SCFZ poll: Jess Franco

[flip]

Polling the films of Jess Franco

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Franco films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Tuesday, in seven days, whatever day that is

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

[flip]

if i'm remembering correctly, it was hard to get the views to run this poll in the past, so let's use extended rules:

• if you have seen an odd number of franco films, you can round up instead of down when deciding the length of your ballot (e.g. if you have seen 5, you can vote for 3 instead of the usual 2)

• if you have seen more than 10, you can vote for more than 5, subject to the restriction above (e.g. if you have seen 13, you can vote for up to 7).

[flip]

i've only seen one and i don't want to vote for it, but i'll try to watch more for the poll!

A Virgin Among the Living Dead

edit: seen 2

[wba]

I adore him!

seen way too few, but here are my favorites

01. La nuit des étoiles filantes (1973)
02. Paroxismus (1969)
03. Jack the Ripper (1976)
04. Miss Muerte (1966)
05. La tumba de los muertos vivientes (1982)
06. La Comtesse noire (1973)
07. Les Possédées du diable (1974)
08. Les Cauchemars naissent la nuit (1970)

Franco seen: 15

PS: I'm strictly using the original titles, cause there are so many international titles floating around for many Franco films (while for many there is also only the original one, cause they never got distributed at all or not outside of their respective country), and if we'd all try to use english language titles we probably all wouldn't know what films we were talking about... his work must also be one of the most widely censured, edited and altered in all of film history.

[brian d]

seen 11, first three are decent...

venus in furs
she killed in ecstasy
count dracula
the devil came from akasava
bloody moon
vampyros lesbos

[greennui]

13.

Lorna, the Exorcist
She Killed in Ecstasy
Eugenie
Venus in Furs
Night Has a Thousand Desires
The Perverse Countess

Pretty much 50/50 hit and miss for me!

[deepbluefunk]

Can anybody explain why he is called Jess here and in other places, when he was named Jesus. Jesús Franco Manera. Is that what he went by or is this just puritanism?

I'm just wondering if there's a backstory. wba's comment about him being the most censured, edited and altered filmmaker seems to also apply to his name? Can that be true?

[Lencho of the Apes]

I don't know why or to what extent he embraced the name-change, but it's common in USA to code-shift Jesús to something else in these situations. Of the three Jesúses I know, two grew up in Mexico and the US-born one was comfortable with the name of Jesse. The practice isn't as common now as it was prior to the civil rights movement, when schools apparently were pretty militant about enforcing that change...

A few years back, I embarked on a Year Of Franco, pledging to watch one a week. Lasted until August, when the device I was storing them on crashed and the unseen ones were lost to me. Seen 36, and there's something admirable in almost all of them; I'm at a loss to rank them, so I'll just type out the 10 titles I rated most highly... I'll be using the titles supplied by LB as my solution to the problem wba mentioned.

Venus In Furs
The Erotic Rites Of Frankenstein
Dracula Prisoner Of Frankenstein
Vampyros Lesbos
Count Dracula
A Virgin Among The Living Dead
Female Vampire
Eugenie
The Diabolical Doctor Z
The Demons

[greennui]

Found this one the name:



List of pseudonyms:

Joan Almirall | Juan Almirall | Rosa M. Almirall | Rosa María Almirall | Rosa Almirall | Clifford Brawn | Clifford Brown Jr. | Clifford Brown | Juan G. Cabral | Betty Carter | Candy Coster | Terry De Corsia | Rick Deconinck | Raymond Dubois | Chuck Evans | Toni Falt | Denis Farnon | Jess Franck | J. Franco | Jesse Franco | Jess Franco | Jesus Franco | A.M. Frank | Adolf M. Frank | Anton Martin Frank | Jeff Frank | Jess Frank | Wolfgang Frank | Jacques Garcia | James Gardner | Jack Griffin | Lennie Hayden | Frank Hollman | Frank Hollmann | Frarik Hollmann | Rick Deconinck in Italy | B.F. Johnson | J.P. Johnson | James Lee Johnson | James P. Johnson | David J. Khune | David Khune | D. Khunn | David Khunn | David Khunne II | D. Khunne Jr. | D. Khunne | David J. Khunne | David Khunne | David H. Klunne | David Kuhne | David Kuhnne | David Kunne | David Kühne | Lulu Laverne | Lulú Laverne | A.L. Malraux | Franco Manera | J. Franck Manera | J. Frank Manera | Jesus Franco Manera | Jesus Manera | J.F. Manner | Jeff Manner | Roland Marceignac | A.L. Mariaux | A.L. Marioux | C. Plaut | Preston Quaid | P. Querut | Lowel Richmond | Dan L. Simon | Dan Simon | J. Franco All Stars | Dave Tough | Pablo Villa | Joan Vincent | Robert Zinnermann

[deepbluefunk]

wow

That is all so awesome!!!


thanks

[wba]

Can anybody explain why he is called Jess here and in other places, when he was named Jesus. Jesús Franco Manera. Is that what he went by or is this just puritanism?

I'm just wondering if there's a backstory. wba's comment about him being the most censured, edited and altered filmmaker seems to also apply to his name? Can that be true?

