“You are like some mysterious, compelling character from the pages of a fairy tale.”

This may be my last post for a little while. Fittingly, it feels like the end of a chapter. My review of Lorna . . . The Exorcist can be found here.

“We must know evil to be able to fight it.”

As stated elsewhere, my first exposure to Franco’s cinema came in the mid-nineties, when Redemption Films released a slew of key titles on VHS. Sadly, the UK was subject to severe censorship during this period and a number of those releases – A Virgin Among the Living Dead and Female Vampire, to name but two – suffered cuts as a result. Worse still, two films – namely, Demoniac and Sadomania – were banned outright. I’m working on a review of the former – better known as Exorcism these days – at the moment. In the meantime, my long overdue introductory essay can be found here.

Updated to add that the review of Exorcism can be found here.

“Only love can save us from boredom and numbness.”

 My review of 1972’s brilliant, albeit bleak, Sinner can be found here.

“I am a shadow among the shadows.”

Franco directed approximately 30 films between 1971 and 1974, the overwhelming majority of which were funded in whole or in part with French money. This is the period in which he worked extensively for Robert De Nesle, in which he renewed his working relationship with Marius Lesoeur of Eurocine.

I will be covering this period with three essays, which will breakdown as follows:

‘Christina on the other side of the mirror ’ will deal with A Virgin Among the Living Dead and The Other Side of the Mirror.

‘Robert De Nesle and The Monsters from Hell’ will deal with Dracula Contra Frankenstein, The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein and La Fille de Dracula.

‘La Comtesse Romay’’ will look at Plaisir a Trois, La Comtesse Perverse, La Comtesse Noire, Lorna the Exorcist and probably Exorcism.

I may supplement these with reviews of individuals films which do not sit easily within these groups, such as The Demons and Sinner, perhaps even The Lovers of Devil’s Island.

I’m afraid life has got in the way of late and my essay on the films Franco made with Soledad Miranda is taking much longer than expected. In the meantime, I’ve uploaded old reviews of two adult movies from 1981, Svetlana’s Bad Girls and Roberta Findlay’s The Tiffany Minx.

Updated to add ‘The Million Eyes of Soledad’ can now be found here.

“Films are outmoded, don’t you agree?”

My first exposure to Jess Franco’s cinema came in 1993, when Succubus appeared as part of Redemption’s initial tranche of VHS releases in the UK. It would be disingenuous to say I remember my response to that first viewing, but I think there was a degree of bewilderment, perhaps even disappointment, and this may have been in part due to the film’s failure to deliver on the promises of its box art. How naive I was. It’s probably also fair to say I lacked the patience – or at least the experience – to cope with its ambiguities, its extended dream sequences and elliptical structure. Click here to find out to what extent that has changed.

“There are thorns everywhere,
but along the path to vice roses bloom above them.”

I have not forgotten about this blog and hope to have another essay up in the next week or two. I’m about two-thirds of the way through a piece on the films Franco made with Harry Alan Towers.

Edited to add, the article is now ready and can be found here.

I broke down and watched The Awful Dr. Orlof  for the first time in at least 15 years last night, and I have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit. Yes, it does seem a little old fashioned at times (it is well over fifty years old), and it’s pretty mind-boggling to think that Franco would make A Virgin Among The Living Dead within ten years, but it’s historically significant, beautiful to look at and the obvious starting point for my project. So, the plan as it stands is to work chronologically and write a series of essays based on the key periods and relationships (I appreciate many of the films were co-productions). I envisage them breaking down as follows. Note, what follows is not a comprehensive list of the films produced during the respective phases, it’s simply the ones I intend to refer to.

Eurocine in the Sixties

The Awful R. Orlof (1962)
The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus (1962)
Dr Orlof’s Monster (1964)

With Harry Alan Towers

Justine (1968)
99 Women (1969)
Venus in Furs (1969)
Eugenie, the story of her journey into perversion (1970)
Count Dracula (1970)

Although it’s not a Towers production, I might also address Necronomicon / Succubus here, given it is a key film and fits more naturally with this group than any other.

Starring Soledad Miranda

The Devil came from Akasava (1970)
Eugenie DeSade (1970)
Vampyros Lesbos (1970)
She Killed in Ecstasy (1970)

For Robert De Nesle
The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1972)
The Demons (1972)
Plaisir a trois (1973)
La Comtesse Perverse (1974)
Lorna the Exorcist (1974)

Eurocine in the seventies

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1971)
Female Vampire / La Comtesse Noir (1973)
Exorcism (1974)
The Hot Nights of Linda (1975)

For Erwin C Dietrich

Barbed Wire Dolls (1976)
Doriana Gray (1976)
Blue Rita (1977)
Greta the Mad Butcher / Wanda the Wicked Warden (1977)

Golden Films

Macumba Sexual (1983)
Sexual Story of O (1984)
The Night has a Thousand Desires (1984)

Later works

Killer Barbies (1996)
Tender Flesh (1997)
Marie Cookie and the Killer Tarantula (1998)
Vampire Blues (1999)

As we’ve seen, a number of key films fall outside of these groupings – in addition to Succubus, I’m thinking of Bloody Moon and Faceless so I will either incorporate them into the relevant timeframe or write individual reviews.

Totally unrelated, I revisited The Opening of Misty Beethoven recently, and my thoughts can be found here.