quote:Originally posted by Helen_S: Crash will be in here any minute to rant about his zooms LOL
Naw, too obvious. I want to rant about his fake slow motion in Barb Wire Dolls. LOL
I like Vampyros Lesbos, She Killed in Ecstasy, The Awful Dr. Orloff, and parts of Count Dracula, The Bloody Judge, Venus in Furs, and Eugenie. So what's his batting average? 7 for 250 or about 3 percent... 3 percent better than old Uwe Boll.
[ 31. October 2012, 15:50: Message edited by: Crash ]
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Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
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Didn't you see his 60's spy spoofs.. or his 60's surrealist cinema.. and did you miss all the beautiful hypnotic imagery present in many of his early 70's movies.. i wonder.
Jess Franco hardly ever made a movie that could easily be classified into a certain genre. I'll admit his body of work is an acquired taste, but you can't simply dismiss it as trash.
And Jess Franco definitely made a whole lot more than just 7 good movies.. You just need to find them. Many of them are still not easily available nowadays.
Iconic surrealist imagery from Jess Franco's The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966)
[ 31. October 2012, 03:55: Message edited by: Johnny Roarke is reckless ]
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I will admit it, if there is a Jess Franco film that shows up on Netflix or some other streaming network I will watch it. I keep telling myself, "It will be great like Vampyros Lesbos or She Killed in Ecstasy." And I always get completely crushed, usually in the first five minutes. (The last time was with Besame Monster.) I also own a bunch of his films on DVD, more than I care to admit. That said, my take is that Jess Franco is not a half-bad director (heck, Orson Welles trusted him as a second unit director; that counts a lot with me)...when he wants to be. I was just pointing out that he has a poor track record with very, very few really good films in his large filmography. (He spent his career on quantity, not necesssarily quality, that's for sure.) Boll, on the other hand, is a complete and total hack. My huge problem with Franco is that I think he's just freaking lazy and often appears not to care. I realize that he never had the budgets he needed, but that's no excuse for fake slow motion, repeated shots with lens flare, and not being able to shoot even the simplest scene in focus. (For example, I have the remastered version of The Castle of Fu Manchu as part of the Christopher Lee box set, and while it looks much, much better than I've ever seen it, that can't overcome the fact that it's an incoherent, incompetent film. Here's a guy whose filmmaking skills seemed to get worse as he went on.) I have actually seen his spy spoofs and surrealistic films, and again, while some of his stuff is quite interesting, mostly it doesn't work for me.
I will admit to a potential bias. I've been watching films for a long time, and back in the 1970s, everyone, including even my impressionable 12-year-old self, said that all Franco's films sucked. I struggled through his boring stuff that you could see at the time on free TV (long before even VHS) like Attack of the Robots and the two Fu Manchu films, while gazing at the same three fantastic stills from Vampyros Lesbos in various horror film books. Then the local late-night TV horror host in Pittsburgh somehow managed to get a print of Count Dracula, a film, which for a couple of years previous, had developed this word-of-mouth reputation as a masterpiece. Even Christopher Lee had said it was excellent. These were wild, primitive days where, without the Internet, you only heard murmurs in the darkness about when an alleged Euro masterpiece was going to get a release in the U.S. I waited for 25 years to track down Death Line a/k/a Raw Meat, for example, never having met anyone who'd actually seen it. (The few who were familiar with it always said,"Haven't seen it. Heard it was good.") So you can imagine the stakes were always very high on a grail quest for a foreign treasure. With great anticipation, I finally saw Count Dracula and was let down forever--it has good points, a lot of dull stuff, and more incompetent technique--camera shadows on the wall, anyone? (Helen now enters to flame me by claiming that Count Dracula actually is a masterpiece. ) When the re-evaluation of Franco came about 25 years ago by folks like Frank Hennenlotter, I was a lost cause, but yet, I kept watching as previously lost or unreleased films turned up, and, TA-DA, I discovered that "Gritos en La Noche" is wonderful, as are "Lesbos" and "Ecstasy."
