Kino/Redemption Exorcism & Female Vampire Blu-rays

[P. Querut Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close P. Querut]

I did not like or respond to the film the first time I watched it. About a year later I fell in love with the whole melancholy dreamy vibe and the way Franco inhabits locations. It helps that I adore Lina who I will miss for a long time.

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

Female Vampire is like an eighty minute moving painting. In my opinion, it's there to be pretty, to be sexy, to be visually stimulating. There really isn't much of a story. It is what it is and I've always appreciated it, but can see how some might find it dull.

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

Female Vampire is like an eighty minute moving painting. In my opinion, it's there to be pretty, to be sexy, to be visually stimulating. There really isn't much of a story. It is what it is and I've always appreciated it, but can see how some might find it dull.

Well put. I've never found the movie dull, though after watching it the other day, yeah, not much happens. What struck me this time was the sadness of Lina's character. I didn't really pick up on it the first few times I've watched it and maybe part of the reason I did this time was that you can make out more and better detail on Lina's face, which really is where so much of her performance comes from, given that she doesn't talk.

MILD SPOILERS:

The scene with her and the bedpost? I used to think 'hey now, that's kinda hot' but the other day after watching it, yeah, I can appreciate the taboo of what she's doing and the sexuality that's obviously key in the scene but given that she's unable to really have a sexual relationship with anyone without killing them is she having to resort to fucking a bed post in order to 'feel' what she would otherwise feel from her mate, be it male or female? Franco talks about how her character was meant to be sad in the interview and I did watch that before the movie so maybe that was in the front of my mind and I was looking for it, but he's right, there is a sadness to her character that in some ways dominates the more sexualized side of her character.

[Wllm Clys Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wllm Clys]

It's not that I was expecting an exciting story, it's Franco after all. Some of his best films in my opinion are very non-narrative (Lorna, Virgin among ..., Vampyros, ...) but Female Vampire didn't have the same effect on my as his masterpieces, what I'd like to call the Franco-effect: the perfect combination of atmosphere, images (even if they are out of focus half of the scene), music, acting (even if it's sub-par), which creats a nostalgic, surreal and perverted sense of melancholy, making taboo subjects like incest or necrophilia seem achingly beautiful, as weird as that might sound. He's one of the only directors than can actually pull it off and I truly admire him for it. Every time the Franco-effect kicks in: goose-bumps!

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

I get what you're saying. One of the things I really like about (some) of his work is that mroe than most directors it affects people in different ways. I also find that my enjoyment and/or interpretation of anyone of his films is subject to change depending on my mood.

[P. Querut Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close P. Querut]

I am thrilled with Kino's FEMALE VAMPIRE. Lina's performance is enhanced in my opinion and she is more beautiful than ona the problematic Image release---The colours and locations are brighter and I dont care that it is not restored. Huge kudos to Kino/ Redemption on this release and a lovely tribute to Lina.

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

Does anyone want my old Image DVD of Female Vampire?

[P. Querut Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close P. Querut]

Jess Franco is a crazy genius....He's on the island of Madeira making a vampire film and somehow finds a car with a bat hood ornament that flaps it wings, films the car moving along the twisty roads from the perspective of the front seat for voice over narration sequences. How happy am I that there are films of his I have never seen including many from his 73--76 period.

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

I am thrilled with Kino's FEMALE VAMPIRE. Lina's performance is enhanced in my opinion and she is more beautiful than ona the problematic Image release---The colours and locations are brighter and I dont care that it is not restored. Huge kudos to Kino/ Redemption on this release and a lovely tribute to Lina.

Actually I'm glad that neither film is restored. I like the grain and imperfections. It makes me feel like I'm sitting in a grindhouse in the 1970s watching re-releases from the 1960s.

I wish Franco had quickened the pace of his staging a beat or two. Even in the 1970s these were excruciatingly slow films. Everything he wants to show and make us feel would be driven home, so to speak, by the sense of purpose that comes out of dramatic timing.

Anyone know if Kino has plans to release other Franco Blu-rays?

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

Anyone know if Kino has plans to release other Franco Blu-rays?

Yeah, they've confirmed more Franco in 2013, although the only titles that have been named so far are Virgin Among the Living Dead (one of my favorites, yay) and Awful Dr. Orloff