David Ladd
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David reviewed...
This is a movie based on "Eugenie de Franval," by the Marquis de Sade,… More
This is a movie based on "Eugenie de Franval," by the Marquis de Sade, but updated to a modern setting. It tells the story of a very twisted but quite brilliant writer named Radek (played by Paul Muller) and his step-daughter Eugenie, whom he has raised from birth. Radek's wife had already been pregnant when he married her, she'd died not long after giving birth, and he'd raised Eugenie himself, but not necessarily out of fatherly affection. He had a much darker agenda, as we soon learn. He has, in fact, raised her to be his perfect companion, a lover and a collaborator in his various and sundry crimes. Radek is a Sade character, recall. He kills people just because he likes to do it, and, more importantly, because he likes to prove to himself that he can get away with it. Eugenie is sucked into his madness, and the movie records it all.
Eugenie is played by the ravishing Soledad Miranda, then one of Franco's regular stable of performers, and she has never looked better than in this film. Only in her mid-20s at the time, she pulls off a balancing act, in her performance, that would have been impressive for an actress of twice her years. Eugenie willingly participates in all of her step-fathers' horrors, yet still retains an air of innocence--she is a victim as well as a perpetrator. One online review of the film said Paul Muller is totally miscast as her stepfather, and I couldn't disagree more strongly. His intensity is piercing, and he nails every note of his performance like a virtuoso. It is, in fact, difficult to imagine anyone else in the part. Originally, Franco was going to make him Eugenie's real father, as in the book, but he changed this out of censorship concerns. Still, the incest theme is quite icky, and Muller is extraordinarily creepy.
Kudos, also, are due to the films' fantastic score, another shot out of the park by the most excellent Bruno Nicolai--a perfect marriage of image and sound. Like Eugenie herself, it suggests both innocence and corruption, and makes no judgments on the proceedings.
The atmosphere in this one is stifling, at times, and I imagine some would feel the need for a shower after watching it. One shouldn't feel too dirty, though; this is great movie-making.
2 months ago via Flixster
David reviewed...
In Jess Franco's remake of The Bride Wore Black. Newlyweds Dr.… More
In Jess Franco's remake of The Bride Wore Black. Newlyweds Dr. Johnson, (Fred Williams) and his wife, (Soledad Miranda) are awaiting reports of a decision regarding his questionable experiments, but is branded a criminal and expelled from the medical society instead. Hoping to get over the devastated loss, she takes him away to a small island paradise, the fact that they haven't let up on him makes his torment much greater and eventually commits suicide. Vowing to take revenge, she sets off to seduce and kill the members of the Board one-by-one. As she gets closer and closer to completing her revenge, the mental anxieties of carrying them out almost bare down on her more than anything.
While Franco is a hit and miss film maker his films with Soledad Miranda are some of his best work. Despite the obvious low budget and what seems like some rushed shooting( on a side note this film was shot at the same times as Vampyros Lesbos as both films have the same cast and locations) he pulls off a soild film despite a few glaring plot holes but of course the real reason to see the film is for Soledad Miranda. She was real talent that was taken away from us way too soon.
Too sum up, this isn't a film for everyone but I feel its worth watching due to Miranda alone.
2 months ago via Flixster
