RIP Jess Franco

Updated on April 3, 2013 By Ken Begg 11 Comments

I’m not going to rip a guy upon his demise, but I’ll just say that you can put me in the rather large segment of society that never got the appeal of Jess Franco. Yes, he could occasionally come up with a really neat image. Yet the overwhelmingly soporific quality of his work never played for me, and his mania for largely unmotivated zoom shots every three seconds drives me nuts. I will moreover be caddish enough to note my belief that it was mostly his propensity for abundant nudity back in the day that drew many of his fans.

Quite possibly the single most insane thing I’ve ever heard in my life was Tim Lucas’ contention that “to understand” even one of Franco’s films, you needed to have seen all of them. All 200 of them, he meant. This sounded like it was meant to forestall any criticism of the Great Man’s work. Don’t you dare, unless you have tracked down and watched all his movies; maybe watched most of them several times. I admire Lucas a great deal, but man, that’s nuts. I realize Franco’s work spoke to him on an extremely deep and personal level, but…well, let’s just say to each his own. Fans of Franco will find a much more reverent take on the director’s passing on Lucas’ Video Watchblog.

I do have a Netflix copy of Franco’s Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein sitting around my house. So I’ll try to give that a gloss this weekend.

In the end, I’m sure Franco was a nice enough guy, and he made a lot of movies, and he kept working to the end. Surely he was blessed in being able to do what he loved his entire life. He mystified many of us, but touched others deeply. Not a bad life.

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  • One of my favorites, I’m going to miss him.

  • I may have seen a couple of his films, although I think most of them are only sold in the “adult” section of the video catalogs. The one film I recall for sure was his somewhat more faithful adaptation of DRACULA with Lee wearing a mustache and Herbert Lom as Van Helsing (and Klaus Kinski playing Renfield in his patented way). Seems like it wasn’t bad, but wasn’t a masterpiece either. I think I got more out of the Jack Palance version.

    I can say, though, that I’ve heard of Mr. Franco and his being a pretty large name in the field of European horror films. That, in a way, is indicative of a legacy. Although, my understanding of his work is that he made trashy exploitation films under the impression that they were works of serious art. That’s not the kind of impression that’s going to draw me to his work, so if I’m wrong about that, feel free to correct me now.

  • Cullen Waters

    I’ve only just recently started (knowingly) watching Franco’s works. As it amounts to just Oasis of the Zombies, I probably don’t have the best grasp of his strengths as a film maker. At least I certainly hope that’s the case; it would be pretty sad if that was the best he could do.

    That said, I thought a few of the better scenes in that film had a real disturbing power to them. I’ve been sort of looking forward to watching more of his films. His passing, no matter the quality of his oeuvre, marks the end of an era in Horror.

  • Ken_Begg

    That is the best he can do.

  • Oh, I didn’t know that was one of his. Okay, I did see that one. Wow, I never would have imagined it came from the same guy who made DRACULA! While not the greatest Dracula movie I’ve ever seen, it was considerably more competent than OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES! (For that matter, so was GLEN OR GLENDA…)

  • Cullen Waters

    That’s very sad.

  • bgbear_rogerh

    wow, coincidence, been sick and bed and started to watch Oasis, switch to something else. I’ll get back to it.

  • Ken_Begg

    Wait, you were sick in bed and *then* started to watch a Jess Franco movie?

    Usually it’s the other way around.

  • Might I ask, what’s up (or down) with the B-Masters Cabal website? I tried going there first to look for reactions to Franco’s death, & haven’t been able to get through.

  • bgbear_rogerh

    OK, now I am thinking being sick in bed and watching bad/cult movies is killing people. I finally watched “I spit on your grave,” and the films biggest critic dies.

  • The Rev.

    I’ve only seen a couple of his movies thus far. The first one, I cannot think of the name, or pretty much anything regarding the plot. I think the lead (I assume it was Lina Romay) was trying to find whoever killed her husband, mostly by being naked and making out with other women. Don’t hold me to that, though. The second was Oasis of the Zombies, which was half of a pretty good Euro-zom movie and half crap. There are a few of his I want to see. I have The Awful Dr. Orloff on my never-empty DVR thanks to TCM.