Cuadecuc, Vampir (1971)

Maria Rohm and Soledad Miranda appear ethereal and impossibly sophisticated in Pere Portabella's granulated black-and-white ciné-mirage. Portabella uses the occasion - filming of Jess Franco's Count Dracula - as a launch pad for his own journey towards the fantastic and the supernatural. Possessing at once some features of a documentary and a remarkably dreamlike quality, Cuadecuc is of much interest to Franco scholars and those with a taste for gothic imagery. While many sequences have amazing rhythm and impact, the film does drag as a whole at the relatively short 66 minute running time, partially due to very sparce score and almost total abscence of sound effects. Possible Godardian influence can be traced in the form of extraneous sounds (an aeroplane taking off, roadworks) layed over the images at deliberately inappropriate moments.

HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY, JESS FRANCO!

Uncle Jess watches the show in EUGENIE (1970).

I would like to thank Jess Franco for the countless hours of viewing pleasure his films have given me over the years. He has made in the vicinity of 200 films over 6 decades and is still at it! And he does it in his own special way.

Some of my personal favorites include:
NECRONOMICON (1967)
LA COMTESSE NOIRE (1973)
THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z (1965)
LORNA THE EXORCIST (1974)
EUGENIE DE SADE (1970)

What are your current favorite Jess Franco films?

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESS FRANCO!

The Way We Were: Forever Young in 1967...



Walking the lonely path as "El Sadico" in 1979...



Still at work in the 21st Century!




The mask...



The legendary smoker enjoying a cigarette...



With submarine friends in 1980...



The man in the mirror: as "the writer" in EXORCISM (1974)...



At Prayer in 1970...



What's he thinking?




The Professional...




Discoursing in the Golden Years....



As secret agent Tino Celli in 1970...



Interrogating Lina in 1977...


Many happy returns to Jess Franco on his birthday and may he have many more and give us many more of his special movies. After over 200 films, counting alternate versions, he's still in the midst of intensive production activities in his native Spain. Thanks for the memories, Jess. Here's a look at him and his films over the years...


(c) Robert Monell, 2008