Female Vampire was the first Jess Franco movie that I saw. And it still remains one of his best. You see in order to get fully in touch with Female Vampire and all his other worthy movies, you have to be familiar with B movies. Meaning that B movies, especially Franco's B movies have something particularly amateurish inside of them. You're feeling when watching that film that it was shot in one weekend with his friends. But this where all the beauty and the allure of Franco's art can be found. You see Franco didn't need fancy productions and millions of dollars. He could make a movie that looked like the most crappy thing in the world, but with a heart and guts that many fancy directors would truly envy. Female Vampire is definitely the example of Franco's greatness. Although the movie has a flair of a cheap TV film, its theme, its flavor, its scenes and its boldness cannot be found even in great movies.
As the movie begins and we watch his muse and wife in real life Lina Romay walking towards the camera naked wearing one hood, a belt and high boots we get the feeling that this woman represents the very existence of the female sex. Romay's stone face that at the same time drips from expressiveness, it's the face of the woman. The prototype of a woman. The emotion that was literally flowing in Franco's movies cannot be found anywhere else. His "obsession" with nudity and sex can only be seen as a clear comment against the ugliness of this world. And that's how it's perceived really. Franco made porn films that had none of the diseases of commercial porn movies. His porn was ethereal, emotional, sensual. As opposed to the cold-hearted crap that we are used in watching in commercial porn movies. The character of Lina Romay in Female Vampire feels more than anything in the world. And together with her, we feel too. We feel like we're doing it for the first time.
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