By Keri O’Shea
For a while there, it looked as though director Jesús ‘Jess’ Franco was invincible; despite losing the love of his life and his muse Lina Romay just over a year ago, despite increasing ill-health culminating in a serious stroke last week, Jess was still with us. Hell, he was still working up until very recently. He seemed to be unstoppable. So, regardless of the fact that Jess was an elderly man – approaching his eighty-third birthday – the news that he has passed away comes as a shock. Without him, the world is instantly a less interesting place to be.
It’s hard to put into words the sheer amount of joy I’ve had over the years with Jess Franco’s films, it really is. As with my experiences of Franco contemporary Jean Rollin, I can credit Redemption Films for my earliest introduction to his work: for an education in an array of films, actors and plots the likes of which I had never seen anywhere else, it was unsurpassed. And, as my education progressed, I began to notice a certain Mr. Franco’s work, a style and outlook becoming ever more recognisable; although Rollin and Franco were interested in similar themes throughout their careers – even collaborating on certain projects – their overall style was rather different. Franco’s cinema could go from sensual to zany and all the way back again within twenty minutes. Watching a Jess Franco film is like being treated to a smorgasbord of visuals, music and atmosphere; perhaps you wouldn’t imagine they’d work together, but they do, they absolutely do, and it is impossible to be bored by the end result.
That Jess maintained such a phenomenal output for so many years is nothing short of incredible. His films weren’t always perfect, of course not (though some of them were – Venus in Furs leaps to mind) but when you consider that for the bulk of his career he was trying to accomplish great things on minuscule budgets, often shooting projects back to back (or overlapping altogether) in the space of mere weeks and dealing with everything else which came with it, he definitely achieved great things. Jess had to learn to be creative and resourceful with what little he had, and even if we accept that in some cases he’d felt he had been made to compromise on his initial vision, we were never made to forego the elements he got so right. Jess had a real eye for locations and sets, utilising them to the full – such as, for instance, that house in Countess Perverse, to name but one. He knew just how to generate a peculiarly heady atmosphere in all his work; he also worked with some damn fine actors over the years, directing the only version of Dracula to meet with the Sir Christopher Lee seal of approval. Nor should we forget his leading ladies (often in a state of undress which Jess made it his business to feature for as often and as long as possible, and there’s nothing wrong with that) now themselves iconic figures, forever associated with the best of Eurohorror; Christina von Blanc, the lovely Soledad Miranda and of course, the Female Vampire, Lina Romay herself.
At the time of his death, Jess Franco had worked on over 180 films of his own: his very last movie, Al Pereira vs the Alligator Women, screened in Barcelona just last week. Incredibly prolific and hard-working, Jess simply needed film. The notion of just retiring didn’t exist: since he first started making movies and taking a delight in baiting the censors all of those years ago, Franco never toned it down, never gave up and never ever thought about quitting. That sense of mischief that would find expression and that work ethic mean I still have a hell of a lot of his films yet to see; the ones I already have in my collection will always keep their place there.
Rebellious, dedicated and irrepressible, Jess Franco was a true original. Thanks for everything, Uncle Jess, and may you be sitting with Lina somewhere, laughing, chain-smoking and setting the world to rights.
Select Filmography:
The Awful Doctor Orloff (1961)
Venus in Furs (1968)
Count Dracula (1969)
Eugenie De Sade (1970)
Vampyros Lesbos (1970)
A Virgin Among The Living Dead (1971)
Countess Perverse (1973)
Lorna The Exorcist (1974)
Jack The Ripper (1976)
Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1976)
Mansion of the Living Dead (1982)