psychosexual nature and continuity with other successful Jess Franco movies.
Avoid learning about the plot and just trust that its a strong one full of cruel and intense sadomasicistic sex but redeemed by a moral compass and empathy for victims of traumatic loss. The depressing characters, the cold and brutal violence, the shockingly vulgar love scenes and random LOL moments are pure magic. It could've been too much or amounted to a very dark and disturbing piece of trash, but it this is a very entertaining art film that never misses a beat.
What fueled this perfectionism in Jess is the love for lead actress Lina Romay, his future life partner. Every shot of her is so intimate and caressing and could only come from someone who knows every inch of her and all her best sides. She is quite magnetic and plays the camera like a fine instrument. Take account that she is very young here and a very green actress. Franco found his most uninhibited and seriously bizarre star in her and she matches his soul exactly.
I'll keep this short because the less said the better. Find a copy and enjoy!
Avoid learning about the plot and just trust that its a strong one full of cruel and intense sadomasicistic sex but redeemed by a moral compass and empathy for victims of traumatic loss. The depressing characters, the cold and brutal violence, the shockingly vulgar love scenes and random LOL moments are pure magic. It could've been too much or amounted to a very dark and disturbing piece of trash, but it this is a very entertaining art film that never misses a beat.
What fueled this perfectionism in Jess is the love for lead actress Lina Romay, his future life partner. Every shot of her is so intimate and caressing and could only come from someone who knows every inch of her and all her best sides. She is quite magnetic and plays the camera like a fine instrument. Take account that she is very young here and a very green actress. Franco found his most uninhibited and seriously bizarre star in her and she matches his soul exactly.
I'll keep this short because the less said the better. Find a copy and enjoy!
The Girl From Rio 1968
This is a sequel to The Million Eyes Of Sumuru by Lindsay Shonteff, one of the directors who best cashed-in of James Bond-mania at its peak. Rio stands on its own but you should check the original out.
So Franco was hired by Harry Allan Towers to shoot a sequel to his oo7 knock-off based on Sax Rohmer's Sumuru pulp villainess. Sax Rohmer wrote the original Fu Mancu stories and Franco had worked on a Fu Manchu film and would work on another (and would use the template later for Dr. Wong's Virtual Hell). Rio is not very popular with online critics, but I think its far from a bad movie, a very good display of Jess Franco in his prime and very important film in his legacy.
Ok., somethings don't work. It doesn't have much on surprises. Its low on dialogue and music, so of course Franco's casual fans will find it "boring". And it would be reworked with much more control and gusto as Blue Rita.
But so much does work. The premise has great novelty as a feminist terrorist group plot to control the world and make men their slaves. This is an exploitation of Pussy Galore's all girl assassin group in Goldfinger, which explains the presence of Shirley Eaton (who is fantastic here!). Jean-Paul Belmundo starred in a 1964 international hit called The Man From Rio and Girl From Rio does a good job casting a lookalike actor. For me personally, the cast is made complete with Maria Rohm, the future star of Venus In Furs. She has the face of a doll, the body of a goddess and she gets to do so much more in this film.
By why you should really check it out is Jess Franco's directing. He is working with a much bigger scope and budget here. Costumes, locales, a big cast of gorgeous women and decent male actors, guns and props. He is starting to find his psychedelic style here with the vibrant colors (he was fresh from shooting B&W) and he is mastering his signature zooms, pans and lingering takes. Now either you find Franco's style tedious or gripping, idiotic or ironic, childish or adsurdist, crude or economical, awkward or surreal. Some films veer into the negative classing, but Rio is closer to art than it is to trash. Thankfully its a happy mix of high and low art. P.S. This is the rare Franco movie that has a Hollywood happy ending!
From the poster and title, I thought Rio would be my cup of tea and I was not disappointed. It exceeded my expectations with all the bad-mouthing its gotten. It might alienate some because its delightfully dated and its weirdness is not so extreme as other movies. It good middle-of-the-road Franco. I would recommend it to anyone who just likes good James Bond tribute.
