The title credit of PAROXISMUS...
Wanda (Maria Rohm) is approached by a medium who is introduced discussing "ectoplasm" in PAROXISMUS: ...Puo una morta riviere per amore?, the Italian remix of Jess Franco's VENUS IN FURS, in one of several scenes shot by Jess Franco but not in the US release version. These additional scenes, plus much more of interest, appear in this edit.
First I would like to thank Howard S. Berger and blog co-administrator Nzoog for recently making it possible for me to see the rare Italian edit of Jess Franco's VENUS IN FURS (1969). Franco had wanted to call it BLACK ANGEL, but that title and many of his original ideas fell by the wayside to the demands of the distributors of the film. I'll be discussing those ideas and just how the VENUS IN FURS we know today came into being and how it was recut by Bruno Mattei for Italian consumption some time later. I call this version the "Ectoplasmic" Cut, for reasons I will explain in a future blog when I have absorbed what this version reveals.
PAROXISMUS is a very different animal than VIF, eliminating the entire voice-over narration of James Darren and the colored filter-wavy image optical effects added in post production to make it more salable in the US market to the members of the psychedelic generation. But the Italian version adds even more bizarre effects and makes for a fascinating viewing for comparison and contrast
In my next blog I'll go into more detail and provide more images from this alternate version. Stay tuned....
Additional thanks to Francesco Cesari and Eric Cotenas.
(c) Robert Monell 2013
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