Bahía blanca

A sheriff , (Antonio Mayans) , as Inspector Carlos Fernández, the local lawman must delve into the mysterious murder of one , Pocho Martin after he is found with a bullet to the head. He covers up a man's murder in a small island occupied by two sisters , Alida (Eva León) and Maria (Franco mainstay Lina Romay) . The investigation leads to the tavern run by Alida who cares her deat mute sister while also carrying a torch for Carlos..This complicates her relationship with the local underworld boss Raul Sebastian (Tony Skios), a cool, cruel type with a jealous streak that tolerates no other man in Alida's life. The local thug starts sexually assaulting one of the sisters . More drama comes in the form of Raul's amorous son Andy (José Llamas), engaged to a sweet village girl (Analía Ivars) but not above forcing himself on Maria despite Alida's threats of deadly force. Andy attempts to rape Maria , despite having a loving girlfriend, which triggers a violent sequence of events.

This is a restrained, sad , brooding film in low budget that results to be a ¨Rara Avis¨ after seeing Stajanovist writer-director Jess Franco at his most outrageous, most violent, most sexually explicit, and most baffling films . It's fine sometimes to watch him as a director switching into low gear to fashion something as quietly effective . While it takes a bit of time to draw us in, the tale eventually takes root in the viewer's imagination like an unusually decent-written romantic/vengeance/tragedy plot . Here Jess Frank has chosen a scenic oceanfront village as his location shot in Murcia and Almeria , and revels in capturing its pictorial beauty in shot after dazzling shot. Against a backdrop of glittering ocean waves and blazing cloud-strewn sunsets, everything and everyone in the story takes on added importance and effect . As for the story, it's surely some of Franco's best writing, filled with attractive dialogue, charming roles , and a low-key script that takes its time to unfold but keeps drawing us along toward its surprising heartrending conclusion with plenty of violence . Interpretations are acceptable , stars Eva León as the beautiful Alida who sells both alcohol and love to the passing sailors, and cares for her mute, simple-minded sister Maria decently performed by Lina Romay . Both of whom display very pleasant topless shots . And , as usual , Jess Frank himself shows up as a supposed mystic who warns those involved for whom he foretells grave peril.

This thoughtful, contemplative movie titled Bahía blanca or Bride's Revenge (World-wide, English title) (1985) with interest enough was professionally and in short budget made by Jesús Franco. Here Franco is more interested this time in telling an involving story than shocking or titillating us, keeping out the sex scenes and never going for any kind of cheap shocks. This is doubtless a prime example of the genuine filmmaking talent which was his to command when he chose to do so. It's by no means a good film but entertaining enough and it really burrows in and stays with you . Franco often used a lot of pseudonyms , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others. In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. Jesús's influence has been notable all over Europe . Jess was a Stajanovist, restless writer, producer, director who played and realized over 200 pictures. His career spans over 50 years with a few successes and lots of flops, making all . From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema and often releasing several titles at the same time. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older films. Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government administration. He broke up with all that and got the independence he was seeking and getting , at times great eye for composition. He was a hard-working filmmaker, directing a lot of ridiculous movies. However, making some acceptable films , such as : ¨We are 18 years old¨, ¨The awful Dr Orloff¨, ¨The Bloody Judge¨ , ¨Count Dracula¨, ¨99 women¨, ¨Parxismus, ¨The Blood of Fumanchu¨, ¨Faceless¨ and a few others. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. But time doesn't pass in vain, and Jesus' production diminished since the 90s , but he went on working until his death.

Jess Franco's unreleased film from 1983 demonstrates his versatility as a director. In the middle of a period where his projects were increasingly sexually graphic and light on story comes 'Bahia Blanca', which could easily be the feature-length pilot episode of a soap opera.

Unlike most of his films from this period, much attention is made to character. People are introduced and we are immediately familiarised with their personal back-story. The slow burning drama unfolds in some stunningly idyllic locations, beautifully filmed. There is very little of Franco's trademark wild camera sweeps; instead, we are allowed to linger on this paradise as the characters continue their day to day lives.

Lina Romay plays Maria, slow-witted and unglamorous, no makeup but still lovely, who hears all. By comparison, landlady Alida (Eva León), initially bewigged and bright of lip-stick, could initially have strolled in from a more garish, gratuitous Franco production. Antonio Mayans plays the rakish 'hairy one', Commissioner Carlos, boisterous and always looking for a good time, but superficial and insincere. There's also good looking swine Andy (José Llamas), Analia Ivars as the wronged Silvia Maderos and old sage El Miserias (Jess Franco).

Mild sex and violence, a surprise pregnancy, paternal revelations and at the centre of it all, murder in paradise - it's all cracking off on this idyllic island. I really enjoyed this change of pace from Franco - perhaps the lack of release for the project disinclined him from pursing this chattier, character-driven style. A great shame. My score is 8 out of 10.