So Franco was hired by Harry Allan Towers to shoot a sequel to his oo7 knock-off based on Sax Rohmer's Sumuru pulp villainess. Sax Rohmer wrote the original Fu Mancu stories and Franco had worked on a Fu Manchu film and would work on another (and would use the template later for Dr. Wong's Virtual Hell). Rio is not very popular with online critics, but I think its far from a bad movie, a very good display of Jess Franco in his prime and very important film in his legacy.
Ok., somethings don't work. It doesn't have much on surprises. Its low on dialogue and music, so of course Franco's casual fans will find it "boring". And it would be reworked with much more control and gusto as Blue Rita.
But so much does work. The premise has great novelty as a feminist terrorist group plot to control the world and make men their slaves. This is an exploitation of Pussy Galore's all girl assassin group in Goldfinger, which explains the presence of Shirley Eaton (who is fantastic here!). Jean-Paul Belmundo starred in a 1964 international hit called The Man From Rio and Girl From Rio does a good job casting a lookalike actor. For me personally, the cast is made complete with Maria Rohm, the future star of Venus In Furs. She has the face of a doll, the body of a goddess and she gets to do so much more in this film.
By why you should really check it out is Jess Franco's directing. He is working with a much bigger scope and budget here. Costumes, locales, a big cast of gorgeous women and decent male actors, guns and props. He is starting to find his psychedelic style here with the vibrant colors (he was fresh from shooting B&W) and he is mastering his signature zooms, pans and lingering takes. Now either you find Franco's style tedious or gripping, idiotic or ironic, childish or adsurdist, crude or economical, awkward or surreal. Some films veer into the negative classing, but Rio is closer to art than it is to trash. Thankfully its a happy mix of high and low art. P.S. This is the rare Franco movie that has a Hollywood happy ending!
From the poster and title, I thought Rio would be my cup of tea and I was not disappointed. It exceeded my expectations with all the bad-mouthing its gotten. It might alienate some because its delightfully dated and its weirdness is not so extreme as other movies. It good middle-of-the-road Franco. I would recommend it to anyone who just likes good James Bond tribute.
Killer Barbys 1995
Well, this is my first review of 90s Franco. I was pleasantly surprised! Cheap, stupid, silly, very spooky and pretty damn entertaining.
This is one of Franco's "for hire" commercial crowd-pleasers. Not up to par with Faceless and Blood Moon, but retaining enough of the spirit. There's heavy gore and light sex (the reverse of Franco's preferences) and Jess works in his Orloff formula to create some familiarity and continuity.
The plot is setup like a slasher, Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be specific. Kids in a van run afoul of some crazy backwoods yokels in an old haunt. Was TCM a riff on Scooby Doo? We may never know. But Killer Barbys feels A LOT like Scooby Doo. Since its Franco in charge, the villains of course are a cold hearted man, his bed-ridden lover who needs flesh to survive and their demented and darkly comical henchman. They're not mad scientists this time. The bed-ridden bitch is a vampire, tying in to Franco's most famous period. Oh and she's played by Mariangela Giordano, the stunning Italian milf from the immortal "Burial Ground". She was around 57 here and looking absolutely incredible.
The Killer Barbys are a pop-punk band from Spain who I can only assume wanted to promote their name with a fun no-budget horror movie. They must be big Franco fans because someone pulled strings to get Franco work at this point in time. Euro-schlock movies were few and far between after the late 80s.
As usual, Franco makes chicken soup out of chicken shit as there is no money on the screen and the script is way more amateurish than the stuff hes usually associated with. But its a good watch. Maybe even a repeat viewer. The Barbys are likeable enough, the weirdness is there, the gore and special effects are cheesy and excessive, its typically well-shot and full of Gothic mood. And The Barbys' music ain't too bad.
A small feather in Franco's cap.
This is one of Franco's "for hire" commercial crowd-pleasers. Not up to par with Faceless and Blood Moon, but retaining enough of the spirit. There's heavy gore and light sex (the reverse of Franco's preferences) and Jess works in his Orloff formula to create some familiarity and continuity.
The plot is setup like a slasher, Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be specific. Kids in a van run afoul of some crazy backwoods yokels in an old haunt. Was TCM a riff on Scooby Doo? We may never know. But Killer Barbys feels A LOT like Scooby Doo. Since its Franco in charge, the villains of course are a cold hearted man, his bed-ridden lover who needs flesh to survive and their demented and darkly comical henchman. They're not mad scientists this time. The bed-ridden bitch is a vampire, tying in to Franco's most famous period. Oh and she's played by Mariangela Giordano, the stunning Italian milf from the immortal "Burial Ground". She was around 57 here and looking absolutely incredible.
