criterionforum.org

Finch wrote:Any films of his you'd recommend to the uninitiated like me?

I think the best starting point would be his late 60s works, especially:
The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966)
Succubus (1968)
Venus in Furs (1969)
Eugenie...The Story of Her Journey Into Perversion (1970)
(all out on DVD)

I think with these you'll get a good sense if you want to dig deeper into his (ridiculously long) filmography.
All of them represent what I think is the "essence" of Franco while being more slick and "well made" (in a traditional sense) than the cheaper and cruder flicks he did from the 70s onwards (even if I personally prefer them).

I'm a long time lurker, first time poster: Hi, everybody!

colin, smergo, thanks guys, look forward to watching some of these.

By the way Jack Palance also turns up for one episode in Justine, as a sex crazed priest wanting to induct Justine into his black mass rituals!

Here is Troy Howarth's tribute to Franco from the AV Maniacs site. Howarth gives a much better description of the various periods in Franco's work, often related to producers (as smergo says, the late 60s/early 70s "Harry Alan Towers" period, where Franco actually had budgets and wide distribution are usually considered his most accessible films).

If you want a much more depth and insight into Franco's career, as well as a lot more recommendations, I would also highly recommend browsing through the in-depth 139 page(!) Franco thread on the forum (here is the link, although I'm not sure if you need to be a logged in member to see it)

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

This is turning into a crummy week.

She had a new story in the New Yorker just last week.

Finch wrote:colin, smergo, thanks guys, look forward to watching some of these.

I believe Kino said they were going to put out a massive set of his films this year on Blu too if that is of interest.

Talk of Roger Ebert's death moved here.

Comic Book legend Carmine Infantino

Oh my god that's horrible. His books were so formative for me and the reason why the Flash is probably my favorite superpowered superhero.

Archie writer and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch co-creator, George Gladir.

Damn, not a good week for comics at all.

Bigas Luna, director of Anguish and Jamón, Jamón.

That's terrible - I'll miss his brand of highly sexualised melodramatic fantasies like The Tit and the Moon (where a young chap goes on a fantastical journey to drink breast milk again), Jamon, Jamon (in which Penelope Cruz rips the testicles off of a bull sign in order to have something to shelter from the rain, and which involves an amusingly Freudian climax where two suitors belt each other around the head with enormous shanks of meat in the heroine's back yard!), and the amusingly phallic Golden Balls, which often strikes me as an attempt to do an (even more sex-symbol obsessed) version of The Fountainhead!

The films are full of sweaty hyper machismo and throbbing, pouting, over-ripe feminine wiles. They also helped to give Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem (who is in a whole series of Luna's films: The Ages of Lulu, Jamon Jamon, Golden Balls and The Tit and The Moon) and Benecio del Toro (in Golden Balls) some of their most striking early roles.

I don't consider any of his films good (except Jamón) but here is an explicit tribute to his cinema. Remember: nobody fucks like a Spaniard (in screen, or even fuera).

Les Blank.

This weekend is just rounding up to be the worst in a while. Hopefully this will at least get his non-Herzog works available to a wider audience.

What awful news. A few years, I really started getting into Les Blank and he quickly became one of my favorite directors ever. "Chulas Fronteras", "Gap Toothed Women", "Marc and Ann", "Yum Yum Yum!", "Werner Herzog Eats His Own Shoe", "Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers", and so many other Blank films are among my favorites. He had become someone that has genuinely influenced me in so many ways. This is rough.

How depressing. I can't think of many directors whose work was more full of joy. If you only know him from Burden of Dreams, you have so much pleasure in store for you when you decide to explore deeper. I'll add to Raging Noodles' picks recommendations for Chicken Real, Dry Wood and Hot Pepper, Innocents Abroad and The Maestro. And no more Les Blank means, presumably, no more screenings of A Poem Is a Naked Person, so if you've seen that, count yourself very fortunate.

And no more Les Blank means, presumably, no more screenings of A Poem Is a Naked Person, so if you've seen that, count yourself very fortunate.

That's true. I always wanted to see that, guess I'll never be able to watch it now.

Personally speaking, "Chulas Fronteras" has such a special place in my heart. It means a lot to me that Blank, Strachwitz, and Gosling were able to capture on film such border icons as Narciso Martinez, Los Alegres De Teran, Ramiro Cavazos (who still lives here and performs at 85 years old!), Santiago Jimenez Sr. and so many others.

In his Louisiana films, Marc Savoy is such a great character and I can listen to him talk all day. I can sense that him and Blank probably had a great relationship as Savoy was at such ease with him.

To me, he really was one of the great filmmakers of all time, with a style that was totally unique to him. The music in his films have played such a vital role in my taste in music.

It gets worse. Andy Johns, engineer on classic albums Led Zeppelin IV and Exile On Main Street.

Sara Montiel AKA Sarita Montiel (in Mexico and Hollywood), has died in Madrid, 85 years old.

tribute to her beauty http://rohmerin.blogspot.com.es/2013/04 ... -died.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ding, dong.