At 77 years young he is still making [digital] films which sometimes continue to surprise and delight with his iconoclastic vision. I want to personally thank Jess Franco for the compelling oeuvre he has created over the last 50 years and hope he takes a well deserved rest on his 77th birthday [but I doubt that he will]. He still has numerous surprises and projects up his sleeve!
I'll be rotating some images of our favorite auteur and some adding brief thoughts about some of his films.
Can anyone guess which film the above image of Jess comes from?
8 comments:
My guess would be THE SADIST OF NOTRE-DAME.
Happy Birthday Jess !!!
-Patrick
That is correct, Patrick. Hopefully we'll see a good DVD release of this sooner than later.
The Sadist Of Notre Dame is the flick. I like this so much more than the alternatives of the film like Exorcism.
Right guess, Doug. Franco himself prefers this version, no doubt because he gets another shot at it.
It just felt like a better flick. More of a reality based kind of thing in that there's no big police chase and gunning down of the villian at the end. In the end he realizes that the church he believes that he has been defending shuns him and sends him out to the waiting arms of the police. That happens much more often in real life than the high speed chase and shooting thing from Exorcism. Also that image of the crazy guy staggering down the street while taking a leak is just so freaking bizarre. One of my favorite Franco flicks!
I do think the 1980 ending is better and the scenes with him and the priest are crucial. But I also like some scenes in EXORCISM not included in SADIST, like the opening flogging ritual with Lina.
I'm the odd one out, preferring EXORCISM over this one. But perhaps it has to do with the quality of the dvds I have over the film content? I admit i do like the scene where Franco kisses the girl after he kills her after the disco scene.
The movie has some subtle Pasolini style touches too like in the opening.
There really needs to be a quality DVD of SADIST. Actually, there's a hardcore version of EXORCISM with some interesting non hardcore footage also. SADIST kind of anticipates Fulci's NIGHTMARE CONCERT in some ways.
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