A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details 1 Journeys into Perversion: Vision, Desire and Economies of Transgression in the Films of Jess Franco Glenn Ward Doctor of Philosophy University of Sussex May 2011 2 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been, and will not be, submitted whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature:……………………………………… 3 Summary Due to their characteristic themes (such as „perverse‟ desire and monstrosity) and form (incoherence and excess), exploitation films are often celebrated as inherently subversive or transgressive. I critically assess such claims through a close reading of the films of the Spanish „sex and horror‟ specialist Jess Franco. My textual and contextual analysis shows that Franco‟s films are shaped by inter-relationships between authorship, international genre codes and the economic and ideological conditions of exploitation cinema. Within these conditions, Franco‟s treatment of „aberrant‟ and gothic desiring subjectivities appears contradictory. Contestation and critique can, for example, be found in Franco‟s portrayal of emasculated male characters, and his female vampires may offer opportunities for resistant appropriation. But these possibilities do not amount to the „radicality‟ sometimes attributed to the exploitation field. Focusing on international co-productions from early 1960s to mid 1970s, I discuss the ideological ambivalence of their fascination with „perversity‟ and „otherness‟. Chapter 1 argues that The Awful Dr Orlof challenges dominant standards of quality in contemporary Spanish cinema, that its figuring of monstrosity contains a potential critique of Francisco Franco‟s dictatorship, and that it only partially destabilises the genre‟s traditional gender codes. Chapter 2 discusses femme fatale stereotypes and fantasy tropes in Venus in Furs. Mixing visual discourses of „high‟ and „low‟ culture in an evocation of male „mad love‟, this film dramatises vision in a way which problematises the notion of the mastering, coherent gaze. Chapter 3 argues that Franco‟s female vampire films embody, while reflexively estranging, heteronormative male fascination with the „otherness‟ of female/„lesbian‟ desire. Franco‟s supposed transgressivity is often referred to as Sadeian; through a reading of Demoniac and Franco‟s „captive women‟ imagery, the final chapter therefore discusses the political possibilities, contradictions and limitations of Franco‟s Sadeian representations. 4 Acknowledgements Starting a thesis and a family in the same year was not the smartest decision I have ever made. The following helped me survive. For conversations and emails (in some cases brief but still helpful) thanks to Jess Franco, Kim Newman, Andrés Peláez, Pete Tombs, Julian Petley, Jay Slater, Andy Willis, Peter Kitson, Ben Halligan, Craig Ledbetter, Brian Horowitz, Antonio Lázaro-Reboll, Xavier Mendik and Jeffrey Sconce. Thanks to James Evans for jazz, wine, taunts, and the Video Watchdog. Small parts of the thesis were first aired at the following conferences: Cine-Excess III: an International Conference on Cult Film Traditions (Brunel University, Odeon Leicester Square, May 2009); New Nightmares (Manchester Metropolitan University, May 2008); European Nightmares: An International Conference on European Horror Cinema (Manchester Metropolitan University, June 2006). I am grateful to the organisers and delegates for the stimulation they provided. In the middle of writing the thesis I published an essay on the film Snuff in Latsploitation, Exploitation Cinema, and Latin America (Routlege 2009). Although the essay had nothing to do with Franco, I am indebted to the editors, Victoria Ruétalo and particularly Dolores Tierney, for the opportunity to find my voice in the world of exploitation studies. I have been especially fortunate in having Andy Medhurst and Dolores Tierney as joint supervisors. I thank them for their encouragement, tolerance and for keeping me on a reasonably tight leash. Without their wit and wisdom, the process would have been a lot more anguished. Lastly but mostly I thank (and beg forgiveness from) my family: Joanna, Imogen and Miranda. Thank you for sometimes going away: my lost weekends surrounded by mountains of fish-and- chip wrappers and Jess Franco DVDs were crucial. And thank you for being there. I hope I will be less monstrous now. 5 Table of Contents List of figures 7 Introduction: The Diabolical Sr. Franco 8 Chapter 1. Exploiting the Gothic: Visions of Genre in The Awful Dr Orlof 21 Genre Trouble 26 Franco Meets the Paracinemaniacs: Framing the exploitation auteur 36 The Eye of Exploitation 45 Nation and Contestation 55 Chapter 2. The Uncanny Eye: Visual Uncertainty in Venus in