Jesús Franco
Encyclopedia
Jesús "Jess" Franco is a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, writer
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

 and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

. His career took off in 1961 with his cult classic The Awful Dr. Orloff, which received wide distribution in the United States and England. Though he had some American box office success with Necronomicon (1967), Ninety-Nine Women (1968) and his two Christopher Lee films, The Bloody Judge and Count Dracula, he never achieved wide commercial success. Franco moved from Spain to France in 1970 so that he could make more violent and sexual films, and it was at this point that his career began to go downhill commercially, as he turned to low-budget filmmaking with a heavier accent on adult films. Although he produced a few well-received, low budget horror films in the early 70's (Dracula vs Frankenstein, Vampyros Lesbos
Vampyros Lesbos
Vampyros Lesbos is a 1971 erotic horror film directed and co-written by Jesús "Jess" Franco, inspired by Bram Stoker's short story Dracula's Guest.- Plot :...

, A Virgin Among the Living Dead
A Virgin Among The Living Dead
A Virgin Among The Living Dead is a European zombie movie made before the height of the zombie craze. Also titled "Christine, Princess of Eroticism" or in Italian "Christina, princesse de l'érotisme" -Plot:...

), many people in the industry considered him a porn director due to the huge number of X-rated adult films he began churning out. Franco returned to low-budget horror in a brief comeback period from 1980-1983 (Bloody Moon, Mondo Cannibale, Oasis of the Zombies), but after 1983, his career took a second downturn as he drifted back into porn. With the exception of his Faceless (1988) and Killer Barbys (1996), his post-1983 films are almost unwatchable due to the incredibly low budgets he was forced to work with. Franco has nevertheless retained a large cult following through the years with his sexually-charged horror films, some of which are regarded as masterpieces by his avid followers. Franco's fans tend to obsessively collect all of his films (both the good and the execrable), and line up for hours at horror conventions for a chance to meet him in person.

Career

Franco has sometimes worked under various pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

s, including David Khune and Frank Hollmann. A big fan of jazz music
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 (and a musician himself), many of his pseudonyms are taken from famous jazz musicians, such as Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...

 and James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson was an American pianist and composer...

. Franco made a half-dozen films starring the Spanish beauty Soledad Miranda
Soledad Miranda
Soledad Rendón Bueno , better known by her stage names Soledad Miranda or Susann Korda , was an actress who was born in Seville, Spain to Portuguese parents of Roma ancestry. She frequently starred in the films of Jess Franco, such as Count Dracula and Vampyros Lesbos...

, and when she was killed in a tragic automobile accident in 1970, he took a teenage actress named Lina Romay
Lina Romay
For Singer, See Lina Romay Lina Romay is a Spanish actress who often appears in films directed by her long-time companion Jesus Franco.-Movie career:...

under his wing and made her his new "star". Since 1971, Romay has been his most often utilized actress, as well as his life companion, soulmate and muse.

Franco's themes often revolved around lesbian vampire
Lesbian vampire
Lesbian vampirism is a trope in 20th century exploitation film that has its roots in Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's novella Carmilla about the predatory love of a female vampire for a young woman :...

s, women in prison
Women in prison films
Women in prison film is a subgenre of exploitation film that began in the late 1960s and continues to the present day.Their stories feature imprisoned women who are subjected to sexual and physical abuse, typically by sadistic male or female prison wardens and guards...

, surgical horror, sadomasochism, zombies and sexploitation (including several films based on the writings of the Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...

). Franco also worked in other exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...

 genres, such as cannibal film
Cannibal film
Cannibal films are a sub genre of exploitation film made mostly by Italian filmmakers through the 1970s and 1980s. This sub genre is a collection of graphically gory movies that usually depict cannibalism by primitive, Stone-age natives deep inside the Asian or South American rain forests...

s, spy films, giallo
Giallo
Giallo is an Italian 20th century genre of literature and film, which in Italian indicates crime fiction and mystery. In the English language it refers to a genre similar to the French fantastique genre and includes elements of horror fiction and eroticism...

