Random FRANCO Ramblings...

[Lalala76 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lalala76]

If you don't minds importing, there are some great soundtracks here

http://www.beatrecords.it/index.asp?lingua=e

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Importing is mostly what I do these days. I'll check out that site, thanks for the link.

I enjoyed Franco's THE CORPSE PACKS HIS BAGS (Der Todesrí¤cher von Soho, 1972), a bread & butter adaptation of an Edgar Wallace mystery. This is Franco at his most disciplined and professional. Every set-up is carefully chosen for composition and continuity. The film is expertly shot and lit for atmosphere. Locations are nicely chosen. The zoom is given a rest, and the film is always in focus. There's only one bare bottom on display, unfortunately, in a cutaway that can't possibly be in the same club. There are several obvious cheats where the change in light density gives things away. One hallway can't possibly lead into that bedroom. The doors don't match. A night time chase abruptly turns into a daytime chase. But overall it's like a studio film. How much you enjoy it depends on whether or not you like Edgar Wallace, I guess. The copy I watched is an excellent boot, with English subs, in color at 1.33.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Maybe Subrosa could pair Flowers of Perversion with Al Periera vs the Aligator Women which hasn't found it's way here yet.

I don't think Sub Rosa had anything to do with the two Flowers films. One thing they did do which might confuse some is release a double feature of Mari-Cookie and Incubus under the banner of "Jess Franco's Perversion", the same title X-Rated Kult released Flowers of Perversion under. Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies needs a US release, true. Seems like something Severin would do, seeing as they released Paula-Paula under the Intervision label.

Rat's Eyes, are you positive that Rat's Eyes is the handle you want to go by? I'm just asking.

Uh, I suppose so, you can call me Tom if you like, really doesn't matter to me man. Rat's Eyes is just my go to handle for forums after I used it for one when I couldn't think of anything better. The Mystery Man avatar usually goes with it as well. As for the Zulawski related stuff, check your PM's.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Those of you who haven't seen Der Todesrí¤cher von Soho (THE CORPSE PACKS HIS BAGS , 1972) should check it out. It's a German DVD and also in the BRYAN EDGAR WALLACE COLLECTION volume 3. Don't know if those are English-friendly. If it ever comes out on blu-ray or NTSC DVD I'm buying it. The film has real style and many purely visual moments that are pure 100% Franco. One can enjoy this film on the basis of its visuals alone. There's one shot of a person standing in front of a mirror that will make you laugh. It's perfect, and I'm going to steal it, soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Also, I love the poster art, a painting that captures all the things I love most about movie posters and book covers from the old days. The film lives up to the poster. I will upload it here if I can find it somewhere.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Another title for Der Todesrí¤cher von Soho (The Corpse Packs His Bags, 1972):

[Geten Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Geten]

There is an Italian DVD out as well, not English-friendly though.

[John Bernhard Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close John Bernhard]

Artus is shipping OBSCENE MIRROR, mine arrived yesterday. Great to have both of these in good quality, and with luck an English friendly release will appear sometime.
The French version really trashes the film, and funny it's the main feature here, as the Spanish version is far superior.
The change in plot added to the French version really doesn't fit very well, and is a lame attempt to sex things up. Even though Franco shot these extra scenes himself, they are not very well done ( perhaps he resented having to trash his own masterpiece ).
Even worse is the replacement score, which sounds almost like its for another film. Spanish DVD might be a hair better looking, and while not on the level of PERVERSE COUNTESS, these both look nice.
Spanish edition has 2 of Emma Cohen's nude scenes which were not in the old Spanish VHS release, so surprised to see them in there. Even odder is the third alternate nude scene in the bathroom which is not included.
As it stands the French version has 2 scenes that I would have included in the Spanish print ( the bathroom scene and a short one with Alice Arno & Emma Cohen ).
Some screeenies

[Lalala76 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lalala76]

Maybe I should cancel my pre-order with amazon and order from artus. But then again I could probably wait.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Jess directed this:

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

Maybe I should cancel my pre-order with amazon and order from artus. But then again I could probably wait.

I can wait. With Amazon France's superfast shipping, the disc should be here by the middle of next week, I reckon. Then I'm going to knock together some English subtitles; when I've done so, I'll post them online to somewhere like open-subtitle and share the link on here, if that'll do you ;)

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

I couldn't get into the work I had to do tonight, so instead of twiddling my thumbs I spliced together an 'integral' version of EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN that integrates the 'unclothed' scenes from the export version into the Spanish version - so it's got the nudity, plus the subplot with Lina Romay's character. It runs for 84:25, but by my reckoning there's about 10 minutes of difference between it and the export version.

That was a productive evening

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Do you show Franco films to your students, Paul?

What kind of reaction do you get from them, if you do?

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

Do you show Franco films to your students, Paul?

What kind of reaction do you get from them, if you do?

I have done, but not for many years. I used to use a few Franco films when I taught on a couple of A Level courses, to support discussion of genre, giving an international flavour to our discussions of horror films. The Franco films I tended to use there were from his early career as a horror director: THE AWFUL DR ORLOF, THE DIABOLICAL DR Z, etc. We'd contrast them with roughly contemporaneous Gothics, such as the early Terence Fisher horror pictures (mostly THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA), Mario Bava's horror pictures and French pictures like LES DIABOLIQUES and LES YEUX SANS VISAGE. I'd also contrast them with something like MATTHEW HOPKINS: WITCHFINDER GENERAL, as a very brutal, naturalistic approach to similar thematic material.

With the degree students, when I was lucky enough to teach on a couple of courses that had a strong film-related syllabus, I sometimes showed examples of Franco's 1970s work in discussions of experimental cinema. They used to go down quite well, as I recall. I remember lending a few students copies of various Franco films (usually ORLOF, A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD, EXORCISM and JACK THE RIPPER).

I did write an MA course which was to have Franco as a case study in one of the modules, but sadly due to various circumstances with funding and some politicking at the place where I work (changes in management and the 'new broom' syndrome), after the course was validated it wasn't marketed at all, failed to recruit enough students to run (although there were a few applications from overseas, which was interesting), and was ultimately dropped from the prospectus.

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

LE MIROIR OBSCENE arrived chez moi today. I'm going to have a go at translating the French subs for the Spanish version over the weekend. When I'm done, I'll share them here.

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

I've got about half of the subs translated so far. I'll crack on with it tomorrow; may get it finished by teatime.