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Jesus Franco |
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Blindly revered by his small/numerous international legion of loyal fans, worshipped by a restricted circle of erotomaniac filmgoers, respected by followers of psychotronic cinema, esteemed by certain aficionados of the fantastique (those who don't feel that B-movies are beneath them), and, on the other hand reviled by the most refined "cinphiles"... Without any doubt, and whatever one's personal opinion may be, Jesus Franco is definitely an utterly anomalous figure, albeit an extraordinary one. Not only in terms of the history of Spanish and European Cinema, but also in the context of the last few decade's genre productions worldwide. That's the reason why is case stirs up the interest of anyone who dabbles in cinema-lore; even his detractors can't help but fell a bit curious about him, while the passion of his exegesists for both the man and his work is undeniable. Probably too, because for both groups the phenomenon seems unapproachable, even inaccessible: as one advances in the investigation he feels like the protagonists of Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup (1966); as they enlarge the photograph that should solve the mystery, the enigma becomes still more indistinct. Why does this happen specifically with the fluid and prolific Jesus Franco? For a plethora of reasons, which we can rather abruptly summarize in two main ones. First of all, the demented nature of the filmography itself, a record-breaking total of around 150 full-length features, generally co-productions made by the least recommendable producers on the planet and under a variety of pseudonyms. Secondly, the personality of Franco, an unpredictable individual and inveterate globe-trotter who from his earliest interviews has loved to lie and contradict himself, to invent and misinterpret. Doubtless there are other directors from his generation, who have been condemned, voluntarily or not, to work in B movies and who share these characteristics. How ever Franco takes both to such a delirious level, that he is completely in-comparable, and in this sense exemplary. Because of this, studying Jesus Franco's cinema, shedding light on his life and output, is very hard work, made still more uncomfortable by the fragility, in all senses of the word, of the sources and material available. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg)  Despite this, once we accept the mission, we find ourselves, without once losing our sense of astonishment, progressively drawn into a human and artistic story that has no parallel, that is literally unique in the hundred years of cinema. The effort repays itself for every restless and unorthodox cinephile, especially those partial to the least standard fantastic cinema and the most unconventional eroticism. Jesus Franco was born in Madrid on May 12, I930, the last of eleven children of the Spanish Emilio Franco, a medical colonel, and the Cuban Dolores Manera. His early child-hood was spent without any noteworthy event, aside from a passionate bent for music, to which one of his elder brothers Enrique who was to become an expert musicologist and even, from time to time, a movie-soundtrack composer initiated him in order to fulfil his artistic yearnings. Unfortunately, in 1936, Spain suffered a coup d'tat, plotted by General Francisco Franco, against the republican government legally in charge since 1931, which had, in turn, overturned a previous military regime led by General Primo de Rivera. The resulting war caused bloody nationwide devastations for three long years and the final victory of the insurrectional forces saw the rise in power of a fascism totalitarian dictatorship, whose ideology, against its own will, was to become progressively more moderate by the beginning of the 1950s, until its natural conclusion, marked by the death of the ruthless chief of state in 1975. Tenemos 18 años and Labios Rojos represent an atypical manner of conceiving comedy in the Spanish cinema of yester-years. La reina del Tabarín and Vampiresas 1930 combine these characteristics with a, no less unusual, personalization of an-other genre, the musical, arousing the interest of the French market.      