, crime films, science fiction, jungle adventure, exorcist films, war movies, historical dramas and nunsploitation
Nunsploitation
Nunsploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film which had its peak in Europe in the 1970s. These films typically involve Christian nuns living in convents during the Middle Ages. The main conflict of the story is usually of a religious or sexual nature, such as religious oppression or sexual...

. His main claim to fame is that he has managed to write and direct close to 160 motion pictures in his lifetime, encompassing a wide swath of different genres, with practically no financial backing available to him.

His sex movies often contain long, uninterrupted shots of nude women writhing uncontrollably on the floor or in a bed (such as in Lorna The Exorcist and The Bare-Breasted Countess). Most of his hardcore films starred his companion Lina Romay, who has admitted to being an exhibitionist. Franco is also notorious for his use of hand-held camera
Hand-held camera
Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conveniently sized for travel and because they allow...

 and zoom
Zoom
Zoom is an onomatopoeiac sound that indicates swiftness.Zoom may also refer to:-Technology:* Zoom lens, a lens assembly allowing for adjustable focal length* Digital zoom, an electronic emulation of focal length change...

 shots, which he feels actually lends realism to his films.

He has frequently worked with genre actors Howard Vernon
Howard Vernon
Howard Vernon was a Swiss actor.Vernon was born Mario Lippert to a Swiss father and an American mother and was fluent in German, English, and French...

, Antonio Mayans, Paul Müller
Paul Müller (actor)
Paul Konrad Muller is a Swiss character actor. Notice: In fact his real name is "Muller" not "Müller". It seems that it is not possible to change the false written name in the headline of this article.- Theatre :...

, Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...

, Soledad Miranda
Soledad Miranda
Soledad Rendón Bueno , better known by her stage names Soledad Miranda or Susann Korda , was an actress who was born in Seville, Spain to Portuguese parents of Roma ancestry. She frequently starred in the films of Jess Franco, such as Count Dracula and Vampyros Lesbos...

, Maria Rohm
Maria Rohm
Maria Rohm is an Austrian actress.She is famous for appearing in many exploitation films directed by Jesús Franco in the late 60s. She was married to film producer Harry Alan Towers from 1964 until his death in 2009...

, Lina Romay
Lina Romay
For Singer, See Lina Romay Lina Romay is a Spanish actress who often appears in films directed by her long-time companion Jesus Franco.-Movie career:...

 and Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...

. Kinski was famous for his hatred of directors, but according to Franco, he never had any trouble working with him.

Franco was supposed to direct a film for Eurocine Productions in 1980 called Lake of the Living Dead but he could not do it, so producer Daniel Lesouer hired Jean Rollin to direct it (later retitling it Zombie Lake). Lesouer then had Jean Rollin direct some newly-filmed zombie footage to be inserted into Franco's A Virgin Among The Living Dead (1971) for its 1981 re-release. Franco purists today insist that "Virgin" be released in its former unadulterated form on DVD, as the added Jean Rollin footage greatly slowed down the pace of the film. Franco was later hired by Lesouer to direct a film for Eurocine called Oasis of the Zombies (1981), which had a plot similar to Zombie Lake (also involving revived Nazi zombies).

Filmography

Films
Year Title Alternative Title(s) Notes
1959 We Are Eighteen
1960 Red Lips
Queen of the Tabarin
1961 Vampiresses 1930
The Awful Dr. Orloff Gritos en la Noche · Screams in the Night
1962 Death Whistles the Blues La Muerte Silba Un Blues
The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus Hand of a Dead Man
1963 The Jaguar Sfida Selvaggio/ Savage Challenge
Rififi in the City
1964 Dr. Orloff's Monster The Secret of Dr. Orloff · The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll
1965 The Diabolical Dr. Z Miss Muerte · Miss Death
1966 Attack of the Robots Cards on the Table · Cards Face Up
Residence for Spies
1967 Lucky the Inscrutable
Necronomicon Succubus · Necronomicon Dreamt Sin
1968 Kiss Me, Monster Besame Monstruo
Two Undercover Angels Red Lips Sadisterotica
The Blood of Fu Manchu
The Blood of Fu Manchu
The Blood of Fu Manchu, also known as Fu Manchu and the Kiss of Death, Kiss and Kill and Against All Odds, is a 1968 British adventure crime film based on the fictional Asian villain Fu Manchu, created by Sax Rohmer. It was the fourth film in a series, and was preceded by The Vengeance of Fu...