Furs 71 Baroque Despair 72 The Jet-Set Party and the Wild Scene 78 Fetishes and Fishtanks: the obscured look 85 The Doubting Eye 89 The Performance of Sight: Franco‟s zoom 94 The Cartography of Sex 100 Exploitation, Transgression and Cultural Space 105 Chapter 3. Strange Desires: Sexuality and Power in Vampyros Lesbos 111 The Sex Life of Vampires 113 Grave Expectations: The erotic vampire subgenre 116 Revamps 120 Bending the Lore: Franco‟s monster rally 125 The Devil in Miss Romay: Containing the female vampire 127 Reclaiming the Countess 133 6 Invitations to the Netherworld 139 „It‟s a Long Time since I Sunbathed‟ 144 Putting the Lid on it 14 8 Chapter 4. Last Exorcism in Paris: Demoniac, Captive Women and Genre Mixture 152 The Many Lives of Demoniac 155 Whips, Ropes and Sadeian Tropes: Demoniac‟s genre connections 161 What‟s Inside a Girl? Possession and exorcism narratives 169 Sadesploitation 173 Prisoners of the Flesh: Captive women and fantasy space 181 Politics and Prurience 189 The Dystopian Orgy 196 Conclusion 203 Bibliography 208 Appendix: Films Cited and Table of Concordances 230 7 List of figures 1.1: Advertising insert for DVDs sold by Divisa Home Videos. (Coll.of the author) 44 1.2: Handbill for The Awful Dr Orlof, front. (Coll.of the author) 48 1.3: Handbill for The Awful Dr Orlof, back. (Coll. of the author) 48 1.4: The attack on Dani. (The Awful Dr Orlof, screengrab) 50 1.5: Orlof and Morpho arrive ashore. (The Awful Dr Orlof, screengrab) 51 1.6: Election posters in Rififi en la ciudad. (Screengrab) 62 2.1: Credit sequence from Venus in Furs. (Screengrab) 80 2.2: The „jet-set party‟ from Venus in Furs. (Screengrabs) 81 2.3: Jimmy follows Wanda in Venus in Furs. (Screengrabs) 86 2.4: Aquarium shot in Blue Rita. (Screengrab) 87 3.1: Patriarchy restored: British lobby-card for Count Dracula. (Coll.of the author) 129 3.2: The vampire admires her own reflection in Vampyros Lesbos. (Screengrab) 134 3.3: Credit sequence from Vampyros Lesbos. (Screengrabs) 141 3.4: Credit sequence from Female Vampire. (Screengrabs) 143 3.5: The clown dildo/dildo clown in Vampyros Lesbos. (Screengrab) 151 4.1: Spanish press-book for The Sadist of Notre Dame. (Coll.of the author) 158 4.2: French poster for The Rites of Frankenstein. (Coll.of the author) 162 4.3: Spanish press-book for The Sadist of Notre Dame, interior. (Coll.of the author) 165 4.4: Spanish press-book for Night of the Skull. (Coll.of the author) 167 4.5: One of Vogel‟s captives. (Demoniac, screengrab) 172 4.6: On-stage blood rites. (Demoniac, screengrab) 172 4.7: Vogel‟s voyeurism. (Demoniac, screengrab) 173 4.8: Vogel‟s voyeurism. (Demoniac, screengrab) 173 4.9: Spanish press-book for 99 Women, front and back. (Coll. Of the author) 190 8 Introduction: The Diabolical Sr. Franco This thesis looks at the work of one of the most prolific figures in European exploitation cinema, the Spanish filmmaker Jesús Franco Manera, more commonly known as Jess Franco (1930 - ).1 Although Franco has made musicals, comedies, spy adventures and Westerns, most of his films occupy and refer to body genres - most obviously horror and the sex film - attractive to the exploitation industry. Many of Franco‟s films foreground the sexual content of gothic horror: fetishistic and sadomasochistic props often decorate tales of perverse desire, deathly seduction and destructive erotomania. While Franco can be described nebulously as a „cult‟ filmmaker, this is not primarily a study of the construction or consumption of „cult‟ cinema. However, Franco‟s „cult‟ status is not unconnected to his films‟ investment in „perversity‟ and „transgression‟, and these are central to my analysis. This thesis was originally conceived out of disappointment. As a consumer since the early 1990s of many reissued exploitation films on video and DVD, I admit that I found the sleazy reputation of Franco‟s films alluring. But on the whole they fell short both of my hopes for a delirious journey into perversion2 and of the exciting accounts given of them in „cult‟-oriented publications.3 Despite their concern with gothic desires, often emblematised in such archetypes as the female vampire, the mad scientist and the aristocratic debauchee, watching Franco‟s films can be a curiously distracted and impoverished experience. Partly this is a matter of poor dubbing and dubious subtitling. But it is also because they are often monotonously paced, inconsistent, tenuously plotted and less than compellingly performed. However, watching pristine un-subtitled foreign-language prints of Franco‟s Vampyros Lesbos (1970), Faceless (1988) and Female Vampire (1973) on the big screen4 persuaded me that many of his films were at least visually, tonally, thematically and structurally interesting.