The next movies of Jesus Franco originated from these innovative and individualistic conceptions too, while, at the same time, increasing his degree of ambition, both aesthetically and commercially, and embracing new genres: horror, thriller, adventure. Undoubtedly, "Franquito" considered it all a single accurate work in progress... So, this determination on Franco's part, of which he was fully conscious, brought about the birth of Spanish horror cinema, with his fifth film,Gritos en la noche (1961). This is a much bigger merit than the revolutionary innovations he had earlier brought into the field of comedy. In fact, before his arrival, the fantastique had only made sporadic appearances into the world of Spanish cinema, with primeval incursions into the realm of science-fiction El hotel elctrico (1906) by Segundo de Chomon and Madrid en el año 2000 (1924) by Manuel Noriega with detective movies who had sinister and psychopathic connotations El espectro del castllo (1920) by Aurelio Sidney and Angustia (1947) by Jos Antonio Nieves Conde with avant-garde follies Al Hollywood madrileño (1927) and El sexto sentido (1929), both by Nemesio Sobrevila and, above all, with comedies, particularly El destino se disculpa (1944) by Jos Luis Saenz de Heredia, Los habitantes de la casa deshabitada (1946) by Gonzalo Delgras, El diablo loca la flauta (1953) by José María Forqué and Tres eran tres (1954) by Eduardo G. Marotoi with a special mention to La torre de los siete jorobados ( 1944) by Edgar Neville, a masterpiece unanimously considered one of the classics of Iberian cinema.   .jpg)   Surely the author didn't take too much trouble in concealing the multiple sources he had swiped one thing or the other from: the myth of the mad scientist and that of Dr. Caligari, The Lodger(1944) by John Brahm, The Corpse Vanishes (1942) by Wallace Fox, The Dark Eyes of London (1940) by Walter Summers, The Vampire Bat (1932) by Frank Strayer, The Spiral Staircase e (1946) by Robert Siodmak, The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) by Terence Fisher, Die Nackte und der Satan (1959) by Victor Trivas, Il mulino delle donne di pietra ( 1960) by Giorgio Ferroni... and, more precisely, Les yeux sans visage ( 1960) by Georges Franju, based upon the extraordinary and terrifying tale by Jean Redon. Despite all this, Franco's unique personality wisely managed to imbue the film with an original, yet, at the same lime, full of quotations, aesthetical taste, answering, as an independent voice, lo the high world-wide success the exploitation of the gothic genre was enjoying at the lime: Roger Corman in the United States, England's Hammer productions, Italian horror... .jpg)   .jpg)  This film also marks the debut, in Franco's work, of an actor who was to become the director's symbol, the singular Howard Vernon, born in Baden, Switzerland, in 1909, for whom Gritos en la noche opened a new professional phase, in the sphere of a progressively more erotic fantasy or detective cinema. Jesus Franco's cinema found a style of its own, creating, yet more importantly, one of the few Spanish myths of fantastique, Dr. Orloff (together with the wolfman Waldemar Daninsky, created by Paul Naschy/Jacinto Molina and the Knights Templar brought to success by Amando de Ossorio). Getting back to Jesus Franco black and white horror movies: La mano de un hombre muerto (1962) and El secreto del Dr. Orloff (1964). And, what's more, they both confirm the director's ability of working with relatively experienced people, introducing to Spanish cinema Hugo Bianco, an Argentine actor born in 1937, whose face, angelic, yet, at the same lime, disturbing, is perfectly suited lo these films, portraying, in me first movie, a sadistic, psychopathic criminal and, in the second one, a cyborg dominated by his own brother. Shot with an adequate budget and with-out any drawbacks of sorts, La mano de un hombre muertos contains a few magnificent, realistic scenes, above all the horrifying murder taking place before the main titles (edited out in a few copies), whose mood anticipates the magnificent Sei donne per l'assassino (1964) by Mario Bava, and a perverted flogging in a nightmarish crypt (also edited out in many versions).      The same judgement can be applied to the thrillers of the same period, both taking place in imaginary tropical locations: La muerte silba un blues (1962) and Rififi en la ciudad (1963), Residencia para espas (1966), different in the end results although sharing the same style, which, this lime, could be defined as a sort of "Poor men's Orson Welles". Another movie, El Llanero 1963), is a western of sorts, set in Argentina, whose plot combines, without any originality, the myth of Robin Hood with the thematic of Mr. Arkadin (1955) by Welles. Interpretation of actors who were never to work for Franco again, among whom the sensual Silvia Sorrente a minor myth of that era, for her roles in the movies of José Bénazéraf and Antonio Margheriti and the disturbing Todd Martin, are equally welcomed. Inevitably, the work all the previous films of Franco