The Metafilmic Dreamland of Uncle Jess: Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies (Jess Franco, 2013)

Private dick Al Pereira is dreaming. He's talking in his sleep, waving with imaginary guns. "I'm Al Pereira!" he screams, rolling around in the body we recognize as Spanish actor Antonio Mayans. This is the fourth... or is it the fifth time? Anyway, the umpteenth time Mayans plays Pereira (Eddie Constantine also plays him in Attack of the Robots, from 1966...). And probably the last. Mayans is older, with wrinkles and grey hair. The former so slim man is now a slightly chubby gentleman with a twinkle in the eye.

What follows in Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies is a deconstruction of the career of Franco, much like Jean Rollin did with Night of the Hourglass, one last gasp of insanity. It's also a sharp - and confusing - slaughter of manliness. We have Pereira, who think he can get every women in the world. He loves Chuck Norris and have a strong Christian faith, seeing himself as a sacristan - a "Christian cop", responsible to keep control over what happens in the church. Against him he have a couple of female demons (which just is just a couple of naked women), daughters to Fu Manchu! They want him, but the loath him. They see through, that he's just fake. A racist, misogynist fake. At the end of the movie the camera turns around and Franco sits there, laughing at Mayans who's having a blast dancing and reciting Shakespeare's Macbeth. Franco says "We've just made Pereira look like an asshole, but that doesn't matter".

The world Pereira living in is fake. He's in a movie. He's in a Franco movie, and sometimes he's Antonio Mayans receiving directions from Jess Franco sitting just outside the frame. This is meta, very meta. A couple of times the scene is shot in the front of a mirror, so we can see a very frail Franco sitting there, giving instructions or enjoying the sight. In one scene we're witnessing the rehearsal of a scene, with Franco in the middle of the shot, and the finished scene directly after. Slowly the typical late-Franco style film with endless scenes of naked women showing their pubic hairs a bit too much transforms into a bizarre comedy, a satire over filmmaking, over acting and manliness, religion and sex. Often they've placed the spotlights in the middle of the shot, like Franco tells us he doesn't give a shit. It's not about silly details like that, it's about filmmaking as an art form.

This is a very acquired taste. But if you're in the right mood, this movie will leave you with a huge smile on your face. It's very hard to dislike, especially after Franco leaves the boring nude scenes and tries on some kind of story, fragmented, surrealistic and absurd - but still a story, something that actually can be read and analyzed. Maybe that's not the meaning, but what the hell.

I could go into detail about the bad stuff. Like it's a very cheap film, sloppily made in a good-looking hotel somewhere. Some of the comedy, especially towards the end just doesn't work - but still find it's place in the very absurd last half hour. The nudity in the first part is boring and...boring. But somehow it's become a part of the later career of Uncle Jess, so I guess it belongs there. But still, you have to give it to him that he's never been interested in finding the most gorgeous women. For him a nude woman is enough, even if she's not "perfect" in the eyes of the mainstream audience.

You can say what you want, but this is the best Franco has made in years - and it's also the final movie in his amazing career. I'm probably not the only one who's hair stood up during the last scene, where Mayans turns to the camera and over and over again tries to quote Macbeth - in English and Spanish:

This is a story
told by an idiot
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing.

Camera turns to Uncle Jess.
That's it. That's cut. 

The End.

Comments

[Megatron]

"We have Pereira, who think he can get every women in the world. He loves Chuck Norris and have a strong Christian faith, seeing himself as a sacristan - a "Christian cop", responsible to keep control over what happens in the church."

Perhaps a parody on Norris, mainstream american culture, etc..?

"The world Pereira living in is fake. He's in a movie. He's in a Franco movie, and sometimes he's Antonio Mayans receiving directions from Jess Franco sitting just outside the frame. This is meta, very meta."

Sounds like it.

"This is a very acquired taste. But if you're in the right mood, this movie will leave you with a huge smile on your face."

Yeah, if you are in the right mood.......you can watch anything.

"I could go into detail about the bad stuff. Like it's a very cheap film, sloppily made in a good-looking hotel somewhere. Some of the comedy, especially towards the end just doesn't work - but still find it's place in the very absurd last half hour. The nudity in the first part is boring and...boring."

Whoa, boobs are NEVER boring...hahahhahahhahahhah

"Camera turns to Uncle Jess.
That's it. That's cut.

The End."

So this was his final film...?

Not a bad way to go......good review and thanks Fred.

[Fred Anderson]

I doubt he managed to shoot yet another one after this, so I guess it's officially his last. I don't like when filmmakers I love dies... :/

[Megatron]

Fred: I hear you.....it really sucks when people you like dies.....

[Alex Bakshaev]

I agree, when Jess leaves the nude scenes and gives Pereira more to do APVTAL becomes a more interesting film

[gk]

excellent review. Not seen any Franco movie after Snakewoman but going to dig this one out. Thanks fred.