Again I'm the worst at obits, but need to say a few words about this guy since he's a crucial figure in opening my eyes up to a whole new dimension of cinema during my formative years of movie consumption. Jess Franco was, without a doubt, the most prolific filmmaker who has ever walked this planet. His output, over a 50-year period, is a mind-boggling, seemingly bottomless well of sex, horror and misc. genre flicks, a maddeningly labyrinthine filmography unlike any other. Yes, a lot of films were downright terrible, but scattered among them were some incredible works of unusual artistry, and I consider at least one of them - the dreamlike masterpiece Venus is Furs - to be an all-time favourite.
With Venus, everything unique and personal about Franco's vision locked into place, and it produced for my money, a beautiful example of pure cinema that can rank up there with any great work of art. Anywho I've barely scraped the surface... I'll leave the real obits to the experts and recommend, if you're curious and need a gateway drug into European 'cult' genre, to hunt down and watch as many of his films as possible. Goodnight to you sir.
No comments:
Post a Comment