[This is an updated review originally published in the MOBIUS HOME VIDEO FORUM: EUROPEAN CULT CINEMA in Nov. 1999. Thanks to John Charles]
This 1974 spy-comedy-horror item is a perfect example of Cinema, Degree Zero as illustrated in the cinema of Jess Franco. The polar opposite of 'slick" genre cinema, it has no stylistic polish and registers as a no-budget riff on Franco's "Red Lips" series, although this is not an official entry. On the surface, this is a delightfully sleazy Jess Franco nudie comedy romp, and I use the word "romp" with no irony intended. Jess directed under his "Clifford Brown" pseudo, and he probably forgot about it the day after shooting was completed. It all looks like it was shot in two and a half days in Super 8MM at some hotel in France where the film crew was probably hiding out from the cops. Lina Romay and Pamela Stanford (Lorna, the Exorcist herself!) jiggle their merry ways through this sleek put-on concerning two almost always naked diamond smugglers (guess where they hide the diamonds) who travel to Istanbul where they hope to fence the jewels. Hot on the trail are a pair of bumbling Interpol agents (Franco regulars Bigotini [rn Rick Deconninck]and Ramon Ardid) under the supervision of the director himself in a cameo that was probably dictated by lack of a casting budget. The women manage to elude their pursuers but run into the massive Radeck (amusingly incarnated by the spherical Victor Mendes) a sort of gangster-mad scientist who has developed a hairy monstrosity to whom our heroines will be fed if they don't deliver.
It's all wild and crazy fun, part slapstick comedy, part porn, part Z grade Eurocrime, part horror parody, filmed with little or no budget, with plenty of those trademark zooms and without even the bare basics of a camera tripod or lights. The exteriors are mostly shot from a moving car and one can imagine the director hanging out the window with his hand held camera, zooming in and out of every object which caught his attention- a tree here, a bridge there, and so forth. All this will probably drive those insisting on the "well made film" up the proverbial wall, but I loved every minute of it.
Pamela Stanford [rn Monique Delaunay] in cat disguise...
Lina and Pamela seem a lot more comfortable nude than most actresses do fully clothed, having a ball running around like hopped-up sprites, playing sexy tricks on the villains and donning bizarre disguises (Stanford has an outrageous wrap-around cat mask which she puts on before going into action). Franco provides a circular, interactive structure by beginning and ending with the ladies assuming sexy poses, teasing the viewer by looking directly into the camera and telling us of how their latest adventure went down. I was particularly amused by a scene of the elephantine Radeck attempting a melancholy tune at the piano in his castle.* This is a typically obscure in-joke which only those thoroughly immersed in Franco's alternate universe will catch on to. Others will stare in wordless amazement that this bleary trifle has even survived. I just kick back and enjoy it.
But looking beneath that seemingly lightweight comedy surface another example of Cinema, Degree Zero appears. Quickly, recklessly filmed it nonetheless has its unique artistic rigor embedded in i's frenetic mise en scene. One can hope for a 2 or 4K HD release to reveal genius at created something personal, observation and layered out of next to nothing. A few updated comments on this 1999 review:
Seeing this nearly a decade later made me appreciate Franco's sheer creativity in the face of dire poverty all the more. It looks like this was shot in Super 8mm, or maybe just regular old 8mm! I highly doubt there was a script and most of it takes place in cheap looking hotel rooms (hmmm... where I have seen those rooms before?).
There's even a "monster" who shows up in this. The "thing" is created by yet another evil "Radeck" who uses it to threaten our heroines. It's really just a very ugly guy (I hesitate to use the word "actor").
Jess Franco (who may or may not be playing Dr. Radeck [hey, it's in French and there's a lot of talk and utter confusion throughout!] looks really spaced out or hyped up on something, pacing around yet another sleazy hotel room somewhere in the South of France.
Willy Braque (Guy Peraud), a familiar face from a number of Jean Rollin films (DEMONIACS; LIPS OF BLOOD), is even stranger looking than Jess Franco! This guy looks like he hasn't had a decent meal in his life. In other words, he's perfectly credible as the "connection" Kashfi.
Jess Franco's "Istanbul/Turkey" is a hotel room in France.
Above: Pamela Stanford in LES GRANDES EMMERDEUSES (from poor quality video)
Lina Romay and Pamela Standford seem a lot more comfortable nude than most actresses do fully clothed, having a ball running around like hopped-up sprites, playing sexy tricks on the villains and donning bizarre disguises (Stanford has an outrageous wrap-around cat mask which she puts on before going into action). Franco provides a circular, interactive structure by beginning and ending with the ladies assuming sexy poses, teasing the viewer by looking directly into the camera and telling us of how their latest adventure went down. I was particularly amused by a scene of the elephantine Radeck (Victor Mendes) attempting a melancholy tune at the piano in his castle.* This is a typically obscure in-joke which only those thoroughly immersed in Franco's alternate universe will catch on to. Others will stare in wordless amazement that this bleary trifle has even survived. I just kick back and enjoy
*This piece will be familiar to Jess Franco archaeologists. It's also heard under the credits of LE MIROIR OBSCENE and in LES GLOUTONNES (both 1973) and other Jess Franco related titles.
Don't expect to see this on R1 DVD or Blu-rayanytime soon [But you never know...]
And over 20 years on I still can't get over Pamela Stanford's cat mask....
(c) Robert Monell 1999-2018
*This piece will be familiar to Jess Franco archaeologists. It's also heard under the credits of LE MIROIR OBSCENE and in LES GLOUTONNES (both 1973) and other Jess Franco related titles.