Pretty much my argument both for and against Franco...
P.S. I also own Tim Lucas's huge hardback on the films of Jess Franco, loaded with incredibly sleazy stills showing unmentionable activity. It's long out of print, and I'm sure would command a fantastic price on ebay, but I ain't partin' with it. LOL
P.P.S. I just remembered that Sadique de Notre Dame a/k/a/ Exorcism would be on my "pretty good" list too.
[ 31. October 2012, 15:42: Message edited by: Crash ]
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Light on story, but great acting and chemistry between Walter Matthau and George Burns, and some genuinely funny moments.
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aTomiK
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Never seen it but i noticed that it´s based on a play by Neil Simon so i´m interested. I have 8 films based on his work and all of them are interesting to say the least.
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Watched Alien first time in a while still love it as much as always tho!!
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Alien is wonderful. One of the best experiences of my life was sitting in front of Yaphet Kotto and meeting Ridley Scott during a retrospective screening in Toronto about a decade ago. There is no doubt that Scott is a visionary, world-cinema director. Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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Burt Reynolds goes treasure-hunting in the Philippines. Television-actress Ann Francis and Vic Diaz co-star.
Back in the glory days of video-rental shops, Burt Reynolds movies from the 70's to approx 1987 could be found anywhere and were very popular. There were always these tapes laying around at the bottom-shelves with movies nobody had ever heard of, but which had a famous actor in it. Impasse could have easily been one of those, i guess. Posts: 2176 | From: The Netherlands | Registered: Jun 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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aTomiK
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Sounds like a fun little flick. Burt Reynolds marathon coming later in 2013
I watched The Long Goodbye (1973) last night.
Excellent crime film directed by the great Robert Altman and based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same name.
Starring Elliott Gould, Nina van Ballandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell and Henry Gibson. You can also see Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Carradine briefly.
Loved the easy going feel, 70s California scenery and lifestyle.
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Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
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The Harder They Come (1972) is another film i watched while the site was down.
It was a very good Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell. A real life reggae artist Jimmy Cliff stars as Ivanhoe Martin. A wannabe reggae singer/drug smugler who takes the law into his own hands and becomes a legend.
I highly recommend this low-budget classic!
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Tidbit of trivia: "The Harder They Come" was one of the first midnight movie cult hits in the U.S., introducing U.S. audiences to Jimmy Cliff and reggae music. I remember seeing it late night on a weekend in the md-70s (It seemingly played for a decade) and enjoying it very much, especially the music, despite the somewhat primitive filmmaking techniques on display. I second the high recommendation: good film, better film history.
[ 08. January 2013, 16:41: Message edited by: Crash ]
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aTomiK
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Another smoke filled theater in the 70s, early 80s and our man Crash was there!
But yeah, the 2-disc edition i have, included great documentaries: The Making of- and The Phenomenon of The Harder They Come. Priceless stuff!
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quote:Originally posted by aTomiK: Another smoke filled theater in the 70s, early 80s and our man Crash was there!
But yeah, the 2-disc edition i have, included great documentaries: The Making of- and The Phenomenon of The Harder They Come. Priceless stuff!
I'm lucky that I'm "old." I actually got to experience the 70's and 80's firsthand from the back of scary urban grindhouses and crummy drive-ins. I'd never trade those experiences for anything. If I had a time machine, we'd go back in time to 1980 to see the triple feature of "Bloodsucking Freaks," "Invasion of the Blood Farmers," and "Savage Man, Savage Beast" at the Budco Goldman, Philadelphia's best, or worst depending on your perspective, grindhouse. It was a place so vile, I knew where the only three seats were where you wouldn't be overcome with the smell of urine and body odor. Priceless memories. Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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Lovers with Cassie
Remembering when Mel Gibson was young....
