Random FRANCO Ramblings...

[Alison Jane Girl Boss Jane Find all posts View Profile Close Alison Jane]

No one likes you?

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

That's what The Ace Case says. And he means everything to me.

[Ian Miller Flattery and foreplay Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Miller]

Has anyone seen BLUE RITA? The trailer makes it look AWESOME!

[Alison Jane Girl Boss Jane Find all posts View Profile Close Alison Jane]

Blue Rita is pretty cool from what I remember of it (it's been a few years). It's very colorful and futuristic and it's got... drumroll... Eric Falk so how can you go wrong?



I would definitely recommend it. Just picked up an original in the last year or two, though, like I said, it's been a while since I actually watched it. Needed it to complete my JFC discs.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I watched this one back to back with Doriana Grey and expected something on the same level. Didn't get it. It's a pretty nifty movie though. What I remember most about it is a lot of nudity and purple wigs.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

Anyway, I was having a look at Mansion of the Living Dead yesterday and I noticed this...



...so would that make the film the first that Franco worked with a Dolby soundtrack in post? I remember reading his complaints about having to work with a Dolby soundtrack on Faceless, as he vehemently disliked working with multiple audio tracks and the creation of a stereo mix. But here's a film, made some years prior, and it's listed as being in Dolby. Hmmm... :think:

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

Thomas Dolby.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Could be a Dolby Mono track, couldn't it?

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

Could be a Dolby Mono track, couldn't it?

Possibly, but unlikely by the early eighties. I'm guessing it was a Dolby stereo track (which worked L-C-R-S); A Clockwork Orange (1971) was the earliest film I know of that utilised Dolby Noise Reduction for its (monaural) soundtrack, and Ken Russell's Tommy (1975) was the first to use Dolby multi-channel sound (L-C-R-LS-RS).

The majority of earlier Dolby tracks were four channel, and it wasn't until the advent of Dolby digital that the .1 (LFE) channel came into play...but that was the nineties. If it was Dolby "mono", or Dolby NR (Noise Reduction), I'm guessing it would have been listed as such. My educated guess is Dolby stereo (4-channel), though from the digital editions we have I'm guessing only mono elements survived...

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

It seems that way because I'm 99.9% certain the Severin disc is mono.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

It seems that way because I'm 99.9% certain the Severin disc is mono.

It is -- I have the Anchor Bay UK port of it (from a PAL master) and it's definitely mono. But then, even a lot of the Italian stuff that was post-synched in Dolby stereo back in the eighties turns up in mono on DVD. Photos of Gioia was a classic example -- Lamberto Bava even talked about the Dolby soundtrack in Media Blasters' extras, but the disc is in mono. I'm fairly sure Shameless' DVD of Deodato's Off Balance is also mono, even though the credits list Dolby stereo as the audio and a Dolby consultant.

Not only do we cult movie fans have to put up with cut releases, incorrectly framed films, and incorrect colour-timing...they can't even get the soundtracks right in a lot of cases.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Top five Franco flicks? I'd have to go for:
LES DEMONS
THE OBSCENE MIRROR
LORNA THE EXORCIST
VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD
EXORCISM or perhaps
THE DIABOLICAL DR Z, or LES EBRANLESS (or what I could understand of it, given my poor French), or THE PERVERSE COUNTESS, or JACK THE RIPPER

Gosh, it's hard to pick just five, isn't it?

But yep, I'm generally a De Nesle-period fan and proud of it - that era has the right mix of (semi-)gothic atmosphere and, well, earthy, sleaze/funkiness for my tastes ;) That group of films is free-spirited and transgressive, all that I like in Uncle Jess' work.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Is there a good DVD of The Obscene Mirror floating around anywhere?

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

I don't think there are any official DVD releases, sadly, Ian. I guess the film, like most of the De Nesle-produced movies, is tied up in legal wranglings. However, both the Spanish and Italian variants of THE OBSCENE MIRROR can be found 'doing the rounds' and there are even some fan-produced subtitles for the Italian version. (I don't think there are any fansubs for the Spanish version, but I could be wrong.)

Given Mondo Macabro's releases of LORNA and SINNER, I really hope they'll release some more of Franco's films from this period. I'd be hugely pleased if THE OBSCENE MIRROR and some of the other De Nesle movies got good DVD releases, and MM is the company to do them justice.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

I rewatched THE OBSCENE MIRROR today, via the Italian version (LO SPECCHIO DEL PIACERE). It's a fascinating, hauntingly macabre film, but the ugly h/c inserts really stop the narrative in its tracks. The Spanish version (AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO) plays out much better, I think, especially transposing (the lovely) Emma Cohen's obsession from her sister (Lina Romay) to her father (Howard Vernon). However, I struggle to watch the Spanish cut of the film as my understanding of Spanish is pretty terrible. (Are there any fansubs for the Spanish version of the movie out there?)

Has anyone seen the French cut (LE MIROIR OBSCENE)? I've always assumed that it's similar in content to the Italian version, but you know what they say about assumptions.