![Jess Franco Collection Vol.2 [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zz-2IqV6L.jpg)
A collection of six sexploitation films by director Jesus 'Jess' Franco - once decreed by the Roman Catholic church as the most dangerous filmmaker alive! 'Macumba Sexual' (1983) stars Franco regular Lina Romay (here as her alter ego 'Candy Coster') in the role of a young housewife subject to highly erotic and often sapphic dreams and visions of a dusky princess, Obongo, Goddess of Unspeakable Lust. Cue Franco's predilection for wild orgy dreamscapes of a hetero, bi and highly charged nature. 'The Story Of O' (1984) is Franco's re-telling of the French erotic story by Pauline Reage. A young nymphet is drawn into a sexual farrago by her lascivious neighbours and finds herself in over her head, with her heels also over her head, and her head itself in all manner of compromising positions. 'The Inconfessable Orgies of Emmanuelle' (1982) is a brutal tale of love gone wrong. Muriel Montosse stars in the lead role of Emmanuelle - a lithe young thing recently reunited with her estranged hubby. At a party, however, she peels off for his mates in a drunken scene, making him furious. He storms off to meet his lover and when Emmanuelle goes after him, she's brutally raped in the street. Broken, she then wanders through life falling from one stranger's bed to another. In 'Downtown Heat' (1994), Franco mixes the worlds of jazz and titillation - his traditional strong suit. A jazz pianist is drawn into a seedy underbelly of orgies, slavery, drugs and copious nudity. In 'Down Town' (1975) a strange woman hires a private eye to take some compromising photos of her low down babehound of a husband. But when the husband turns up dead, our private eye becomes the prime suspect, and must attempt to extricate himself from this devious trap. A torrid tale of sex and sadism, 'Mansion Of The Living Dead' (1985) begins as four wanton waitresses go on vacation to Canaria where, this being a Franco flick, they are soon indulging their hungers for masturbation, lesbian lust and bondage. The ultimate depravities are still to come, however, as a nearby 17th Century monastery turns out to be the clubhouse for a horde of zombie Templars crazed for the taste of hot female flesh.
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Macumba Sexual - spoilers follow.
This review covers 'Macumba Sexual', included in this collection.The quote on the cover of this DVD is taken from the mighty Immoral Tales tome, and describes this film as ‘one of the last glorious death throes of European sexploitation.’ An apt way of describing possibly Jess Franco’s most perverse project – at least, from those I have seen.The plot, as ever, is straightforward – the supernatural Princes Obongo (Ajita Wilson), the Goddess of Unspeakable Lust no less, ensnares Lina Romay in her Candy Coster wig, playing Alice Brooks together with regular Antonio Mayans, billed as Robert Foster, playing Novio de Alice. To be honest, Novio doesn’t get much of a look-in – the story seems really to centre on the smouldering, deadly relationship that occurs between Alice and Obongo.Transsexual actress Wilson, who died five years after this was completed at the age of 37, is described by Franco as a kind of female Christopher Lee – not so much an actress, more a presence. And this is true. She cuts a truly memorable, and at times terrifying, figure – tall and prone to wearing flowing white robes, striding across deserts with her two unnerving ‘dog-slaves’, or laughing maniacally as she seduces a naked Alice via her dreams.Franco’s camerawork, at times restrained and others frantic (the blurring zooms during the many sex scenes against the glare of sunlight is purposefully disorientating) glories in the delights of the Canary Isles, and also wife Romay’s (at times shockingly) uninhibited performance, both in and out of a straining pair of hot-pants. Franco turns up briefly as another of the lunatic cyphers he loved playing so much.The results are an acquired taste – what else would you expect? I enjoyed it, as I’ve enjoyed most of Franco’s films. His filmic perversions took on a new and personal level once his native Spain had relaxed their laws on hard-core pornography and I can only admire his unique pursuance of this during this time. Such a singular approach drew him ever further into cult territory, which he seemed to fully embrace for the next 23 years.
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Jesse Francon Collection Vol 2
Don't Expect Porn, You Ain't going to get it! Channel 4 have shown Stronger material.
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