Jess Franco - the good, the bad, the just plain bannanas in Men Behind the Monsters Forum

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Jess Franco - the good, the bad, the just plain bannanas

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Gojira

Jess Franco - the good, the bad, the just plain bannanas

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Jan 28 12 8:03 PM

I have this strange urge to pick up all of Franco's horrors (well, not the DTV ones, I do have some principles!). The interviews alone are hilarious - a chainsmoking Franco, subtitled even when speaking in english, bitching endlessly about how his leading ladies (Lina Romay excepted!) were stupid and could never understand him, and how awful and terrible everyone else's horrors are! (he badmouths George Romero frequently). Franco does have some excellent films to his name (VENUS IN FURS, EUGENIE) and he certainly excels at atmosphere, but his vanity seems to cause him to turn everything into a wacky arthouse mess, and sometimes the final result is dreadful. DEVIL HUNTER is probably the only King Kong rip off you'll see where instead of a gorilla, you get a naked black man with ping-pong ball eyes

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PhantomXCI

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Jan 28 12 9:01 PM

Franco was a halfway decent filmmaker during the '60s. His films for Harry Alan Towers are all watchable (even the really bad ones). His early '70s films for Artur Brauner are weird, but artistic. However, sometime around 1971/72, Franco decided that he could shoot a film without a script, just make it up as he went along, and his work forever went right down the crapper. Of course, there are those who feel that his "no dialogue" films are great works of art...

Gojira

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Jan 28 12 10:52 PM

Funny how his talent decline seems to hit the second he meets Lina Romay...mind you, I'm sure I'd be indulgent if I got to direct a film with her (or a couple of hundred).

Michael Elliott

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Jan 29 12 5:35 PM

To date I've seen 122 Franco films (plus around 7 "alternate versions) and I must say that his 60s period is the weakest for me (other than the horrid One Shot films from the past decade or so). The 70s and 80s contain some horrible movies but they're Franco movies with his own stamp on them. The problem I have with the stuff from the 60s is that they're pretty much rips of "other" popular movies and I've yet to see one that was actually better than the film he was cashing in on.

Here's a list of what I've seen:

http://www.hometheaterfor...jess-franco#post_2812369

evilskippy

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Jan 29 12 7:54 PM

A few of the ones that I've found to have something of value in them (your mileage may vary):
AWFUL DR ORLOF
DR ORLOFF'S MONSTER
DIABOLICAL DR Z
ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS
VENUS IN FURS
SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS
FACELESS
COUNT DRACULA
DRACULA PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN
A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD

"The world's going to change tonight, doctor, I'm glad you'll be able to watch it. And... happy Halloween."

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wowserbiter

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Jan 19 13 10:06 PM

watch an uncut version of DIABOLICAL DR Z, then compare that to great design-oriented poster artists and comics-guys like Steranko from around '66 to '71.

mrbluesky

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Feb 3 13 4:16 AM

Franco never really worked toward the same end that everyone else did.

He has followed his own voyeuristic star and it has taken him into dark,

unusual territory. If judged by normal standards his work often makes

no sense. These films inhabit a fetishistic dream-world where everyday

rules do not apply. Vampyros Lesbos and Sadomania are cinematic

masterpieces which resonate in a unique way to a small but not

unintelligent, if somewhat perverse audience.

JBS

Gojira

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Feb 3 13 4:13 PM

Sadomania is a bit on the crude side for me, I've not yet seen Vampyros Lesbos. I'm actually a big fan of Dracula, Prisoner Of Frankenstein, which is like Dreyer's Vampyr on acid.

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Jess Franco - the good, the bad, the just plain bannanas

Jess Franco - the good, the bad, the just plain bannanas