ICE-Vision: Venus in Furs (Jess Franco, 1969)
Thursday, April 12 at 8 PM
Lamar Dodd School of Art Room S150
Film Studies major Will Stephenson continues ICE’s informal weekly series, selecting a variety of world cinema classics and subcultural curiosities.
“Loosely adaptated from Leopold Sacher-Masoch’s famous novel, Jess Franco’s film stars James Darren as an American jazz musician wandering the beaches of Turkey. When a female aquaintance washes up dead on the beach, the musician suspects foul play by a sadistic playboy (Klaus Kinski) and his cohorts (including Dennis Price and Margaret Lee). Maria Rohm stars as the dead girl’s lookalike, who may be back for revenge from beyond the grave.”
-Facets
“Like a Marvel Team-up between Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Russ Meyer set loose in the Hammer Studios. Translation: It’s trippy and campy as hell”
-San Francisco Examiner
“The film’s Spanish director, Jesus Franco–an admirer of Orson Welles and the Marquis de Sade, surrealism, and jazz who frequently worked under such aliases as Clifford Brown, Dave Tough, and James P. Johnson–made so many films that an entire subculture was required simply to keep track of his activities . . . When questioned as to his ultimate intentions, Franco could well reply: ‘The cinema is not only my my livelihood but my life . . . [Movies] don’t interest me as a means but as an end”‘
-Geoffrey O’Brien, The Phantom Empire