Jess Franco (Jesús Franco Manera) divides his audience. At his best, his camera seems to capture more of the world, of life, with unique moments, expressions and sensations, than any other film-maker I can think of. But it would be a lie to say that he was always at his best and when his films don't work, it becomes easy for his critics to descend upon him as if he had no talent at all. As an admirer of so much, but not all, of his work, I am perhaps inclined to see the best in him; that ability to leave the camera resting on boats in a harbour just as much as the actual subject of the film makes me see him more as a relentless painter of images than a storyteller (he often remakes the same few classic stories with variations).
The films of his that I return to most frequently are those made at the tail end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies; especially those starring Soledad Miranda (Soledad Rendón Bueno). She was already experienced and had worked on a number of films before meeting Franco. Other film-makers had cast her in supporting roles but Franco saw that she was a star. He saw that she had a depth and a quality that shone through moments where nothing else was happening and he captured that quality in every film. You look at her and you see her thoughts, her feelings, her passion. It is not necessary to hear the dialogue (which is usually dubbed into the language of whoever was paying for the film) because we see her so well.
Her death, in 1970 at the age of 27, was a tremendous loss to the cinema and it is her films with Franco upon which her fame now rests. He saw in her what other film-makers might never have seen. Had she gone on and made numerous international films she would have been a featured pretty girl. In Franco's films she is something much much more.
Franco's work is definitely not for everyone; it would be interesting to see how a film as strange and beautiful as 'Eugenie' would play on a double bill with some Marvel film.
Contents
0:00 - She Killed in Ecstasy
0:18 - Vampyros Lesbos
1:01 - Eugenie
Music: Sweetly My Heart by Asher Fulero
#soledadmiranda #jessfranco #horror #spanishcinema #auteurs #eroticfilms #70scinema
28 июл 2024
