Good ol’ Jess is one strange director who has done 160 films so far (according to imdb) and I guess he’s still working on films. I think I’ve seen only 10 of his films or less but I think I’ve seen mainly the better ones. Mostly his films are exploitation but Franco is such a artistic director which makes 'em in a way more interesting but also kinda strange mixture of commercial exploitation and serious film making.
My favorites so far:
Venus in Furs
Marquis de Sade’s Justine
Love letters of a Portugese nun
I’m very eager to see his Count Dracula with Cristopher Lee and Klaus Kinski. Anyone seen it?
I have also only seen about 10 of Franco’s films, some with beautiful Soledad Miranda for example. But I like them a lot, great photography, music and atmosphere. Films to watch late at night.
The golden era for Jess Franco apparently was late 60s/ early 70s. That was when he made his best films. Apart from that he has made mostly very weird and stupid films I’ve heard.
Yeah. At least he follows the golden movie rule: When it’s shit, throw in blood and tits. I haven’t seen a whole lot of his stuff, but so far I like Virgin Among the Living Dead best. Very surreal stuff. Just don’t watch it sobre.
Some of his films are really well made, beautiful and with a strange feeling. There are also some very beautiful women and great music in his best films.
But he really seems to be a weird character himself and most of his films apparently have nothing in common with the few good films he has made.
Well, some that I think are good are “Vampyros Lesbos” with Soledad Miranda, “Venus in Furs”, “Eugenie, the story of her journey into perversion”, “Love letters of a portugese nun”.
[quote=“Silvanito, post:8, topic:579”]Well, some that I think are good are “Vampyros Lesbos” with Soledad Miranda, “Venus in Furs”, “Eugenie, the story of her journey into perversion”, “Love letters of a portugese nun”.[/quote]I agree with Silvanito, Eugenie de Sade and She Killed in Ecstasy are quite good too.
Venus in Furs might not be for everyones taste though. It’s a very strange, almost surreal film.
Jess Franco is one among my favourite directors. I have over 50 DVD’s with the maniac.
But to be honest about half of his movies is crap and the second half is great.
All is late movies get right down in the garbage can, totally shit!
But when I put Venus in furs, She killed in extasy, The girl from Rio etc in the recorder, a big smile appears in my face.
Franco when it’s the best.
[quote=“Hellbender, post:15, topic:579”]Jess Franco is one among my favourite directors. I have over 50 DVD’s with the maniac.
But to be honest about half of his movies is crap and the second half is great.
All is late movies get right down in the garbage can, totally shit!
But when I put Venus in furs, She killed in extasy, The girl from Rio etc in the recorder, a big smile appears in my face.
Franco when it’s the best.[/quote]
I also have over 50 of Franco’s films on DVD. He’s quite an interesting director. His best by far, in my opinion, is The Diabolical Dr. Z (aka Miss Muerte/1966.) An amazing film. And, yes, his Ilsa film (Ilsa, the Wicked Warden, aka Wanda, the Wicked Warden) is excellent, too. Lina Romay is awesome in it. Hey! I just realized that Lina, circa 1973-74, would have made a great spaghetti western babe! That’s something I would have liked to have seen…
Watching Mondo Cannibale right now. Booooring. And very bad, even for a cannibal movie. I think I’ve only seen 4 or 5 of Franco’s movies, but so far it’s the worst I’ve encountered.
I’m not sure I know what you mean by that, but judging from the liitle that I’ve seen he is able to create atmospheric movies. For instance Virgin Among the Living Dead and Demoniac. I also recently bought a dvd that contains his Fu Manchu movies, but I haven’t watched them thoroughly yet. One og them I watched in pretty wasted condition, and it went own pretty well. As for Mondo Cannibale, no amount of alcohol can save that movie. Worst cannibal movie I’ve seen so far. gave me the shakes, and I don’t mean in a good way. Horrible. But I respect the guy and I’ll cut him some slack. When you direct 200 movies (or something like that) you’re bound to produce some turds, right?
Oh, I love the guy, too. What I mean is that he’s accused of being a very boring director a lot of the time. He certainly likes long takes that don’t (seem) to have any purpose in many of his films. Certainly he has made exciting movies (The Diabolical Dr. Z/aka Miss Muerte is extremely exciting and, personally, my favorite of his films.) I suppose I was just making a generalized statement.
