07 March, 2009

LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ON THIS DVD




I'm looking for some information on this "alternate" version of Jess Franco's DAS BILDNIS DER DORIANA GRAY (1976). Is this the non-hardcore version? If anyone has seen or owns this DVD please reply in the comment area. If anyone has a copy of this PAL ABCDVD and is willing to trade a copy please contact me. Thanks.



7 comments:

scott said...

what a dream this would be? The porn inserts pretty much reduce the movie in my opinion. sucks to say that... I am guessing it's a cut version of the xxx that just stops short of being full on porn etc. I'd love to be proven wrong.

Robert Monell said...

That's possible, but according to the producer and Franco a soft version was made.

scott said...

In that case, I'm sure it's much much better than the more widely available version.
LA COMTESSE PERVERSE is another one made bad by all the inserts.

Robert Monell said...

COMTESSE PERVERSE is another one made bad by all the inserts

Yeah, as is THE PERVERSE COUNTESS and AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO wrecked by the XXX inserts in the alternates versions. All three of these were made in 1973 when hardcore was a big deal so the producers really exploited the orginals.

Hannes said...

Hello,

I don't own the DVD, but according to the german movie-mag "Splatting Image" #53, in this version, about 6 min. of "near-hardcore" sequences were cut (running time 69min). Nevertheless, the picture quality is said to be very good. (I assume it's based on the same master as the uncut VIP version).
The DVD on the Online Film Database: http://www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=fassung&fid=13264&vid=109102

Regards from Austria!

Anonymous said...

I just re-watched this DVD so here's what I can tell; ABC DVD runs 69 minutes 19 seconds and has 1.75:1 anamorphic widescreen picture. German language only.

I can't compare different versions since this is the only one I have seen so far but there is no heterosexual hardcore. The scene with Lina giving a blowjob doesn't show anything, only Lina from behind, slighly moving his head, before camera moves away. Other heterosexual scenes show clothes taken off, touching breasts, kissing feets etc. but no actual sex, hardcore or even sofcore; the bearded man just doesn't penetrate any of the women in any scene. Lesbian scenes are quite different; camera zooms to women's pussies countless times and especialy Romay is fingering herself constanly. In close-ups. All the time.

The strange thing is the way the film ends; in the final scene Lina is in the pool below water (sleeping? dead? I can't tell) and the film just ends. No fade-out, no end title card, just like that. It's very, very abrupt. I was left wondering what was that about.

I ordered the dvd from Kult Video about a year ago and they still have it on sale. It's listed as being 4:3 but as I said, it's actually 16:9 widescreen and superb remastering job even by Dietrich's standards.

dfordoom said...

Doriana Gray is one of my favourite Franco movies, even with the hardcore scenes. I agree they aren't really necessary, but I think it's still a wonderfully bizarre and provocative movie. It would be interesting to know if there are any other changes in this version, other than the deletion of the hardcore scenes.

I was just grateful to get hold of any version of this film - it's become very difficult to find.