The Killer Barbys are a pop-punk band from Spain who I can only assume wanted to promote their name with a fun no-budget horror movie. They must be big Franco fans because someone pulled strings to get Franco work at this point in time. Euro-schlock movies were few and far between after the late 80s.
As usual, Franco makes chicken soup out of chicken shit as there is no money on the screen and the script is way more amateurish than the stuff hes usually associated with. But its a good watch. Maybe even a repeat viewer. The Barbys are likeable enough, the weirdness is there, the gore and special effects are cheesy and excessive, its typically well-shot and full of Gothic mood. And The Barbys' music ain't too bad.
A small feather in Franco's cap.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Curse of Frankenstein/Erotic Rites of Frankenstein 1972
AKA Maledicion de Frankenstein
This is the weirdest Franco movie IMO. Also one of the funniest and more atmospheric. Obviously based on Creepy comics' Gothic visuals and ridiculous tone, Curse is like a fever dream a little boy would have after watching a classic Frankenstein movie. Its an acid logic retelling of Bride of Frankenstein which features some absurd and surreal moments that are too good not to share, including Dr. Frankenstein being killed and resurrected 3 times and an army of men in paper mache skull masks lurching through a foggy forest. I don't want to give away any more but this ride is fast yet moody, sweet yet violent, tasteless yet artful. One of the most definitive Jess Franco experiences.
This has to be in my Top 10 for him.
This is the weirdest Franco movie IMO. Also one of the funniest and more atmospheric. Obviously based on Creepy comics' Gothic visuals and ridiculous tone, Curse is like a fever dream a little boy would have after watching a classic Frankenstein movie. Its an acid logic retelling of Bride of Frankenstein which features some absurd and surreal moments that are too good not to share, including Dr. Frankenstein being killed and resurrected 3 times and an army of men in paper mache skull masks lurching through a foggy forest. I don't want to give away any more but this ride is fast yet moody, sweet yet violent, tasteless yet artful. One of the most definitive Jess Franco experiences.
This has to be in my Top 10 for him.
Friday, February 17, 2017
Daughter of Dracula 1972
These include: 3 Naked Women on Robinson Island, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, Dracula Contra Frankenstein, Daughter of Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Lovers of Devil's Island, A Captain of Fifteen Years, Intimate Diary of a Nymphomaniac, Dolls For Sale, How To Seduce a Virgin/ Pleasure For Three, The Other Side of the Mirror, The Perverse Countess, The Lustful Amazons, The Erotic Exploits of Maciste in Atlantis, Les Chatouilleuses, Sexy Erotic Job, Les Emmerdeuses, Celestine, Lorna the Exorcist
Daughter of Dracula was a great sleepy horror movie. Its closer to Virgin's atmospheric and emotional mystery than it is to Curse's balls-out, tongue-in-cheek experimentalism. This is for the lovers of early Bava-style giallos or the more realistic Gothic vampire tales that and Hammer was producing. Its very serious. I really want to compare it to Dark Shadows in look and feel and I expect it is a light remake of Franco's Count Dracula, which is regarded as being the most faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's vision.
There's such a sweet balance of the procedural mystery/crime drama and the supernatural thriller. It has a violent body count, lesbian sex and some of the most foreboding and suspenseful shots Franco has done, but then it shocks you with a painful love story (with Jess delivering a great little acting job as a cuckold Van Helsing character).
Its not amazing because the plot is basically Vampire 101 aka Dracula. The vast majority of Franco's scripts were cliched and thin because the man was producing almost 10 a year! But it doesn't matter with films like this where the acting, visuals and production design are all wonderful. Daughter is evocative and painlessly sucks you for its short running time.
Special shoutout to the trio of actresses who hold this together dramatically: The sullen and statuesque Britt Nichols stars in her biggest role as the vampire lead and is paired in a lesbian angle with the solid Anne Libert. A gorgeous pair with underrated acting chops. The third woman is Cochita Nunez, a fine actress with a very sad mug who adds a lot of breath to the movie and I hope she pops up again in my Franco marathon.
