Sex Is Crazy — Sex Is Crazy(Blu Ray)
Sex Is Crazy stands as one of the most bizarre, playful, and at times downright surreal films of Jess Franco's career. The early 1980’s film is unpredictable, at times jarring collision between mocking sex comedy, low-budget film satire, and sexualized sci-fi. It features in its small cast, key Franco regulars Lina Romay- under her Candy Coaster persona, and Antonio Mayans. Here from Severin Films- those key resurrectors of Franco’s filmography is a recent release of the film, taking in a wonderful crystal clean scan of the film, as well as a selection of extras.
Sex Is Crazy (El sexo está loco) appeared in the year 1981. It was one of eight films the director helmed that year, with other films being classic euro slasher Bloody Moon, WIP Sadomania, and sex comedy Les filles de Copacabana.
After the credits and a rather bizarre warning regarding sexual fantasy- we’re straight into the oddness, as we see a group of silver-sprayed naked women in a mirrored and glitter ball hang room. A stern female voice keeps repeating mantras regarding male & female genitals, and how the ones from an alien planet are different from humans. Then a spreadeagle and nude woman is brought in and placed down, this is Romay- and fairly soon a series of silver-sprayed men have rapid simulated sex with her- after each of these encounters her belly grows, we hear a baby cry, and the sex of the new-born is announced….and we’re told the aliens can create six hundred babies in an hour with a human woman. The camera pans back from all of this, and we realise it’s a stage show- with all the cast of what we just watched bowing- though there is something odd, as the small audience is made up of a strange leering rubber-faced folk.
We go backstage, and we have what seems an argument between Romay & seemingly her partner- Tony Skios, who also appeared in a few Franco including The House Of Lost Women- which has also been released via Severin. Though just in the background of the dressing drama we can see a camera- and the director( Franco) stands up, and calls cut-with the two to redo the scene again.
As the film goes on we get a rather free-form selection of ‘sketches’- which go from detailing a series of characters getting turned on by watching others making love, before making love themselves. Two couples getting together, making mocking position-shifting sex, before all getting married to each other. One-on-one female encounters, which are suddenly stopped by the arrival of the two husbands- who throw the culprit ( Romay) into a shadowy hotel function room- to be surrounded by nude letter-painted folk, and the creepy masked ones from the beginning. And more….a very weird, weird trip of a film- and despite its shifting randomness- it never feels thrown together, with everything seemingly well planned- with the actors really showing their acting chops, shifting wonderful between straight, comedic, and scared- with the tone shifting soundtrack nicely mimicking & adding to these shifts. On paper Sex Is Crazy may sound too experimental/ arty for its own good, but in reality, I found it a wonderful entertaining & distinctive experience.
This region-free Blu-Ray features a crystal clear 2k scan of the film, which at points make it look like it could have been filmed recently. On the extras side, we get nearly two hours’ worth- there’s Jess Is Crazy (22.06) which finds Franco Expert Dr. Álex Mendíbil talking about the film- this is in Spanish with yellow English subs. We find out it was filmed in Benidorm- which was one of the director's favourite locations at this point. He talks about how he thinks the film is aesthetically ugly but complexly structured. He talks about the themes/ ideas in the film, and more. Next, there’s Franco/Godard ( 49.31) which finds Stephen Thrower- who of course penned the two definitive books on Franco’s career Murderous Passions & Flowers of Perversion- going into wonderful detail about the film, the period it was made, and it’s concepts. He begins by giving context to when the film was filmed in Franco's career- debating whether it was made in 1980 or 1981. He talks about the more abstract keyboard & organ-based elements of the soundtrack, which were penned by Daniel White & Franco. He discusses the director's love of the work French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard, and if this was an influence on the film to hand. He discusses the films fourth wall breaking and the general technique the picture uses to break down formal narrative structure. Lastly, we have In The Land Of Franco Part 7 ( 24.38) which finds Mr Thrower in Cote d'Azur France joined by actress Monica Swinn- who featured in a few Franco films, but will probably be known to euro sleaze fans as the crude monachal wear prison Diretor in the grim WIP classic Barbed Wire Dolls(1976). The pair visit locations of the films Doriana Grey(1976)- which Swinn appeared in with Lina Romay, and Downtown (1976) which was a softcore noir, featuring Franco himself as private detective Al Pereira. All of these extras are excellent and well worth a play.
Sex Is Crazy highlights yet another side of Jess Franco's filmography- a more bizarre, playful & determined to puzzle side. And the resulting film is a wonderfully crazed, yet highly entertaining trip. This recent presentation- features a marvellous new scan of the film and an excellent selection of extras.