Email your related scan
Add a rate or a review - comment
Add a link
Avg Rate (5)
Copy URL
|
|
Email your related scan Add a rate or a review - comment Add a link Avg Rate (5) Copy URL
|
|
Jesus Franco |
||
Francos filmography continues in the seventies shooting Jungfrauen-Report (1971) and Robinson und seine wilden Sklavinnen (1972), nothing more than two inferior pieces of work absolutely devoid of any personality whatsoever, each one of them following a specific trend of that times German cinema: the first one belongs to the sexual investigation genre, brought to success by several filmmakers such as Ernst Hofbauer and Walter Boos; the other one belongs to the erotic comedy sub-genre with soft-core overtones. Next work was Der Teufel kam aus Akasava (1971), filmed between June 21 and July 17 and reunited once again Williams, Tappert, Miranda and Strmberg, for a krimi, although mixed-up with another, no less agonozing, genre The Latin-style pseudo-Bond and based upon the model of the classic Kiss Me Deadly (1955) by Robert Aldrich. Until the day Vampyros lesbos (1971) comes. Filmed in Istambul, Alicante, Berlin and Barcelona, between April 27 and May 30, 1970. The female version of the story of Dracula, it gives the impression of having been produced into a state of trance and in spite of any attempts at self critics: the images include all the authors passions and obsessions, without any justifications whatsoever, both in their narrative form and contents. An almost perfect example of cinema for its own sake, its own credibility and coherence bestow upon it, both internally and externally, a veritable oneiric dimension, as if it were a pleasure, yet, at the same time, abstract one, where symbols co-exist with reality in an austere, yet, at the same time, sophisticated scenario. Probably, despite itself, this particular film also includes a crepuscular message, concerning the ambiguous end of a decadent aristocracy, represented by the female vampire, destined to be replaced by a pseudo-liberal middle-class, symbolized by the female visitor...     Another equally entertaining movie is X312 - Flug zur Hlle (1971), confirming Francos penchant for incontaminate, more or less tropical, settings, featuring a few unusual, for his filmography, main characters: Thomas Hunt, Esperanza Roy, Fernando Sancho, Gila von Weitershausen. In Sie ttete in Ekstase(1971), for Francos pleasure, Soledad Miranda gave life, once again, to a lesbian relationship, re-proposing the same couple featured in Vampyros lesbos (1971). The movie also features two not-quite handsome German actors, Fred Williams and Horst Tappert, famous at the time, for his appearances in several movies of a typically German genre called krimi (that is, the adaptions of the novels written by Edgar Wallace) who would later become an international TV celebrity playing the role of the famous inspector Derrick, while the rest of the cast is not even worthy to be mentioned. On August 18, 1970, Soledad Miranda was killed, on the highway to Lisbon, in a car accident. Visible shaken by the death of his muse Franco, maybe willingly or instinctively, set-out to revive Soledad Miranda, making her immortal through several actress looking a bit like her. Un Silencio de tumba (1972) was a disappointing and was released only after several delay, with no success whatsoever. The plot tells about the famous actress Annette, who invites a heterogeneous group of persons to her house, located on a small island, where her mentally-disturbed sister, Valerie, lives with her own household staff. Soon after their arrival, the guests start being murdered, but they can neither leave the island nor communicate with the outside world. La fille de Dracula (1972) is based upon a subject re-elaborating and hinting at the myth of Carmilla, created by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, with his homonym, extraordinary novel. The commissioner Ptuschko inquires into the strange murders of several women, committed in the neighbourhood. All suspect fall on the Karlstein family, which it is rumoured to have fallen under the curse of the legendary Count Dracula.      