In the late 60’s and early 70’s anything European was a hit in the US of A, mainly due to the success of classics like
‘La Dolce Vita’ and
‘I am Curious Yellow’ or even his own
‘We Are 18 Years Old’ , but that also meant that many jumped on the same band wagon. In 1969 there was Jess Franco, directing his trippy and surreal erotic masterpiece that was to be known as either
‘Succubus’ or
‘Necronomicon’ , was the world ready for this heady mix of dreamy, silk-laced, soft focused dream sequences, nudity, S & M cabaret acts and a little murder thrown in for good measure.
Lorna Green (Janine Reynaud, who would later be caught in Franco’s double bill of sexy spy spoofs,
‘Kiss Me Monster’ and
‘Sadisterotica’ ) is a strip tease artist in an exclusive club, acting out S & M stage performances with various people being crucified and whipped to a pretend death under constantly changeable score mixed up of classical and jazz. Miss Green may also have a few things loose in her head too, she may be a schizophrenic or then again she might just be a devil in silky clothing. This is taken further when Franco plays around with the dream sequences, at times Green awakens confused and frightened, as she believes she has just had a nightmare, but then a dead body is found somewhere else in the morning. So is this just a bizarre fantasy world or has this also invaded her creepy reality ? This is a theme used by Franco time and time again and he even gets to mix it with Haiti hijinks and lots of jiggling breasts in his later
‘Voodoo Passion’ (available in the
Jess Franco boxed set ).
As for plot there is not much to go on, Franco made this movie in Lisbon, with little money and very much on a day-to-day basis, relived with his newfound freedom on leaving Spain and Franco’s (the other one) strict regime. But it was not until Pier A. Caminnecci gave his financial support that the movie finally took off; well his cash was given more out of his lust for the lovely Reynaud, of whom he decked out in the designer labels of the time. He took it to Cannes, of which it got a remark from the one and only Fritz Lang, and took over all of the distribution too.
It’s the dreams that make the movie, a decadent world of designer labels and ultra chic sets (bank rolled by Caminnecci), all housed by distorted and oblique soft focussed cameras. This is what probably confused the censors at the time of its release, although in the US they still landed it with an X. And the dialogue, what can I say; priceless ! It is enough to crack up any philosophy student with the pretentious but deliberate psychobabble ramblings. Franco was not really concerned with the narrative side of the movie, he wanted a dreamy, psychedelic, erotic, head-trip and that is exactly what he has given us.
Franco has a prolific career (directing over 180 movies in a career spanning close to fifty years), still ongoing and there are many oddities there for viewers and purveyors of alternative cinema. Like all cinema of this nature, you will either love it and get lost in it, or hate it, so Jerry Bruckheimer fans please stay away.
As for any extras, sadly, there is only a trailer on the UK version.
'Succubus' is available now via
Amazon , and available for pre-order via
AmazonUK .
You can read more about the DVD in our
database .
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