I'd guess it's because of his love for Jazz music (which is evident in most of his films). He was also a Jazz musician. So I guess Jess just sounded way better for him as he was travelling and working around the globe.
I also found Jazz music to be a good analogy for watching and interpreting many of his films: often they resemble a jam session (that's sometimes arranged around a few central motifs).
And yes, he had like a hundred pseudonyms and often worked on numerous films at the same time (shooting sometimes up to three simultaneously, something which mostly only he knew), so as to get the most out of the money from his financiers. He was simply obsessed with the art of ACTUALLY MAKING AND SHOOTING a film, instead of the pre- and postproduction work, which usually takes up most of the time of 99% of (commercial) filmmakers. That's why I'd also classify him mainly as an 'experimental' filmmaker, who was interested in the actual work, the process of shooting, etc.

PS: In my opinion he was a genius with many many talents. Something like (the myth about) Orson Welles, only on a much much larger scale. In a better (and cinematically more interested and informed) world, he would easily be listed with the cinematic greats (or at least with people like Picasso, Brakhage, etc.)

[...]

I had no idea I'd seen 7 Francos. Huh.

Venus in Furs
Count Dracula
Vampyros Lesbos

[deepbluefunk]

Franco was nowhere on my radar - and for that I feel cinematic shame. I'll try to watch at least one this week.

[nrh]

La nuit des étoiles filantes (1973)
(often called a virgin among the living dead)
The Diabolical Dr. Z
Doriana Gray

the multiple cuts and titles sure make it hard to figure out how many of these i've actually seen...

[oscarwerner]

Difficult to count all his films:)
My votes go to:
1. Venus in Furs (1969)
2. Jack the Ripper (1976)
3. Count Dracula (1970)
4. A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

[grabmymask]

Seen 15, might try to watch more before poll’s end (haven’t seen Venus in Furs, but based on these lists I guess I really should!)

1. Vampyros Lesbos
2. Night Has a Thousand Desires
3. Eugenie de Sade
4. Venus in Furs
5. Faceless

EDIT:
Ok, I watched Venus in Furs and updated accordingly

[flip]

I'm at a loss to rank them, so I'll just type out the 10 titles I rated most highly...

the rules don't have any provision for unranked ballots this long, so what i've done is awarded your ballot 15.9 points in total (which i rounded up to 16), which is what a regular full-length ballot awards, divided equally among the ten films, so each film gets 1.6 points. that's not a lot per film, so if you really wanted to highlight any of them, let me know and i'll adjust the tally!

[Monsieur Arkadin]

One of my major blind spots. The only thing I've seen by him (does it even count?) is his version of Welles' version of Don Quixote.
I can't call that a good film as anything other than an opportunity to see some Welles ephemera. So I'll abstain from voting (and again, I'm not confident that would/should even count as one in the first place). But I look forward to exploring some of his work.

[flip]

i hope i managed to detect all the duplicate votes under different titles, but if any francophile notices any errors below, please let me know! i've also assumed the votes for eugenie were for the 1970 version and not the 1980 one (the 1970 one has a lot more views) -- and i figured out that besides those two films called eugenie there's yet another called eugenie de sade that also got some support


results

1. Venus in Furs (1969) — 21.6 pts
2. A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) — 11.6 pts
3. Count Dracula (1970) — 8.6 pts
4. Vampyros Lesbos (1971) — 8.1 pts
5. She Killed in Ecstasy (1971) — 8 pts
6. Jack the Ripper (1976) — 6 pts
7. The Diabolical Dr Z (1966) — 5.6 pts
8. Lorna the Exorcist (1974) — 5.3 pts
9. Night Has a Thousand Desires (1984) — 5 pts
10. Eugenie… the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion (1970) — 4.6 pts
11. Eugenie de Sade (1973) — 3 pts
12. Female Vampire (1973) — 2.1 pts
13. The Devil Came from Akasava (1971) — 2 pts
14. The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1973) — 1.6 pts
14. Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972) — 1.6 pts
14. The Demons (1973) — 1.6 pts
17. Oasis of the Zombies (1982) — 1 pt
17. Faceless (1987) — 1 pt
17. Bloody Moon (1981) — 1 pt
17. Doriana Gray (1976) — 1 pt
21. The Perverse Countess (1975) — 0.5 pts
22. Nightmares Come at Night (1970) — 0.1 pts

[wba]

I can tell you that "The Diabolical Dr Z" (1966) — 3.6 pts is the english language title of the spanish film Miss Muerte (1966) — 2 pts
Other than that, I'm also regularly confused by all the different titles and can't really help in that regard.

[wba]

As an interesting anecdote, I've seen a few times at the theatre a wonderful film which exists in this form only in German-speaking countries called Lolita am Scheideweg (1981), a completely new and unique film made from parts of Jess Franco's spanish movie "Eugenie… the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion" (the 1980 version you mention, and which you're not sure anyone voted for) and material from other films, especially from movies by German maverick genius Hubert Frank, which were also distributed by the extremely successful and infamous Austrian film company called "Lisa Film". More changes were made by the dubbing of course and by using (by the way excellent!) music by composer Gerhard Heinz from yet other movies. This movie, a producer's cut in the truest possible sense of the word, as it is, is truly outstanding - but as a friend of mine observed to me while watching this "German-language version" at the theater who had recently also seen the actual Franco movie (as which "Lolita am Scheideweg" was audaciously marketed in German-language countries), it has nothing to do with the original film at all.
I imagine there are several such "versions" of Franco films floating around the world, adding to his filmography films which he did not direct, but from which parts were taken and edited and redubbed and recut, etc.

[flip]

I can tell you that "The Diabolical Dr Z" (1966) — 3.6 pts is the english language title of the spanish film Miss Muerte (1966) — 2 pts

i'm glad i asked! thanks, and i've fixed that now

[flip]

posted this to letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-286/