Maria Rohm, Rosalba Neri, Luciana Paluzzi and Elisa Montés star as Marie, Zoe, Natalie and Helga... A few of the 99 women imprisoned at Castillo de la Muerte. They are there to be punished for their crimes and for them, there is no room for mercy or compassion. This is a place of correction and retribution, a retribution best carried out by governess Thelma Diaz as played by Mercedes McCambridge. A woman carrying her own private evil but who believes that it is her convenient duty to hurt those who have hurt society. Nothing she does to the young women placed under her correction is undeserved. I shan't go into detail here on RU-vid as this video veers considerably from the narrative. Suffice to say you can only push women like this so far before they start to fight back against the system.
A collaboration between writer/producer, Harry Alan Towers and director Jess Franco, '99 Women' isn't a happy movie. Some detractors might suggest that he pleasure of such a movie comes from the sadistic impulses of the viewer. I find he opposite to be the case. Even in a film which is openly exploitation, it is our sympathies which are engaged, our sense of compassion. We root for the heroines of this film struggling to endure the worst of circumstances. We don't have macho men eating eggs or getting into fisticuffs to prove how tough they are. With these women, we feel that to stay alive and not be destroyed when the world is bigger and stronger than you is quite tough enough. Their physical vulnerability makes their struggle that much more profound.
None of which is to pretend that this is a film which isn't pure exploitation of the most sensationalistic kind. This is the nature of cinema. With this genre, the pearl clutching can reach epic proportions (they love to mention the male gaze as if somehow the cinema could be about anything other than gazing). It doesn't follow the rules of 'good taste' (the chief enemy, according to Picasso, of all creativity). '99 Women' gleefully avoids the pitfall of attempting 'realism'. I have never been to prison but those I know who have been describe it as mostly oppressive, depressing and boring. I very much doubt that many would go to see a film that described itself along those lines so even those making movies that go for a sense realism know that they can't make a film which shows prison as it is and still attract a paying audience. Franco, in gleefully abandoning realism, makes a film that exploits and goes into areas of bad taste but which is never boring. Most of the actresses have beautifully coiffured hair and full make up under the occasional scratch or swiftly applied dirt and many will smirk at this unreality but would they have paid to see a film where the actresses had the grey and slightly deadened expression suited that such a situation would lead to? Franco engages the themes of feeling and being powerless and yet manages to make a film that many might feel guilty for enjoying but it is an enjoyable film because, amidst that struggle and amidst the exploitation he injects moments of surreal beauty and strangeness. Moments that remind us how great it is not to be confined for the next three years of our lives to the castle of death.
Contents
0:00 - Arrival at Castillo de la Muerte
0:12 - From now on, you have no name
0:38 - The despair of lost women
0:51 - Intimacy
1:40 - Punishment and Torment
2:05 - Escape
2:42 - The Jungle
3:10 - Empty Cells and Memories
3:31 - Cleaning away the pain
4:09 - You can't stop me
4:38 - The Beauty of Freedom
Music: Infinite Perspective by Kevin MacLeod
Infinite Perspective by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
#womeninprison #jessfranco #harryalantowers #mariarohm #rosalbaneri #99women #melodrama # ElisaMontés #LucianaPaluzzi
10 июл 2024
