Watching Jess Franco talk about movies is the best thing ever. It's like he's slowly waking up from the frail existance he lived in the last years, sitting there with his cigarette remembering small details from one of the 200 feature length movies he directed from the fifties up to his death in 2013. Sometimes the memory need some helps and he yells out for Lina Romay, who's probably sitting the next room smoking, and she appears instantly filling in the facts. Franco was a man who lived in movies, who in his own words had the feeling of movies. That's the reason why he decided to make Lina star after Soledad Miranda died, they both had the feeling - the awareness of the audience on the other side of the creative process, the chemistry with the camera and Franco and of course the ability to just look through the technoloy and catch our eyes.
Not all of Franco's movies were masterpieces, but imagine anyone being able to make 200 of those? That's impossible. He was a working man, a filmmaker of jazz and pleasure, someone who had cameras for eyes and printed negatives with his brain. The Hot Nights of Linda was made during his many years with Eurociné, a French production company who probably made some of the worst movies I ever seen, but still created some kind of poetry in the trash they made. Linda was made as a co-production with Spain and Eurociné never showed up on set, which can explain why it's a lot better than some of the other productions Franco made for them. That didn't stop them from taking the movie and - according to Franco - edited into at least ten different movies - including "Just Sex" (which Franco, laughingly adds, must have been just a short movie).
Alice Arno, who never was that fond of acting, plays Marie-France Bertrand, a young teacher hired to go to the riviery to help a rich widower (Paul Müller) with their two daughters, Linda and Olivia (Catherine Lafferière and Lina Romay). Linda is paralyzed and is cared for by a mute servant, Abdul (Pierre Taylou) and Olivia is revolting against everyone and everything with a very sinister idea of sexual terror, incest and just plain violence. Marie-France is slowly drawn into their games of sex and intrigue, whether she like it or not...
The Hot Nights of Linda was made during a very creative period of Franco's career. He produced masterpiece after masterpiece, often complex erotic dramas with suspense and sometimes dashes of horror. We're talking highly original pieces here, far more intelligent and emotionally charged than you can imagine at a first look. Linda is not the best of the bunch. It feels a bit uneven, especially the first half our or so. The scenes shot in Paris is the usual crappy Eurociné quality, but when it finally arrives to Spain, in Alicante, it suddenly rises in quality. Architecture have always been important in the works of Franco, and here he uses a beautiful by-the-sea mansion in Greek style (an hotel, he says in an interview). Not as spectacular as Ricardo Bofill's houses used in, for example, She Killed in Ecstacy and Countess Perverse, but wonderfully bright and stylish - the perfect place of a really twisted sexual nightmare.
While I'm not entierly fond of the ending (Lina suggests it was the invention of Eurociné), the biggest flaw is the comedic side story where a clumsy cop with a big mustasche, investigating Müller's alleged murder of his wife) and a sex-crazy female photographer sneaks around the mansion, nagging like an unhappy married couple. Franco added them because he felt the movie would be too dark, but that's probably one of the few stupid ideas I've heard him say. Without those scenes it would have been among the best he's done.
The Hot Nights of Linda is a dark, complex, sexy suspensful drama with some nudity and some violence. The blu-ray from Severin looks very good, even if the print (probably put together from several sources) isn't the best. As usual the Franco interview included is awesome, that man really knows what he's talking about. The second interview, with him and Lina at the same time, is also conducted in English and is harder to follow. But still interesting - we're talking the greatest couple ever lived here, so just sit back and enjoy what they have to say.
Also included on the version I have is a hardcore (?) version of the movie, on DVD, but my interest in straight sex is weak as it can get...
....so I leave that to a rainy day when I have absolutely nothing to do ;)
"Not all of Franco's movies were masterpieces, but imagine anyone being able to make 200 of those? That's impossible."
Yeah, and most people don´t get to do even half of that number.
Quite impressive.....
"The Hot Nights of Linda was made during a very creative period of Franco's career. He produced masterpiece after masterpiece, often complex erotic dramas with suspense and sometimes dashes of horror. We're talking highly original pieces here, far more intelligent and emotionally charged than you can imagine at a first look."
Complex erotic dramas.....?
I´m listening...hahhahahhahah
"the biggest flaw is the comedic side story where a clumsy cop with a big mustasche, investigating Müller's alleged murder of his wife) and a sex-crazy female photographer sneaks around the mansion, nagging like an unhappy married couple."
They created some kind of......cheap comedy routine that didn´t fit in..?
Some films have that flaw.
"As usual the Franco interview included is awesome, that man really knows what he's talking about."
I can imagine that.
"Also included on the version I have is a hardcore (?) version of the movie, on DVD, but my interest in straight sex is weak as it can get..."
I´m not surprised by that...hahhahahhah......but Lina Romay, what a dreamy babe she was.....
"....so I leave that to a rainy day when I have absolutely nothing to do"
hahahhahahha.....I want to read that review.
Great review and thanks, never seen this one.
Posted by: Megatron | November 05, 2013 at 17:24