Les yeux verts du diable

A nightclub performer whose act incorporates bizarre sadomasochistic elements begins to lose her grip on reality, and is plunged into a nightmarish mental landscape. As she free-floats . Throughout off-the-wall happenings , sensual experiences and grisly killings . Succubus is the sensual experience of nineteen sixty nine !. Her Love Ritual Cast a Spell of Death ! . Incredibly Fantastic...Terrifying...A Strange Cult...Love...Murder !. In the Tradition of "Mondo Cane" This is a Picture You Will Never Forget As Long As You Live...

This is a sensual experience , but a disconcerting mess as well, resulting in a slow-moving drama movie without much action or suspense .An erotic and eerie horror tale about a beautiful woman who murders innocent victims to appease her insatiable thirst for new experiences and to delight in the pleasures of the violence . This vintage terror/erotic/mystery motion picture , a classic in some circles , was uneven but professionally directed by Jesús Franco who never considered the film to be a horror story , but instead felt it was tale of "anguish" . This film goes on the usual style of the director Jesus Franco , concerning a twisted story with no much sense , in which characters become involved into a dark world of sexual perversion , including kinky sex , deep passion , nudity , lesbianism and murders . This is a passable yarn by the prolific writer/producer/director Jesús Franco , considered to be one of the best films in his Sixties' period . This motion picture is the story of a kind of woman you may not have known ever existed . Janine Reynaud stars as a nhghtclub stripper who suffers nightmares and records from a past life when she was a countess , while walking through a spectral 60's scenerios littered with dream-figures, dancing midgets and bizarre sexy games. Janine was the first Franco's muse with whom played Kiss me monster , Two Undercover Angels , Succubus , subsequently replaced by Soledad Miranda , the latter was the biggest break came from legendary director Jess Franco, who cast Soledad in such cult classics as ¨Count Dracula¨, ¨Eugenie De Sade¨ , ¨Sex Charade¨, ¨The Devil Came from Akasava¨ and ¨Vampyros Lesbos¨. Here Janine is well accompanied by a good cast with plenty of familar faces in the Franco cinema such as : Jack Taylor, Adrian Hoven , Howard Vernon and Michel Lemoine . The picture was really cut , and it has several versions both , soft and hard . Initial releases of the film were met with negative reactions from film critics , while the general critical reaction had been poor , however ,today is considered to be an acceptable fim. Special mention for musical score by Friedrich Gulda and Jerry van Rooyen , full of strange sounds , jazzy and psychedelic soundtrack.

The film has a lot of titles , as Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden, Necronomicon - Dreamt Sin , Necronomicón or Succubus. The motion picture was strange and middlingly directed by Jess Frank ,by using ordinar trademarks , continous zooms , surprising close-ups , including blood drops and other kites . Jesus Franco was a Stajanovist filmmaker who realized around 200 movies . As the picture belongs to Franco's second period in which he made so-so flicks . Jesus uses to sign under pseudonym , 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 . Franco is really influenced by American thrillers , B-Horror movies and German expressionism . Franco used to utilize usual marks such as extreme zooms , nudism , lousy pace , foreground on objects , and pulling off complex , confuse narratives with no much sense , as well as filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY . As Jess Frank manages to work extraordinarily quick , realizing some fun diversions, and a lot of absolute crap as well .

After making several "normal" horror/exploitation films, Franco indulged in this baffling but engaging fever-dream of supernatural fantasy. Around this time, Franco, like his French counterpart Jean Rollin, began an arty phase, weaving haunting scenes of surrealism, eroticism, and horror into enigmatic, loosely constructed stories.

Both directors were notorious for writing scripts a few hours before shooting or starting a film without a script based on a dream, trusting improvisation and inspiration to furnish the rest of the story. The difference is that Rollin usually discovered some logical explanation along the way for all the weird goings on, while Franco's work remains ambiguous.

