Forgotten Films: Venus in Furs (1970)

OK,  know I've already covered a film with the title Venus in Furs as part of the Italian exploitation movie strand here at Sleaze Diary.  Confusingly, this Venus in Furs, although an Italian co-production, is a different beast altogether.  This is a Jesus Franco film, one of many he directed for legendary international fugitive/film producer Harry Alan Towers during the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Released in the wake of the 1969 Italian Venus in Furs, this one is somewhat sailing under a false flag.  Indeed, beyond giving the main characters the same names as those in the source novel, this version has little to do with Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's seminal work.   Rather, it is a surreal and dream-like erotic ghost story, which globe-trots around some international locations at a languorous pace, before rolling to an entirely nonsensical conclusion.  Indeed, the use of two locations (Turkey and Brazil), suggests that the film might have been made as a side project, during the shooting of other Franco/Towers collaborations, (it is notable that Blood of Fu Manchu was filmed in Brazil, whilst Castle of Fu Manchu uses Turkish locations),  which wasn't an uncommon occurrence if principal photography on a film wrapped early - both cast and crew on Towers' productions would remain under contract for the duration of the original shooting schedule.

Whatever the film's origins and dramatic shortcomings, it stands as probably Jesus Franco's best film.  Whilst cynics would suggest that this wouldn't be difficult, considering the variable quality of the prolific Spaniard's output, the reality is that Venus in Furs offered Franco a vehicle which perfectly suited his fragmented, Jazz-music inspired directorial style.  Never strong on narrative, Franco is here well-served by a scenario which doesn't require the unfolding events to make any logical sense - that's the whole point of the film.  The plot, such as it is, unfolds as a series of vignettes, starting with James 'Time Tunnel' Darren's jazz trumpeter witnessing Maria Rohm's Wanda being abused by a trio of wealthy perverts (including kinky Klaus Kinski) in Turkey, before finding her body washed up on a beach.   He flees to Brazil where he meets Wanda, apparently alive and well, who then proceeds to take kinky revenge upon two of her killers who are also in Rio.  Is she a ghost?  Darren doesn't know and is so obsessed with her, he doesn't really care.  From there, it's back to Turkey for Wanda's encounter with Kinski, before Darren returns to that beach - after finding Wanda's grave -  for an entirely baffling finale.  To be fair, the final scene does make sense if you accept that all the preceding events were a death bed fantasy. 

As you will have noticed from my fragmentary synopsis, unlike the novel whose title it bears, this Venus in Furs isn't really a study in masochism, but rather sexual obsession.  Arguably, Darren's obsessive relationship with Wanda, regardless of whether she is a ghost and/or a murderer, could be characterised as 'masochistic'.  However, the reality is that the film was re-titled and the character names changed to cash in on the other Venus in Furs film. Indeed, in some territories it was released as either Paroxismus or Black Angel.  But if you look beyond the misleading title and the fact that it is directed by Jesus Franco, you'll find that it is an entertaining and intriguing ghost story, nicely photographed and with an excellent jazz-orientated score (provided in part by Manfred Mann).