A Virgin Among The Living Dead 1973
Hmmm. I'm on the fence here. This was a favorite of mine, but it
doesn't live up to my first impression. Initially I found Virgin to be a
heavyweight Gothic experience and overlooked its big flaws. Its not
like the flaws spoil the mood, but I can't say its one of Franco's very
best. Still I highly recommend this, even as a starter.
The plot follows a young woman who arrives at a castle for her father's inheritance. She meets her strange extended family and the eeriness builds until she is losing her mind. I think this is Franco's first time using this plot structure and while this script is more basic than its reworkings (Daughter of Dracula has the same setup, Other Side Of The Mirror has the same climax), this is the moodiest and more bizarre of the films. Shit, I think its the best shot of the three. It has its camp and its tediousness, but it is very effective, beautiful and sexy.
It has a low ranking among horror fans because its title evokes a Romero movie with tits and Franco fans don't give it enough praise because it its plot is so minor, but I think its a minor classic. The famous title was added in 1981 as were zombie scenes shot by the great Jean Rollin.
The cast is really special. You have Franco all-stars and some great bit players that I hope return. Christina von Blanc is the lead, exquisite from head to toe and very vulnerable in her acting. Britt Nichols and Anne Libert are phenomenal as the mysterious and evil supporting actresses (the pair appear in my next two reviews btw). And we get Jess Franco as a very creepy and yet hilarious Morpho-esque manservant and Howard Vernon at his best in a more loose and unassuming villainous role.
SPOILER ALERT: The ending will make or
break the film for you and while I think it wasn't quite sold perfectly,
its still awesomely appropriate when you sit with it. Its a kinda
replay of Venus in Furs' ending, but way more logical and built up. Does
it turn the entire film into a dream? Or was the film real and she met
vampires? The film leaves you with questions, no happy ending but still
some poetic closure and a free interpretation. LOVE IT!
Well, jeez. Writing my feelings and thoughts down, I guess this is one of my favorites from Jess Franco. The camp really only adds to the spookiness and the tediousness is fairly low for a Franco film with lesbians in it. Of his films that I've seen, this is the best contribution to the EuroHorror genre and its easily comparable to the genius '72 Spanish vampire film "Blood Spattered Bride" and Jean Rollins' Gothic masterpieces. Its just so full of atmosphere and weirdness and old-school existential terror. I hope the opinion on this film changes just like mine has. But I loved it to begin with. But I gave it a fair critiquing and it still passes the test.
The plot follows a young woman who arrives at a castle for her father's inheritance. She meets her strange extended family and the eeriness builds until she is losing her mind. I think this is Franco's first time using this plot structure and while this script is more basic than its reworkings (Daughter of Dracula has the same setup, Other Side Of The Mirror has the same climax), this is the moodiest and more bizarre of the films. Shit, I think its the best shot of the three. It has its camp and its tediousness, but it is very effective, beautiful and sexy.
It has a low ranking among horror fans because its title evokes a Romero movie with tits and Franco fans don't give it enough praise because it its plot is so minor, but I think its a minor classic. The famous title was added in 1981 as were zombie scenes shot by the great Jean Rollin.
The cast is really special. You have Franco all-stars and some great bit players that I hope return. Christina von Blanc is the lead, exquisite from head to toe and very vulnerable in her acting. Britt Nichols and Anne Libert are phenomenal as the mysterious and evil supporting actresses (the pair appear in my next two reviews btw). And we get Jess Franco as a very creepy and yet hilarious Morpho-esque manservant and Howard Vernon at his best in a more loose and unassuming villainous role.
Well, jeez. Writing my feelings and thoughts down, I guess this is one of my favorites from Jess Franco. The camp really only adds to the spookiness and the tediousness is fairly low for a Franco film with lesbians in it. Of his films that I've seen, this is the best contribution to the EuroHorror genre and its easily comparable to the genius '72 Spanish vampire film "Blood Spattered Bride" and Jean Rollins' Gothic masterpieces. Its just so full of atmosphere and weirdness and old-school existential terror. I hope the opinion on this film changes just like mine has. But I loved it to begin with. But I gave it a fair critiquing and it still passes the test.
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