Paroxismus - Può una morta rivivere per amore? aka Venus in Furs (1969) Surreal Erotic Euro Trash Jazz - Cusp of Noir

"We escaped from the real world to a dream world. And I never wanted it to end."

Directed by Jesús Franco. 

Written by Jesús Franco and Malvin Wald, from a story by Jesús Franco.  G. Cuccia, Carlo Fadda, and Bruno Leder. Beautiful cinematography by Angelo Lotti, Music was by Mike Hugg, Manfred Mann, and Stu Phillips.

Stars James Darren as Jimmy Logan, Barbara McNair as Rita, Maria Rohm as Wanda Reed, Klaus Kinski as Ahmed Kortobawi, Dennis Price as Percival Kapp, Margaret Lee as Olga, Adolfo Lastretti as Insp. Kaplan.

Ok this is is the second film with the title Venus in Fur(s) suggested as possibly being a Film Noir. 

"You watch enough Noirs and you literally get to the point where, I've heard it put this way, that "you know them when you see them." I'll go that one better. Noir, for me is a Pan Generic Dark Story told in a Visually Stylistic way that triggers a vibe that you tune to, almost akin to a drug/alcohol high. You get a Noir buzz. But its a strange type of high that is actually topsy-turvy to a drug/alcohol high in that it works like this. For Noir neophytes they will only get that high from the hard boiled hardcore Noirs with Detectives, Femme Fatales, and murder. They are the Noir junkies, the mainliners. But with the more Noirs you get exposed to you'll find that there is an endless variety of stories that shuffle and spiral away on different tendrils that provide enough of the elements that make a film a Noir. Your personal life experiences will also inform your affinity to the types of stories that will tip Noir for you. So your tolerance level to Noir goes down, you don't need the hardboiled, hard core stories to get the fix and you recognize the noir in all the various tragedies and picaresque situations that plague the human condition. Noir expands out to an ill delineated, fuzzy "on the cusp of Noir" point where a film can tip either way for an individual."

This film, for me, is on that "Cusp of Noir" It's a Dark, Surreal, Supernatural, Sexploitation Film that could tip either way depending on your personal tastes and subjectivity. Its at the tip of one of those tendrils. I can't say either way. Submitted for your perusal Venus In Furs. Check out the screencaps below.

So Jesús Franco Manera was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and sometimes actor, Think of him as the Spanish Harvey Corman known low-budget exploitation and B-movies. He wrote, directed, produced, acted in, and scored  over a 150 films.

Franco's personal auteur film kinks often revolved around lesbians, caged women, Mad doctor surgical horror, sadomasochism, zombies, sexploitation, lesbian vampires, and see where he's going? - hardcore. 

The Story

We see a woman. A Dark Venus wrapped in furs.  An opening credit sequence that ends in an establishing shot of Istanbul at night. Then an early morning minaret.

Waves. A sleeping man. Jimmy Logan (James Darren). Jazz trumpeter of world renown. Wakes up by a dune fence on a beach. He digs in the sand and pulls out his trumpet. He looks out at the surf and fishes out a naked woman. Wanda Reed (Maria Rohm). She's been stabbed. 

James Darren as Jimmy Logan

Maria Rohm as Wanda Reed

He recalls being very attracted to Wanda the night before at a wild party given by Ahmed Kortobawi (Klaus Kinsky). He hallucinates or remembers (remember there is a dreamlike quality to this), or thinks he remembers that he saw her tortured by his two of his friends Olga (Margaret Lee) and Percival (Dennis Price) along with  Kortobawi. He didn't think it really happened until he found Wanda's body. 

We cut to Rio de Janeiro. Jimmy is playing in a club he meets Rita (Barbara McNair) a black bar singer who becomes his girlfriend. But he also finds the ghost of Wanda who walks into his life.

Noirsville

Barbara McNair as Rita

Rio

Klaus Kinski as Ahmed Kortobawi

Margaret Lee as Olga

Venus in Furs will remind you of a bit of  Siesta (1987) 6.5/10

Here are some reviews of note from the web:

Venus In Furs Will Be Smiling... Sharkishly!

Witchfinder-General-66612 March 2009

Super-prolific Spanish exploitation director Jess Franco is often bashed as being merely a creator of cheap trash - which is a preconception that only people who are not familiar with all of his work can take. Sure, the man's impressive repertoire of more than 180 films includes more than a few stinkers, but Franco also made several films that are downright brilliant, especially in his earlier years. "The Awful Dr. Orloff" (1962) and "The Diabolical Dr. Z" (1966) are two of these films, and "Paroxismus" aka. "Venus In Furs" of 1969 definitely also belongs in this category. "Venus In Furs" is a bizarre, sleazy and amazingly artistic Exploitation gem that mixes Horror, Mystery, sexual perversion and great music in an obscure and highly memorable manner. The casting of Klaus Kinski in a typically demented role and sexy Maria Rohm as the eponymous Venus are by far not the only aspects that make "Venus In Furs" a must for cult-cinema lovers.