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Alice in Wonderland (1951). The voices of Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna, Verna Felton and Bill Thompson. A girl has outlandish adventures in another land after following a rabbit down a hole. Based on the novel by Lewis Carroll.
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quote:Originally posted by Crash: I'm lucky that I'm "old." I actually got to experience the 70's and 80's firsthand from the back of scary urban grindhouses and crummy drive-ins. I'd never trade those experiences for anything. If I had a time machine, we'd go back in time to 1980 to see the triple feature of "Bloodsucking Freaks," "Invasion of the Blood Farmers," and "Savage Man, Savage Beast" at the Budco Goldman, Philadelphia's best, or worst depending on your perspective, grindhouse. It was a place so vile, I knew where the only three seats were where you wouldn't be overcome with the smell of urine and body odor. Priceless memories.
Crash, i don't know if you're familiar with it.. but Bill Landis' book Sleazoid Express features a very lively description of the New-York grindhouse scene in the 70's and (early) 80's. Not only the movies, but also the theaters, the people, the junks, the dope, everything is in there !
If you don't already have it, you should definitely keep your eye out for a copy. I just know you will love it ! Posts: 2176 | From: The Netherlands | Registered: Jun 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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aTomiK
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Usually they get mentioned in magazines such as Video Watchdog or Fangoria. So then i know what to look for. Here in Holland we have a big online-store which sells books and movies (and since a couple of months even toys and cosmetica products) where you can find many of these books which are originally published in America or the UK. It's something like a Dutch version of Amazon. (although not quiet THAT big) Oddly, they hardly sell any import dvd's though.
In this months Fangoria magazine there was a review of a book called Muchas Gracias Senor Lobo which they described as 'an astonishing collection of international artwork used to promote the movies of Paul Naschy'. According to the review there are hundreds of lobbycards, rare photos, and other documents.
Well, that sure sounds like something i would buy without even looking at the pricetag. Unfortunately this book hasn't been added to that Dutch online-store's website. But still, it was where i got my copies of Nightmare USA, Shock Festival, Cinema Sewer, and many others from.
[ 09. January 2013, 07:31: Message edited by: Johnny Roarke is reckless ]
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aTomiK
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So cool. I didn´t even know that they still publish Fangoria mag Posts: 7056 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
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quote:The Slipper And The Rose - As if enduring a Cinderella panto 25 times in the last few weeks at work wasn't enough I then watch this really long Cinderella film lol
This might be a dumb question, but what kind of work do you do where you have to endure a Cinderella panto 25 times?
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aTomiK
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One of my least fave Amicus anthologies, Torture Garden (1967) but still a decent film and the Peter Cushing segment is wonderful.
Also watched the wonderful The Creeping Flesh, the ending always kills me Posts: 4057 | From: uk | Registered: May 2007 | Site Updates: 0
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aTomiK
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Watched The Villain aka Cactus Jack (1979) during the christmas break. The movie was directed by Hal Needham and it´s just too dumb and silly but there´s one reason to watch the film: Ann-Margret. Damn she´s hot
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That said, my take is that Jess Franco is not a half-bad director (heck, Orson Welles trusted him as a second unit director; that counts a lot with me)...when he wants to be. I was just pointing out that he has a poor track record with very, very few really good films in his large filmography. (He spent his career on quantity, not necesssarily quality, that's for sure.) Boll, on the other hand, is a complete and total hack. My huge problem with Franco is that I think he's just freaking lazy and often appears not to care. I realize that he never had the budgets he needed, but that's no excuse for fake slow motion, repeated shots with lens flare, and not being able to shoot even the simplest scene in focus. (For example, I have the remastered version of The Castle of Fu Manchu as part of the Christopher Lee box set, and while it looks much, much better than I've ever seen it, that can't overcome the fact that it's an incoherent, incompetent film. Here's a guy whose filmmaking skills seemed to get worse as he went on.) I have actually seen his spy spoofs and surrealistic films, and again, while some of his stuff is quite interesting, mostly it doesn't work for me. 
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