(C) Robert Monell, 2014
This 1974 spy-comedy-horror item is a perfect example of Cinema, Degree Zero as illustrated in the cinema of Jess Franco. The polar opposite of 'slick" genre cinema, it has no stylistic polish and registers as a no-budget riff on Franco's "Red Lips" series, although this is not an official entry. On the surface, this is a delightfully sleazy Jess Franco nudie comedy romp, and I use the word "romp" with no irony intended. Jess directed under his "Clifford Brown" pseudo, and he probably forgot about it the day after shooting was completed. It all looks like it was shot in two and a half days in Super 8MM at some hotel in France where the film crew was probably hiding out from the cops. Lina Romay and Pamela Stanford (Lorna, the Exorcist herself!) jiggle their merry ways through this sleek put-on concerning two almost always naked diamond smugglers (guess where they hide the diamonds) who travel to Istanbul where they hope to fence the jewels. Hot on the trail are a pair of bumbling Interpol agents (Franco regulars Bigotini [rn Rick Deconninck]and Ramon Ardid) under the supervision of the director himself in a cameo that was probably dictated by lack of a casting budget. The women manage to elude their pursuers but run into the massive Radeck (amusingly incarnated by the spherical Victor Mendes) a sort of gangster-mad scientist who has developed a hairy monstrosity to whom our heroines will be fed if they don't deliver.
It's all wild and crazy fun, part slapstick comedy, part porn, part Z grade Eurocrime, part horror parody, filmed with little or no budget, with plenty of those trademark zooms and without even the bare basics of a camera tripod or lights. The exteriors are mostly shot from a moving car and one can imagine the director hanging out the window with his hand held camera, zooming in and out of every object which caught his attention- a tree here, a bridge there, and so forth. All this will probably drive those insisting on the "well made film" up the proverbial wall, but I loved every minute of it.
Pamela Stanford [rn Monique Delaunay] in cat disguise...
Lina and Pamela seem a lot more comfortable nude than most actresses do fully clothed, having a ball running around like hopped-up sprites, playing sexy tricks on the villains and donning bizarre disguises (Stanford has an outrageous wrap-around cat mask which she puts on before going into action). Franco provides a circular, interactive structure by beginning and ending with the ladies assuming sexy poses, teasing the viewer by looking directly into the camera and telling us of how their latest adventure went down. I was particularly amused by a scene of the elephantine Radeck attempting a melancholy tune at the piano in his castle.* This is a typically obscure in-joke which only those thoroughly immersed in Franco's alternate universe will catch on to. Others will stare in wordless amazement that this bleary trifle has even survived. I just kick back and enjoy it.
But looking beneath that seemingly lightweight comedy surface another example of Cinema, Degree Zero appears. Quickly, recklessly filmed it nonetheless has its unique artistic rigor embedded in i's frenetic mise en scene. One can hope for a 2 or 4K HD release to reveal genius at created something personal, observation and layered out of next to nothing. A few updated comments on this 1999 review:
Seeing this nearly a decade later made me appreciate Franco's sheer creativity in the face of dire poverty all the more. It looks like this was shot in Super 8mm, or maybe just regular old 8mm! I highly doubt there was a script and most of it takes place in cheap looking hotel rooms (hmmm... where I have seen those rooms before?).
There's even a "monster" who shows up in this. The "thing" is created by yet another evil "Radeck" who uses it to threaten our heroines. It's really just a very ugly guy (I hesitate to use the word "actor").
Jess Franco (who may or may not be playing Dr. Radeck [hey, it's in French and there's a lot of talk and utter confusion throughout!] looks really spaced out or hyped up on something, pacing around yet another sleazy hotel room somewhere in the South of France.
Willy Braque (Guy Peraud), a familiar face from a number of Jean Rollin films (DEMONIACS; LIPS OF BLOOD), is even stranger looking than Jess Franco! This guy looks like he hasn't had a decent meal in his life. In other words, he's perfectly credible as the "connection" Kashfi.
Jess Franco's "Istanbul/Turkey" is a hotel room in France.
Above: Pamela Stanford in LES GRANDES EMMERDEUSES (from poor quality video)
Lina Romay and Pamela Standford seem a lot more comfortable nude than most actresses do fully clothed, having a ball running around like hopped-up sprites, playing sexy tricks on the villains and donning bizarre disguises (Stanford has an outrageous wrap-around cat mask which she puts on before going into action). Franco provides a circular, interactive structure by beginning and ending with the ladies assuming sexy poses, teasing the viewer by looking directly into the camera and telling us of how their latest adventure went down. I was particularly amused by a scene of the elephantine Radeck (Victor Mendes) attempting a melancholy tune at the piano in his castle.* This is a typically obscure in-joke which only those thoroughly immersed in Franco's alternate universe will catch on to. Others will stare in wordless amazement that this bleary trifle has even survived. I just kick back and enjoy
*This piece will be familiar to Jess Franco archaeologists. It's also heard under the credits of LE MIROIR OBSCENE and in LES GLOUTONNES (both 1973) and other Jess Franco related titles.
Don't expect to see this on R1 DVD or Blu-rayanytime soon [But you never know...]
And over 20 years on I still can't get over Pamela Stanford's cat mask....
(c) Robert Monell 1999-2018
*This piece will be familiar to Jess Franco archaeologists. It's also heard under the credits of LE MIROIR OBSCENE and in LES GLOUTONNES (both 1973) and other Jess Franco related titles.
(C) Robert Monell, 2014