When walking along the beach in Isanbul, a Jazz trumpeter (James Darren) stumbles across the body of a young woman. He recognizes her as a girl who was assaulted by a rich playboy (Klaus Kinski) and two others. He travels to Rio, where he meets Rita (Barbara McNair) a foxy black bar singer who becomes his girlfriend. In Rio, he also runs into a young woman (beautiful Maria Rohm) who is the spitting image of the dead girl from the Istanbul beach.... I do not want to give away too much of the, sometimes confusing, plot, but I can assure that it is highly obscure and very interesting throughout. The English title, "Venus In Furs", is also the title of a novel by Leopold Sacher-Masoch. The film has nothing to do with the novel, however, the title refers to the character played by Maria Rohm. Rohm is incredibly sexy and mysterious at the same time. Barbara McNair, who is also responsible for the best parts of the great score, makes another great female character. The female cast members are all beautiful, and, as in is the case with most of Franco's later films, the film provides sleaze, female nudity, lesbianism and perversions, though not as explicitly as many of his later films. It also provides ingenious surrealism, obscure mystery, psychedelic imagery and delightful weirdness of all sorts. The great Klaus Kinski (one of my all-time favorite actors) is once again brilliantly demented in his role, and James Darren fits well in the lead. One of the greatest aspects of the film is the great score, especially memorable is the 'Venus in Furs' sung by Barbara McNair herself. "Venus In Furs" is an obscure and bizarre gem that is ingenious in many aspects and should disabuse all the Jess Franco-haters out there. To some people, this is Franco's best film. I would still give that title to either "The Awful Dr. Orloff" or "The Diabolical Dr. Z", but this film is doubtlessly also a must-see for everyone interested in cult cinema, and an absolute proof for what a great filmmaker Franco is. 8.5/10

Rate Your Music - Paroxismus Venus in Furs

UrbanHaze82 May 14 2020

"We escaped from the real world to a dream world. And I never wanted it to end."

Too cheap and muddled to be a masterwork, but there are elements here that are reminiscent of the most out there Amon Duul Trips, and that's some real shit. Falling just short of achieving true Hallucinogenic Proficiency with some typical budgetary and slow-paced issues, Franco never the less delivers with "Venus in Furs", continuing what we saw in "Rosemaries Baby", "The Devil Rides Out", and his own "Succubus", says "fuck it" and just brings on the haze and full blown psychedelic aesthetic with Exotic locations, gorgeous babes, forgettable to pretty great Jazz blasting by Manfred Mann, giving this flicks stumbling yet striking pace it's own mindfucked beat. Even before the flick begins, the main character is already in a daze, not to be outdone by anyone in the audience, trying put the put the pieces together, while being not exactly the most reliable narrator, and the constantly enigmatic display of surrealism and freeform flows make this seem as organized a narrative as an Agatha Christie novel clobbered by a Tornado. We can bitch about the shallowness attempts at dissecting themes of fantasy, lust, desire, jealousy, and living in the moment. Or we can let Jesus Franco's consistently intruiging and warped vision complement the Buddah Cession and enjoy the stylized approach to enhancing a cheap, shallow mystery with ample alluring mystique and experimentation of the counterculture era. The fact that it's not tremendously difficult to follow, and Franco actually putting some effort into utilization of absorbing multicolor and distinct framing helps too.

Simple setup with a Jimmy Logan waking up in a stupor. Whatever personalities he has or lacks are secondary to his hungover state of mind, that will no doubt mirror that of the audience as the film progresses, stumbles around an Istanbul beach, retrieves his trusty trumpet, and discovers Wanda Reed's corpse on the beach. He vaguely remember's digging her, and again he's not sure, but maybe he witnessed she got into some bad S&M gone awry plot with Klaus Kinski, Margaret Lee, and some Butler looking mofucka. Franco flips the story carrying him over to Rio in time for the carnival. Hanging out with his downasschick Rita, gracing the flick and Wanda with jingle of the titular motif, Wanda seem's to be back, and the bodies of her murderer's seem to be piling up in the most serene, sensual ways, allowing France to capture the stylistic, ritual like erotic scenes in an entrancing manner.

Disregarding the lack of point, certain slow spots, Logan being a weak if kinda amusingly dazed protagonist, this flick delivers that psychedelic layer of fascination and hedonism, displayed with that unflinching desire to bring an element of skill into displaying such craft with warped out effects, color and original cinematography. Ok the closeups to Kinski's mug are annoying, it's cheaper than usual, and certain Giallo's and simialarly perverse Teruo Ishii flicks of the era did this approach better. Despite this Venus in Fur where through Franco's competency, Rita's singing, Logan jamming with his band, or Wanda's glare reflects that flavor that made the American International Pictures Grindhouse fare so entertaining. Could have been tightened up to a 4, but I can dig this.

Visione Prohibite - Paroxismus (1969), Jesús Franco