Fu Manchu and the Kiss of Death · Kiss and Kill
The Castle of Fu Manchu
The Castle of Fu Manchu
The Castle of Fu Manchu also known by its German title Die Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu, is the fifth and final Fu Manchu film with Christopher Lee portraying the title character. The spy/crime film was filmed on location in Spain and Istanbul and originally released in West Germany in 1969...

The Girl from Rio
The Girl from Rio
The Girl from Rio is a 1969 Science Fiction film produced by Harry Alan Towers, directed by Jesus Franco and starring Shirley Eaton, Richard Wyler and George Sanders. Led by their queen, a tribe of Amazonian woman attack wealthy men, as part of a long-term plan to take over the world...

Su-muru · City Without Men
99 Women
Marquis de Sade's Justine Deadly Sanctuary
1969 Eugenie, The Story of Her Journey into Perversion Les Inassouvies · The Insatiable Ones
Venus in Furs
Venus in Furs (1969 film)
Venus in Furs is a 1969 Italian supernatural erotic thriller film directed by Jesús Franco and starring James Darren.The film bears only a superficial resemblance to the 1870 Venus in Furs novel by Leopold von Sacher Masoch...

Black Angel · Paroxismus
The Bloody Judge Throne of Fire · Night of the Blood Monster · The Witch-Killer of Blackmoor
Count Dracula
1970 Sex Charade
Eugenie de Sade 2000
Nightmares Come at Night Eyes of the Night
Vampyros Lesbos
Vampyros Lesbos
Vampyros Lesbos is a 1971 erotic horror film directed and co-written by Jesús "Jess" Franco, inspired by Bram Stoker's short story Dracula's Guest.- Plot :...

Las Vampiras
She Killed in Ecstasy
She Killed in Ecstasy
She Killed in Ecstasy is a 1971 exploitation film written and directed by Jesus Franco under the pseudonym "Frank Hollmann".-Plot:Dr. Johnson lives in bliss with his beautiful wife until his unorthodox experiments with human embryos cause a medical committee to reject his findings and orders him...

