Oct '17
Watched Jess Franco's classic A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) a few nights back. The weird and wonderful tale of Christina, who returns home to her family at Monserrat Mansion after a long absence, to hear the reading of her father's will. Stopping at an inn on a stretch of dismal coastline (in fairness I suspect it may be nicer in season), she is mysteriously told that no one lives at Monserrat Mansion, but by the by she is summoned. A coach ride full of obscure musing brings her, and it sure does seem like there are a few of her family living there.But everyone is off from the start, and rapidly gets offer and offer. Sex and death, dreams and ghosts! These are dangerous times, and what will become of Christina?
In honesty, this is a classic in relative terms. It takes first an appreciation of the weirder end of European erotic horror in the 1970's, and then of Franco and his somewhat unique style. It's Franco through and through, full of dramatic zooms, intense close ups, out of focus shots and eccentric compositions. But it also has a most compelling drive, regard for coherent plot and character is lax throughout and I wouldn't exactly call it tight but the plot really barrels along. It isn't too difficult to grasp as a whole (there's a clue in the title!) and each scene feeds into the next in a quite linear and satisfying fashion. There's an effective, genuine weirdness to it all, not just in the idiosyncratic execution, it could have been made by any old conventional hack and still been pretty weird. The weirdness of the substance and the weirdness of the style complement and entwine, enriching each other.
Of course there are some joys direct from the style, lyrical images that seem at times to spring straight from the mind to the screen, pure, unbound or tainted by plot, character, sanity or anything else. Franco's penchant for sleaze is present too, but in service of the film rather than overwhelming it. Fair bit of nudity, bit of nastiness, but pretty restrained by his post 60's standards. The women are gorgeous, Franco regular Howard Vernon is his usual good creepy self and there's a great, weird score (includes electronic bird noises in one scene) from Bruno Nicolai. This is obviously for pretty select audiences, but if you have any interest in the field and haven't given it a go yet, you really really should.
In honesty, this is a classic in relative terms. It takes first an appreciation of the weirder end of European erotic horror in the 1970's, and then of Franco and his somewhat unique style. It's Franco through and through, full of dramatic zooms, intense close ups, out of focus shots and eccentric compositions. But it also has a most compelling drive, regard for coherent plot and character is lax throughout and I wouldn't exactly call it tight but the plot really barrels along. It isn't too difficult to grasp as a whole (there's a clue in the title!) and each scene feeds into the next in a quite linear and satisfying fashion. There's an effective, genuine weirdness to it all, not just in the idiosyncratic execution, it could have been made by any old conventional hack and still been pretty weird. The weirdness of the substance and the weirdness of the style complement and entwine, enriching each other.
Of course there are some joys direct from the style, lyrical images that seem at times to spring straight from the mind to the screen, pure, unbound or tainted by plot, character, sanity or anything else. Franco's penchant for sleaze is present too, but in service of the film rather than overwhelming it. Fair bit of nudity, bit of nastiness, but pretty restrained by his post 60's standards. The women are gorgeous, Franco regular Howard Vernon is his usual good creepy self and there's a great, weird score (includes electronic bird noises in one scene) from Bruno Nicolai. This is obviously for pretty select audiences, but if you have any interest in the field and haven't given it a go yet, you really really should.
