retrospective

Vampyros Lesbos

Vampyros Lesbos | Jesús Franco | DE/ES 1971 | 89 Min | DCP
Metro
Fr,23.09.▸18:00
Tickets

Attorney-at-law Linda falls for the charismatic countess Carody, a descendent of Dracula, who turns Linda into a vampire. Built around the mesmerizing Soledad Miranda, Vampyros Lesbos is a quintessential Jess Franco experience. Sucked from various literary sources, the minimalist narrative is but a peg on which to hang the surreal, often stream-of-consciousness catalog of images and sequences oscillating between meditative contemplation and eruptive impulses. A masterpiece of horrotica, in which the (stupid) male characters are either relegated to supporting roles or thrown out of the picture altogether.

Jesús Franco
(* 1930, † 2013), equally well known as Jess Franco and working under a multitude of pseudonyms, directed an astonishing 200 films in his sixty-year career, many of which exist in several versions that cater to different audiences. He is famous for his brand of psychedelic gothic horror, first exhibited in The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962), and worked in every genre between exploitation, hardcore porn, and Shakespeare (!). In his most productive years, he often built his low-budget films around casts that included Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom, Klaus Kinski, and starlets of the time, adding a pop eroticism to his genre mix that can be seen and heard in his classic Vampyros Lesbos. Another film in this vein is Female Vampire (1975), starring his longtime muse and later wife, Lina Romay. A restless worker until his final days, he also acted in most of his movies and worked as a composer, writer, cinematographer, and editor.
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Language dOV
Cast Soledad Miranda, Ewa Strömberg, Dennis Price, Heidrun Kussin
Writer Jesús Franco, Jaime Chávarri (based on a novel by Bram Stoker)
Editing Clarissa Ambach
Cinematography Manuel Merino

Screenings

Metro
Fr,23.09.▸18:00