4th of July 2025 Marathoning
McDowell and Comi prepare to leave for Mars. Aliens visiting the UN, dropping off their cook book, providing goodies for humans on Earth, easing them into trusting them, spiriting them away to be food for them on their home planet. To Serve Man is nearly 60 years ago. I've been watching Twilight Zone since I was a teenager in the mid 90s thanks to Sci Fi Channel. Many of my family have passed since (for instance, my mother's siblings are all about gone except one last sister), and it wouldn't be right to avoid a marathon during the 4th if just for nostalgic reasons. Syfy didn't see the value of TZ on Independence Day, except last year, so even though I cannot watch episodes like I do during New Year's Eve and Day, it is nice to try and sneak in a block of episodes whenever possible. I started with Death Ship from the fourth season, continuing with Stopover in a Quiet Town and The Gift . To Serve Man would feel like a later afternoon watch but SYFY showed it at 3:...
BARON isn't one of Franco's better pictures--most of it is a bit too "normal"--but there's a sequence in it that will leave you absolutely breathless. Not just for how far ahead of its time it was, but because of the simple, brutal brilliance of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you weren't immediately impressed with VENUS IN FURS and VAMPYROS LESBOS. Have you ever seen any of the other pictures he made with Soledad Miranda (particularly SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY and EUGENIE DE SADE)?
BTW, if you need SUCCUBUS (or other Francos), I think I know a place you can get them, and at a most agreeable price.
I think many of us see a film that is quite a bit different than we are accustomed to for the first time and it because many of us are just used to a film that's linear and goal-driven that when we see something like Succubus it is like taking someone, clutching their arms, and shaking them. I think, though, you either embrace the unusual and different or just continue to watch those films that *make total sense*. A lot of people don't want different.
ReplyDeleteActually She Killed in Ecstasy was my first, while Eugenie De Sade is my second favorite Franco of his output, just behind The Diabolical Dr. Z.
Well, She Killed..was my first ever Franco film, not my favorite. Just had to clarify.
ReplyDeleteI was into Euro-genre stuff, and off-the-wall stuff in general, and didn't really have the typical American aversion to the dreamier, non-linear material by the time I got to Franco. It was also the case that I'd read about Franco's work for about 15 years before I ever had the chance to see any of it, so I was prepared. With that kind of stored-up anticipation, it's almost inevitable that, when one gets to see the actual pictures, they'll be disappointing, but Franco actually exceeded even all of that. Rollin did, as well.
ReplyDeleteI do become rather, shall we say, impatient when I see those "non-linear" films' structure used as evidence of incompetence on the part of the filmmaker. I've seen SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY (among others) brutalized in this fashion. For a long time, I thought about writing a sort of primer to explain such things to novices, but it's one of the many projects I've dreamed up that just end up back-burnered.
If you need some Franco, just let me know. I'm a missionary!
I have several of his I plan to watch in the coming weeks lined up. Succubus, The Diabolical Dr. Z, The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus, & Virgin Among the Living Dead are all in my possession. This time of year is always busy as I find myself watching holiday horror, but a lot of Franco is on the horizon. I was really pleased with Night of the Hunted, how it turned out. It gives me confidence that Rollin won't wind up a less-than-desirable artist when I write about his work in the future.
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