From Severin Films, as part of their series of lesser Jess Franco films here’s the first-ever digital release of 1983’s Cries Of Pleasure- one of the rare & more obscure films in the king of Euro sleazes huge back catalog. The films a woozy & grimly dreamy erotic thriller- that slips 'n' slides between perverse head-ness, psychosexual unease, and subtly leering morbidity. The films offered up on a region free Blu Ray, which features a new 4K scan of the film, as well as a selection of good selections of new featurettes.

Cries of Pleasure( aka Gemidos de placer ) was a Spanish production that was released in the late summer of 1983- and seemingly got few theatre showings, or a VHS release. As Franco work goes this is more sleazy & flesh focused- with fairly thin plotting, and a few rather shocking moments of psychosexual violence playing second fiddle to the abundance of fleshiness- that moves between soft-core & the edges of hardcore. Though unlike some of the directors more purely sleaze focused films, it (mostly) feels like it has meaning/ point- so you hopefully won’t get too jaded with the films 86 minute runtime.

The film was filmed on a mountainside villa in the Costa del Sol , overlooking the rock of Gibraltar and the Spanish coastline. It has a small cast of just five actors- in the joint leads we have Lina Romay & Robert Foster( aka Antonio Mayans)-  Romay plays Julia the new lover of Antonio( Foster) who takes her to his mountainside home with the plan to kill his wife Martina (Rocío Freixas) - who is Schizophonic & nymphomaniac that has just been released from an asylum. The cast is topped off with Juan Soler, who plays Fenul -a seemingly dumb & backward servant who spends the film playing Spanish guitar & dropping in for often troubling voice overs. And Elisa Vela- as Marta, a twenty-something maid who was raped by Antonio as an early teen, and has since been controlled by her master.

The film takes place in high summer- over a day, a night and a morning, and it finds the group having various fleshy liaison over the period- these move between heated, perverse & kinky, and violently tinged. Franco’s infamous zoom is used to great & at times arty-to-unsettling effect here, as he moves from linking & licking flesh to stark sun-baked landscape, and the hazed interior of the villa. The film is scored with a mix of ornate-to-atmospheric Spanish guitar playing, blends of angular organ & sinister tinkling vibes, and more unsettling horn drones.  On the whole Cries of Pleasure is a compelling enough slice of Franco’s 1980’s output- with well-filmed flesh been met by subtle unease, perverse wooziness, and a few moments of troubling psycho-sexual violence. You can certainly see why the film didn’t get shown much or was popular in the adult circuit- as the blend of disquiet, sleaze, and fleeting threat & violence is hardly ever titillating, but instead is largely troubling & queasy

Moving onto the Blu ray- and first off the print looks good; with a nicely vibrant selection of flesh bound & arid landscape tones. The soundtrack & the Spanish dialogue are nicely balanced- the English subtitles are well placed & clear. Moving onto the extras, and first up we have In The Land Of Franco Part 1- this runs for twenty-one minutes and finds Franco expert Stephen Thrower, visiting a few locations in Portugal where Franco shot- this is most fascinating for those who have seen more than a few Franco films, and included he takes inthe house from Franco’s classic Virgin Among The Living Dead- I very much look forward to watching the next part of this series,which is going to spread across the next few Franco releases Severin puts out.
Next, we have When Donald Met Jess and Lina Part 1- this is an eleven-minute snippet of an interview between US ultra low budget auteur Donald Farmer, Jess Franco, and Lina Romay that took place in 1993-this again is most interesting, it starts off with Romay talking about if she gets recognized in the street in Spain & if she ever gets fan letters, before going to discuss with Franco his film making art- including discussion about Cries Of Pleasure & it’s minimal use of shots.
Next, we get Jess Franco’s Golden Years- this runs for twenty-six minutes, and finds Thrower returning to talk about the year Cries Of Pleasure was made 1982, when Franco had twelve films in production. He moves on to discuss Golden Films International- the company that put this out & a handful of other films from this period, before going onto discuss Cries Of Pleasure in detail. Again this is a most worthy & fascinating extra. So all in all a good selection of stuff that will be of real appealing to Franco fans.

It’s marvellous to see Severin getting back to releasing rarer Franco titles again- and once again with this release of Cries Of Pleasure they’ve done a great job, both with the print & the extras. I’m not sure if this would be an good introduction to the work of Franco for those who have never seen his work- due to long takes & sleazed queasiness, but if you’ve seen a few of his films, and like me have become somewhat addicted & hypnotized by his distinctive brand of sleaze you’ve got to pick this up, if you haven’t already...