LA CRIPTA DE LAS CONDENADAS-- Jess Franco, 2012

LA CRIPTA DE LAS CONDENADAS

LA CRIPTA DE LOS CONDENADOS (2012) When I interviewed Jess Franco in 2005 he described this video project as being inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne and was to be title THE HOUSE NEXT TO THE CEMETERY. It obviously evolved the time time it finally appeared on DVD* as LA CRIPTA DE LOS CONDENADOS. Here is an except from Alex Mendibil’s essay on the film written in 2008, which appears in another blog post here. It also appears in Alain Petit’s essential critical study…. . “The 80's Golden Films productions showed how the Franco universe could rid itself of some of its essential elements without losing its essence. In films such as MACUMBA SEXUAL (1981) or EL SINIESTRO DR. ORLOFF (1982), we deal with familiar themes and classic gothic characters like the vampire or the mad scientist but without all the acting, set-ups or typical wardrobes. Castles, candles, crucifixes, cemeteries and sci-fi lab equipment were replaced by extravagant beach houses, fashionable clothing and everyday objects. The result was disconcerting, but somehow managed to articulate a less figurative and more abstract language in which the renewed versions of Orloff, Al Pereira, Radek or Red Lips still made sense. With the shift to video in the late 90's, the destruction of the traditional cinematic codes was definitive: no set-ups at all or overtly fake sets, natural lighting, direct sound, video distortion effects, and above all, non-professional actors hamming it up or, on the other hand, a very naturalistic, almost cinéma vérité feel. Any device used to maintain the illusion of cinema is removed or deformed to the point of parody, as if Franco wanted to emphasize the death of that former cinema and suggest an unrepresentative cinema, a cinema abstract (*), if you will. In LA CRIPTA DE LAS MUJERES MALDITAS, the rupture with mainstream cinema is complete. The film takes place in closed-off rooms, half-empty and white, and the only things we are allowed to see are a few looped images of a cemetery, and the blurred image of an angel shaped statue that illustrates the final battle against the cursed women. We know about that battle only through the voice- over since the images are only abstract and difficult to decipher at times. Adding to all of the above (lack of set-ups, costumes, performances, video effects, etc), Franco finally gets rid of the last two pillars of classic cinema: the director and the screenplay. As stated above, this is a story without story but Jess Franco goes even further and invents a funny trick to show that he too disappears from the set, letting the characters shoot the film with video cameras and, thanks to some strategically placed mirrors, discovering that nobody is directing them on the set. Fata Morgana, the real protagonist of the film, assistant director and cinematographer, directs the film literally in front of our eyes, shooting it while playing one of the cursed women at the same time. Nothing is hidden, everything is shown: lightning, cables, the boom mic and even the back of the camera. It is not a video documentary, no video-creation, no experimental video, it is something that still has no name. The only overbearance to the genre resembles a William Castle-style joke: at the half point, there is a "To be continued…" title card, then a fade to black, and then the movie starts up again with a “Part 2” title card on screen. According to Jess Franco, this is his own version of the double-bill features in the GRINDHOUSE (2007) style. Despite being shot on video, SNAKEWOMAN was an exception to this trend since it was made following the traditional cinematic standards.

Alex Mendibil (2008)” Dr. Mendibil’s observations are well taken in this context. Some may see the film as a plotless porn epic wallowing in nudity and lesbian sexual activity. Franco has gotten to the point here where plot is of no interest, as his article points out, there is only a seemingly eternal present. This seemingly eternal present is populated by several nude women, some seen via carefully placed mirrors, taping the action/non-action with cameras. As Mendibil notes, plot is irrelevant here, as is the concept of director. The performers are the directors, the auteurs, a concept which will be unsettling to some viewers and critics. One immediately thinks of Warhol’s experimental features of the mid 1960s, or the jarring moments of naked human interaction in various films of John Cassavettes.