aim at, and the one the phase we are now analysing culminates in, is Miss Muerte (1965). Shot with a budget higher than that of all the author's previous movies and enriched by the presence of two prestigious French professionals (the producer Serge Silberman and the screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrire, either of whom had previously worked with Buuel), this inimitable cocktail of lustful terror and detective story-science fiction, enriches the substance of Franco's film-universe, as well as anticipating one of Terence Fisher's most bizarre films, Frankenstein Created Woman (1967). His films, characterized by an evocative black and while photography especially Gritos en la noche and Miss Muerte had found their own natural public in a group of anti-conformist moviegoers the world over, giving birth to a sort of minor ""cult"" in relation to the years characterized by the contamination between horror and eroticism.      Miss Muerte was, in its totality, an indubitable turning point. So in the second part of the sixties hell oscillate between various genres, as Science Fiction, Adventure, Horror, Spy, Action, Erotic, Drama, Crime directing Cartes sur table (1966), when Constantine's stardom was coming to an end (he would still have a long career ahead of him as mostly a supporting player, until his death in 1993). If his mere presence could raise the level of this material, it would be interesting to see some of the other action films from his heyday, Lucky, el intrépido (1967), an Airplane-style, comic book-type secret agent adventure with Ray Danton (New York chiama Superdrago) (1966)] as Lucky the Inscrutable, Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden (1967), which represent the first movie Franco produced outside Spanish cinema, fdilmed in country which, from that moment onward, was to become a distinctive characteristic of his works, Portugal. The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), starring Christopher Lee in the role of Fu Manchu, who was now the utmost glory of fantastique. Lee made no effort to fake an oriental accent, probably due to the fact that he did not want a part in the sequel, The Seven Secrets of Sumuru (1969), a typical James Bond movie, then, 99 mujeres (1969), that has a relative importance because it anticipates the films of the so-called WIP (Women in Prison) genre, which Franco was to produce as years went by.      Side-by-side with Janine Reynaud, as the fearless Red Lips, we find the Argentine actress Rosanna Yanni: the two women form a formidable duo, both graceful and seductive at the same time: El caso de las dos bellezas (1969). Marquise de Sade, on the other hand, was a better inspiration source for Franco. Barely taken into consideration by filmmakers until then, this author give birth to Francos most ambitious co-operation with Towers, Marquis de Sade: Justine (1969). Die Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu (1969) was to be the final entry in the new Fu Manchu series from international quickie film financier Harry Alan Towers made its belated theatrical appearance four years after it was made. Bésame monstruo (1969), a must for anyone with a weakness for camp 60s psychedelia, it regales us with the further adventures of the Red Lips gals so again Diana (Janine Reynaud) and Regina (Rossana Yanni). Paroxismus(1969), rely on the influence of de Sade as a mere ingredient inside a complex whole and, unlike the other films of Towers-Franco association, it recalls the directors preview works. After Sex Charade (1969), Juliette (1970) (short), a little gem, Eugénie (1970), illustrates quite remarkably the obsessions Franco shares with de Sade, in a disturbing climate of fantastique while, at the same time, paying homage to the classic Dead of Night (1945). Soledad Miranda plays Eugenie; she merges and mix up, with an admirable charm, frailty and sensuality, physical grace and intimate mystery.      First time on set with Franco for Alice Arno, Les cauchemars naissent la nuit (1970), again with Soledad Miranda, who appears only in a few scenes. Il trono di fuoco (1970), a fine movie inspired to the true case of Judge Jeffreys and close to the adventure-historical genre, with a very Italian general tone. Franco had good luck with Bram Stoker too, although Count Dracula (1970), unfortunately, an imperfect work. Obviously conceived to take advantage of the worldwide success the Hammer films, this movie has the pretence of wiping out all the character previous movie-incarnation, to recapture the peculiar Victorian-gothic nature of the original novel. Acknowledgements:
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