Mrs. Hyde
The Devil Came from Akasava
The Death Avenger of Soho Death Packs His Suitcase
X-312 Flight to Hell
The Revenge of Dr. Mabuse The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse
1971 Virgin Report Jungfrauen Report
Robinson and His Wild Slaves Sexy Darlings · Three Naked Women on Robinson Island
Dracula vs Frankenstein Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein · The Screaming Dead
A Virgin Among the Living Dead Christina, Princess of Eroticism
Lovers of Devil's Island Devil's Island Lovers
Daughter of Dracula
1972 The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein The Curse of Frankenstein
The Demons She-Demons · Les Demons · The Nuns of Clichy
Sinner: Diary of a Nymphomaniac Sinner
Dolls For Sale The House of Vice · Vibrating Girls · Les Ebranlees
A Captain of 15 Years
Silence of the Grave Un Silencio de Tumba
The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff The Eyes of Dr. Orloff
Mystery of the Red Castle unfinished
1973 The Other Side of the Mirror The Obscene Mirror
How to Seduce a Virgin Pleasure for Three · Beyond the Grave
The Bare-Breasted Countess Female Vampire · Le Comtesse Noire · The Loves of Irina · Erotikill · Les Avaleuses · The Swallowers
Maciste vs. the Amazon Queen Lustful Amazons
The Erotic Exploits of Maciste in Atlantis Les Gloutonnes · The Gobblers
Kiss Me Killer unfinished
Linda's Hot Nights Who Raped Linda?
The Perverse Countess Les Croqueuses · La Comtesse Perverse · The Munchers
Tender and Perverse Emanuelle
Relax, Baby unfinished
1974 Night of the Skull Sospiri · Night of the Killers
Celestine, Maid at your Service
Sexy a Go-Go
The Sexiest Man in the World
Exorcism and Black Masses Exorcisme
Lorna the Exorcist The Devil's Possessed
The Ticklish Ones Les Chatouilleuses · Nuns in Madness
The Troublemakers Les Emmerdeuses
1975 Lady Porno Midnight Party
Shining Sex The Girl With the Shining Sex
Two Women in a Golden Cage Razzia Sur le Plaisir
De Sade's Juliette
Barbed Wire Dolls Frauengefängnis · Caged Women
Women Behind Bars Diamonds For Hell
Downtown: The Naked Dolls of the Underworld
The Portrait of Doriana Gray Doriana Gray
The Slaves Die Sklavinnen
Mandinga unfinished
White Skin, Black Thigh
1977 Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper (1976 film)
Jack the Ripper is a 1976 German thriller film directed by Jesus Franco and starring Klaus Kinski. In this Swiss-German film Klaus Kinski portrays Jack the Ripper.-Cast:* Klaus Kinski – Dr...

Erotico Profondo
Love Camp
Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun
Sexy Sisters Swedish Nympho Slaves
Call of the Blonde Goddess Porno Shock
Greta the Mad Butcher Ilsa The Wicked Warden · Ilsa Ultimate Power
Wild Lust
Women Without Innocence Wicked Women
Women in Cellblock Nine
Blue Rita Das Frauenhaus · House of Women
1978 They Do It All! Elles Font Tout
I'm Burning Up All Over
Cocktail Special
Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties Opal of Fire
Erotic Symphony
1979 The Sadist of Notre Dame Demoniac
Mondo Cannibale
Mondo Cannibale
Mondo Cannibale is a 1980 cannibal film by prolific Spanish exploitation director Jesús Franco which starred a 17-year-old Sabrina Siani...

Cannibals · White Cannibal Queen
The Girls of the Copacabana
Man Hunter Sexo Canibal · Devil Hunter · Mandingo Manhunter
1980 Sex Is Crazy
Eugenie: The Story of a Perversion
Pick-Up Girls The Girl in the Transparent Panties
Sadomania: The Hell of Passion
Sadomania
Sadomania – Hölle der Lust is a 1981 German-Spanish women in prison film directed by Jesus Franco, starring Ajita Wilson.-Plot:A couple of newlyweds, Olga and Michael, are traveling along the desert and accidentally trespass on the property of Magda Urtado , who is the director of a boot camp of...

Hellhole Women
The Story of Linda Naked Super-Witches of the Rio Amore
Bloody Moon Die Sage des Todes · The Saw of Death · Profondo Tenebre
1981 Cecilia: Sexual Aberrations of a Married Woman Blue Underground
Lake of the Virgins
Night of the Open Vaginas
The Hotel of Love Affairs The Hotel of Rendez-vous
Oasis of the Zombies
Oasis of the Zombies
Oasis of the Zombies is a 1981 film by cult film director Jesús Franco for French producer Marius Lesoeur....

