Jesus (Jess) Franco RIP

[acrow]

Died two days ago.

Made some absolutely shocking films.

He was a great man.

RIP

[madhair60]

TITS

[acrow]

yes.

[VegaLA]

To be honest considering his lifestyle he hung in there, and Lina Romay died only a year or two back.

Cack! I just got hold of some Movie posters, 5800 of them and they had some nice Jesus Franco gems throughout. First chance I get I think some Fu Manchu is in order.

Farewell Jess.

[Jake Thingray]

Here's my take on Uncle Jess, from today's Independent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jesus-franco-director-whose-trash-aesthetic-brought-him-cult-fame-8614499.html

[Famous Mortimer]

Obviously, my favourite film of his is 1977's "Swedish Nympho Slaves" (even though I've never seen it).

He did the actually pretty brilliant "Virgin Among The Living Dead". The original British VHS release was insane - firstly, they cut out as much of the nudity as possible by just blacking out the portions of the screen with nude people in, which left a couple of scenes, where the only visible thing was a blue glass phallus, extremely confusing. At some point they realised they'd cut so much of it out that it was too short, so he got his mate in 1980, filming (I think) "Zombie Lake", to shoot a few new scenes of a woman who looked a bit like the star being chased by zombies, to splice in.

My friends and I loved it and watched it all the time, until we got the DVD of the uncut-ish version many years later. Surprise surprise, there was a tense horror film, much better than it had any right to be, hidden underneath it all.

[billtheburger]

Senor Franco always ran out of money, which is a massive shame. Contrary to the Independent saying it was a Hitchcockianesque appearance in his films, it's actually due to the lack of funding why he appears in many of them (many times as the rapist or general perv).

You see flashes of cinematic genius. I especially believe the dance / striptease scenes in Succubus & Vampyros Lesbos are fantastically shot films.

And then there is the pure cheek of  El ojete de Lulú where Lina Romay sticks an Oscar up her flue & arse in what has to be film's greatest criticism.

Even though his films are always degraded by the masses, I'll always hold praise for the sheer fucked up styles and stories he has brought to my eyes.

[Jake Thingray]

Contrary to the Independent saying it was a Hitchcockianesque appearance in his films, it's actually due to the lack of funding why he appears in many of them.

I mentioned Hitchcock only to get across that it was a director making a fleeting appearance in his own work; he was hardly in the Fu Manchus, Venus In Furs, or the much lower budgeted 
Les Avaleuses/Female Vampire very much.

[billtheburger]

I mentioned Hitchcock only to get across that it was a director making a fleeting appearance in his own work; he was hardly in the Fu Manchus, Venus In Furs, or the much lower budgeted 
Les Avaleuses/Female Vampire very much.

Woah, hang on.
When you said, "this is my take", you mean you actually wrote the whole article? How did you bag that?
Hold your head up high, and ignore the opinions & rants of us internetians on your paid work. You are correct to call me out on it.
I was actually singing my praise for Franco rather than criticising your piece. The more articles that are wrote and spread about these underground, counterculture, artists the better.

If I recall correctly, he does pop up in Venus in Furs (a personal favorite + it includes Kinski) as an assaulter and one of the band. Feel free to correct my feeble memory.

[Jake Thingray]

I've been doing obits for the broadsheets, on showbiz people, since 2001, the link under my username, avatar etc. is to my Journalisted profile. Most of my hackery has been on actors, but have always had a soft spot for Jessie, as a daft member of the audience kept calling him when I met him at the Everyman in Hampstead in 1996. He did indeed say "fantastic!" quite a lot, that time.

Yes, he was one of the band, alongside Manfred Mann, in Venus in Furs. The odd thing is, a chum of mine, who has absolutely no Spanish in him, being a self-styled 'local yokel' from Oxfordshire, really does look rather like Franco, same small stature, moustache and shape of head. When Female Vampire was to be shown in C4 in 2000-odd, after the (on You Tube) profile Eurotika!,, "The Diabolical Mr. Franco", I told Dennis he must on no account miss it. Next time we met, he said seeing someone looking rather like him, with a dubbed voice saying "He was bitten in the middle of an orgasm! And the vampire sucked his semen and his life away!", was quite an experience.