#christina princess of eroticism

[anitapallenberg]

Carmen Yazalde in Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[ladamarossa]

Left: X (2022) 

Right: A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

[grindhousecellar]

Jess Franco Friday!

[videoreligion]

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | A Virgin Among the Living Dead (Franco, 1973)

I would not consider myself a member of the Jess Franco fanclub, and from my limited experience with his work, I've run pretty hot and cold. There are times when his work has definitely clicked with me, and others when I've found the experience excruciating (even with one of his better liked films), or at least been left wondering what really distinguishes him from some of the other cult directors with whom he gets compared. There are obvious similarities on paper between Franco and, say, Jean Rollin, another director with a light touch and a sense of atmosphere so delicate that it almost evaporates when you think you've put your finger on it. (Rollin also shares Franco's penchant for female nudity, and hey, I'm not complaining. You might even say that I run hot and cold on Franco because his movies feature hot ladies and chilly-looking weather. I'll be here all week.) Yet putting a Franco beside a Rollin, it does seem that they move differently, even if describing how exactly they move is something I've found difficult. (The sheer volume of Franco's output also presents a certain challenge. When someone has made so maddening an amount of movies, how many do you need to see to get a representative sample? And how many of them are actually good?) Of course, being in the proximity of all the Franco-heads on Letterboxd has made me more inclined to dig further into his work and really nail down his essence, and in that respect, A Virgin Among the Living Dead has been one of my most rewarding viewings yet.

The story concerns a young woman (Christina von Blanc) who comes to visit her relatives in a remote castle for the reading of her recently deceased father's will. At first she is happy to have them for company, but as the title suggests, things are not exactly what they seem. Stylistically, this shares plenty of Franco's trademarks: the zooms, of course, but wide-angle lenses that lend an imposing and cavernous quality to the castle, and bluish lighting that casts a pall over the proceedings. More than most of his films I've seen, this seems attentive to the actors' faces: the way Howard Vernon's eyes almost bulge out of his head; the soft, droopy features of Franco himself (he is no better an actor here as I've seen him elsewhere, but casts himself more pointedly here); the fullness of Britt Nichols' pout; and the round, emotive eyes of von Blanc. Von Blanc might not be a great actress in the traditional sense, but with those eyes of hers she's able to sell her character's poignancy and provide an emotional core to the movie. The movie wisely grounds the proceedings in her perspective, and the visual style feels more experiential than in some of his other films, like when the wide angle lens is pointed up towards the trees as the heroine ventures further into the woods. I read an argument that this was Franco's attempt to deal with his grief from Soledad Miranda's death, and with his stylistic approach a bit more focused, the atmosphere more funereal, and his exploitative tendencies relatively restrained (or at least more purposefully deployed), I found the overall result quite moving.

The movie exists in a number of versions, and my reaction above is to Franco's original director's cut, originally released with the (misleading) title Christina, Princess of Eroticism. Apparently the producers weren't too happy with the downer-ass (but still atmospheric and sexy) movie that Franco turned out, so they insisted on releasing a version with more sex scenes. One of these, which can be seen on the Kino Blu-ray, features Franco regular Alice Arno in a mask and cape presiding over an orgy. I have to wonder if viewers at the time could tell this scene was shot after, but seeing it now, the fact that it shares none of the same actors or has a remotely similar colour scheme is a dead giveaway. (There's a brief cutaway to the actors from the original version standing on a hill in a lame attempt to hide the seams.) The movie was re-released in 1981 in an attempt to squeeze even more pennies out of the production, and this time came with zombie footage directed by Jean Rollin. (This was where it's best known title came from, in an attempt to cash in on the zombie craze, although I'd have loved to see this with an audience who went into this expecting Dawn of the Dead or Zombie.) These scenes, while noticeably not the same film when watching it in a presentable HD transfer, at least have a similar colour scheme (that might have perhaps fooled viewers seeing it on VHS) and, because Rollin and Franco are not miles apart in the sense of atmosphere there direction conjures, move similarly enough to the real movie. I did find these scenes enjoyable in their own way, but in the context of the greater film, they render the sense of the menace a little too concrete. Franco's style may still feel a little too elusive for me to fully define, but I can tell when something is off.

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina von Blanc in Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco

[anitapallenberg]

Christina, Princess of Eroticism aka A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) | Dir. Jesús Franco