Anne Libert is splendid in the role of the blind and cannibalistic bird-woman of the exaggeratedly baroque Expriences rotiques de Frankenstein (1972), bound to her master Cagliostro (one of the most legendary figures in the occult field, whichFranco chose to represent with the singular physique of Vernon) by a relationship similar to that shared by Morpho and Orloff in Gritos en la noche (1961). The Spanish version contains additional scenes featuring Lina Romay as a gypsy and omits all of the outrageous nudity which is so essential to Franco's aesthetic (or anti-aesthetic). Franco shot two French produced back-to-back movies in wonderful Alicante, Le journal intime d'une nymphomane (1972) and Les Ebranles (1972). Two examples of the purest soft-core genre, their final outcome is, curiously, antithetical. The first is a big detective-erotic melodrama, on the contrary, the second an unintentional erotic parody. Les demons (1972) was the first Franco authored with the assumed name Clifford Brown (as a homage to the homonym black trumpet player). Mixing I lunghi capelli della morte (1965) by Antonio Margheriti and The Devils(1971) by Ken Russell.      After Soledad Miranda death, Jesus Franco got slowly over this tragedy, while continuing to work for Brauner, with Mannchen still in charge of production. The first movie of this period of transition was El muerto hace las maletas (1972), a krimi film starring Elisa Monts (sister of Tarele Pavez featured in Tenemos 18 años and Vampiresas 1930, naturally in place of Miranda. The film adapts a novel of Edgar Wallace, which had already inspired Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer (1962) by Werner Klinger, and it was shot in several Spanish smuggled as London. The most interesting and representative movie of vampiric cycle is, undoubtedly, Drácula contra Frankenstein (1972), at first sight a monster gallery paying homage to the Universals House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945), both by Erle C. Kenton, while it is, in truth, a coherent and abstract esoteric-operatic re-visitation of these film, as serious as it is delirious. A modest result was .jpg)     Lina Romay made her debut as a true movie star in Les avaleuses (1973), filmed in Madeira and featuring Francos esoteric doctrines interspersed with psychological elements, inserting art et essai ambitions in a typical soft-core context. The locations of Eurocins Kiss Me Killer(1974) are gorgeous; a dope smuggler survives a shoot-out with the police and, shortly thereafter, he marries the wife of one of his accomplices, tricking her into believing her former husband is dead. A few years later, hidden behind a new identity. Alice Arno and miss Romay are sure a lot of fun to look at, but when eroticism interfere with the storyline and slows it, it's a bit annoying. Two Sadeian movies, back-to-back filmed, soft-core type, Plaisir trois (1974) and La Comtesse perverse (1974), a bloody, erotic female version of The Most Dangerous Game (1932) by Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack. In Quartier de femmes (1974) the filmmaker say goodbye to the fantastique to propose his second WIP movie, before to shot Célestine, bonne tout faire (1974). The parenthesis represented by the family-movie      Le marque de Zorro (1975) was a classic remake, and in Frauengefngnis (1975) a girl called Maria kills her own father, who was forcing her, against her will, to have sexual intercourses with him. Sentenced to life imprisonment, she is sent to a penitentiary governed by Zarah, a lesbian with sadomasochistic tastes. Everything about Downtown - Die nackten Puppen der Unterwelt(1975), where a modest private eye, Al Pereira, is hired by the gorgeous Cynthia, with the task of recovering a set of photos which could frame her husband, the night-club owner and well-known Mafia member Tefeiro. The inquires into the matter have just barely begun, when Tefeiros murdered body is found and all clues fall on Pereira. Shirley, the main character of Des Diamants Pour L'Enfer (1975), gives herself up to the police after having murdered her lover, a thief who, aided by his late accomplices. Had stolen a large quantity of diamonds. After the trial, Shirley is sentenced to a prison governed by the sadistic army officer Vries. In Les Jouisseur (1975) Olivier Mathot plays a moustached bandit, and Lina Romay is, again, the seductress. So a young, down and out nobleman marries a rich heiress unaware of the fact that all of her wealth comes from pornography. When he discovers the truth he finds out he can no longer have any sexual intercourse with his wife, who is then forced to look for all types of lovers. Les nuits brlantes de Linda (1975) and Les Chatouilleuses (1975) re-proposes Paul Muller as the ineffable Fred Williams, also marking the directors reconciliation with De Nesle. All first five years of the seventies round, Franco will represent the rebellion and the transgression in the Spanish and European cinema, mission that he will keep on strengthening in the following five-years period too. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Acknowledgements:
|