The Naschycast returns to the world of Jess Franco for an
erotic ramble through late 1960’s Lisbon and Berlin. Bob Sargent joins Troy and
I to examine SUCCUBUS (1968) because Bob wanted to rewatch the film. Two of us
had not watched it in years and the third had never even seen it before! We
turned this into a trip to the unwatched DVD pile again to take a look at the
starting point for a certain type of Franco cinema. Your tolerance for the
director’s sense of humor and the absurd will determine your level of
enjoyment.
We use Stephen Thrower’s excellent book on the work of
Franco named ‘Murderous Passions’ to guide us and to provide a brief synopsis.
We waffle through a discussion touching on the cast connections to Paul Naschy
but mostly talk about our reactions to the often surrealistic events involving
S & M stage performer Lorna (Janine Reynaud). She seems to navigating a strange period in
her life with reoccurring visions of a different life impinging on her supposed
reality. We see her interact with various romantic partners who end up dead at
her hands. Or is that really what is happening? Along the way we get striking
images, amusing commentary on arthouse pretentions and philosophical silliness
draped in an encroaching ennui that seems to define Lorna’s confused life. Can
cinema be therapy?
Along the way we are reminded to always fear mannequins but we
also take heart from the Algernon Charles Swinburne poem Faustine that seems to
have been a major influence on the film. Of course, we all wish a for a Blu-Ray release
complete with multiple versions of this important effort. It clearly signposted
many future Jess Franco films that fans laud to this day.
