Jess Franco

Dedicated fans adore the impetuous, punkish spontaneity of his work, but sceptics, for the same reason, find him hard to take seriously. Franco shot his films in a whirlwind of impulse, like a cartoon Tasmanian Devil with a movie camera, and the results veer from controlled chaos to devil-may-care randomness. Many of his most astonishing films bear hallmarks that would appal the sober-minded student of classical film style. But while perfect craft may have fallen by the wayside, Franco’s breakneck speed unleashes a blizzard of extraordinary sensations and images. There’s something truly otherworldly about his films: they give us precious glimpses of a stranger, more delirious reality. Jess Franco was, if you like, the anti-Kubrick — impulsive, impatient, always in a hurry — but he shared with the master procrastinator one special quality; a cinematic vision as distinct and unique as a retinal photograph.

His unique mastery of the brilliant and the banal, often within the same scene, is the reason why Franco occupies his special place in the pantheon of alternative film.