Our story begins with the beautiful redhead Lorna (Janine Reynaud) as a dominatrix in an avant-garde S&M nightclub act for jaded sophisticates. She is the symbol of dangerous seduction and the obsession of men and women alike. Her Mephistophelean manager (Jack Taylor) has somehow transformed her into "the essence of evil - a devil on earth", but how and why is left unexplained. There are long, lyrical dream sequences (nicely shot in soft, hazy tones) where she repeatedly returns to a Gothic castle by the sea. Roaming through the elegant rooms, she has memories of a past life as a countess. (Her thoughts, like the thoughts of most of the characters, are related via narration.) In a highly effective scene, a room full of mannequins dressed in period gowns become animated and threatening.

As fantasy and reality blend together, there are many strange encounters, tastefully restrained nude scenes (unusual for Franco), a few murders that may be hallucinations, and a decadent party straight out of "La Dolce Vita". In fact, Franco seems to be under the spell of Fellini (especially "Juliet of the Spirits") for much of the film.

As the story shifts from Portugal to Berlin, there are some nice scenes of the austere German city and creative shots (reflections in a car window, ducks on a pond) accompanied by poetic and philosophical musings. Clearly, there is some kind of artistic intent here despite a flawed and confusing narrative. A profusion of random ideas and beautiful/bizarre images pop up like wildflowers all over this crazy dreamscape but offer no explanation. Like many David Lynch films, the story is a head-scratcher, but there is enough stylish and visually rewarding material to make it worth seeing.

I must immediately make clear that the version of 'Succubus' I watched was the American one with the shorter running time. I have absolutely no idea what has been cut and how different this is from what Jess Franco originally intended. Even so, this is a remarkable movie, and one of the most interesting Franco movies I have seen.

The beautiful Janine Reynaud plays Lorna Green, an enigmatic erotic dancer cum performance artist who stages odd, sadomasochistic events at a nightclub. She is plagued by hallucinations (?) and begins to confuse fantasy and reality, a common Franco scenario. I have to admit by the half way point I didn't have a clue what was going on, or who was who, but I didn't mind. Plot in 'Succubus' is secondary. Atmosphere, aesthetics, babes and surreal dialogue which name-dropped everyone from Stockhausen to Spillane to Mingus to De Sade, make this movie essential viewing. Reynaud is stunning to look at, there's some tasty jazz on the soundtrack, and there's the added kick of seeing the legendary Howard Vernon, a Franco regular who also appeared in everything from Godard's 'Alphaville' to Polanski's 'The Ninth Gate'.

Beginners should check out 'Vampyros Lesbos' first, still the most satisfying Franco I've seen, but make 'Succubus' a close second. You'll see nothing like it anywhere!

The performer Lorna Green (Janine Reynaud) is a dominatrix in a S&M show in a nightclub and lover of the producer, William Francis Mulligan (Jack Taylor). Lorna attracts the attention of a stranger that believes she is the essence of evil and controls her mind. Lorna has sex with Mulligan and has a weird dream where she stabs a man with a needle in the eye. On the next morning, she is walking with Mulligan and sees a hearse on the road. When she glances at the corpse, she sees the man of her dream and cries. Soon Lorna has other daydreams followed by murders and she starts to blend reality with dreams. Soon she is confused with her nightmares and her memories from a past life when she was a countess. Meanwhile the stranger plots a scheme against Lorna with Mulligan.

"Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden", a.k.a., "Succubus", is the first movie of Jess Franco outside Spain because of the censorship in his country. This movie is financed by Germany and produced in West Germany. Considered a cult movie for many viewers, I had a great expectation but I found it boring and with a messy screenplay. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Succubus"

The timing was right. Art house sex films were all the rage and the marketing in the States was simple and brilliant, taking good advantage of punters seeking cinema kicks during the dawn of the sexual revolution. A phone number was published for people to call who wanted to know what the title meant. The bewildering erotic-horror element and the hallucinatory visuals and dialogue were not what many of them expected.

Old-timers in the Manhattan theatrical exhibition business told me it did very well at the box office. The put-downs by Canby and Ebert didn't hurt. Newspaper of the subway crowd, The New York Post, gave it a good review. The gloss of Euro-sophistication gave it a veneer of respectability that the crude sleaze of routinely shot American sexploitation films lacked. Viewers didn't feel the urge to slink out of the theater trying not to be seen.

In today's DVD and streaming world, with thousands of independent theaters now vanished from the landscape, without titillating ads in big city newspapers, Succubus-style films released today would be quickly forgotten.