Abyss of the Living Dead · Blood-Sucking Nazi Zombies · Tomb of the Living Dead (alternate Spanish-language version)
Macumba Sexual
1982 Moans of Pleasure Gemidos de Placer
The Sexual Story of O
Black Boots, Leather Whip
The Inconfessable Orgies of Emanuelle Emanuelle Exposed
The Sinister Dr. Orloff Macabre Experiments
House of Lost Women
The Night Has a Thousand Sexes
The Intimate Confessions of an Exhibitionist
A Buttcrack for Two
Mansion of the Living Dead
1983 Lonely Road Camino Solitario
Blood on My Shoes
Alone Against Terror
The Blues of Pop Street
Fury in the Tropics Orgasmo Perverso
Lillian the Perverted Virgin
The Tanga Girls
Revenge in the House Of Usher Neurosis
The Grandfather, the Countess, and Scarlet the Naughty Scarlet
Diamonds of Kilimandjaro Treasure of the White Goddess
1984 The Shadow of Judoka vs. Dr. Wong
In Search of the Golden Dragon
How Much Does a Spy Cost?
Dirty Game in Casablanca
White Bay
Voices of Death
Golden Temple Amazons
A Cock for Three
1985 The Last of the Filipinas
Bangkok: Appointment with Death
Travel to Bangkok, Coffin Included
The White Slave
Lulu's Talking Butthole
Lulu's Pacifier
The Game Walks Among Whistles
1986 Slaves of Crime
The Girl with the Red Lips
The Suckers Las Chuponas
For Babies, Warm Milk
The Watcher and the Exhibitionist
Bragueta Story unfinished
AIDS, the 20th Century Plague unfinished
Tribulations of a Cross-eyed Buddha unfinished
1987 Phollastia
Falo Crest
Dark Mission: Operation Cocaine Flowers of Evil
1988 Faceless
Faceless (film)
Faceless is a 1988 French slasher film directed by Jesús Franco. The film is about Dr. Flamand and his assistant Nathalie who lure unsuspecting victims to use their skin to perform plastic surgery on the doctor's disfigured sister - a plot reminiscent of Franco's first film, Gritos en la noche...

Predators of the Night
1989 Esmeralda Bay
The Fall of Eagles War Song
1990 Downtown Heat: Ciudad Baja Viper's Point
1992 Don Quijote
1994 Jungle of Fear unfinished
1996 Killer Barbys
1998 Tender Flesh
Lust for Frankenstein
Mari-Cookie and the Killer Tarantula in 8 Legs to Love You
1999 Vampire Blues
Red Silk
Dr. Wong's Virtual Hell
Broken Dolls
2000 Helter Skelter
Blind Target
2001 Vampire Junction
2002 Jess Franco's Incubus
2003 Killer Barbys vs. Dracula
2005 Flowers of Perversion
Flowers of Passion
Snakewoman
2008 A Bad Day at the Cemetery Crypt of the Cursed Women
2010 Paula-Paula: an Audiovisual Experience

Further reading

  • Jess Franco, Memorias del tío Jess (2004) (autobiography, in Spanish)
  • Stéphane du Mesnilot, Jess Franco - Énergies du fantasme (2004, in French)
  • Alain Petit, Manacoa Files (1994–1999, in French)
  • Lucas Balbo, Peter Blumenstock, Christian Kessler, Tim Lucas
    Tim Lucas
    Tim Lucas is a film critic, biographer, novelist, screenwriter, blogger, and publisher/editor of the video review magazine Video Watchdog.-Biography and early career:...

    , Obsession - The Films of Jess Franco (1993)
  • Tim Lucas
    Tim Lucas
    Tim Lucas is a film critic, biographer, novelist, screenwriter, blogger, and publisher/editor of the video review magazine Video Watchdog.-Biography and early career:...

    , How to Read a Franco Film, in Video Watchdog n. 1 (1990) Article
  • The book Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984
    Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984
    Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984 is the title of a 1994 non fiction book by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs, that won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction....

    (1994) by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs dedicates a chapter to him.
  • Benedikt Eppenberger, Daniel Stapfer Maedchen, Machos und Moneten: Die unglaubliche Geschichte des Schweizer Kinounternehmers Erwin C. Dietrich. Mit einem Vorwort von Jess Franco. Verlag Scharfe Stiefel, Zurich, 2006, ISBN 3-033-00960-3 Robert Monell, Il codice segreto di Jesus Franco, in Nocturno Dossier n. 60, luglio 2007

External links

  • http://www.santoandfriends.com (Hispanic horror film index)
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