Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco, Volume one

The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco

by Stephen Thrower, Julian Grainger

Extensive coverage of film guru Jesús Franco's kinky horror films and career from 1953 to 1974.

Jesús Franco was a fascinating, iconic guru in world cinema. A passionate believer in artistic and sexual freedom, he constantly tested the boundaries of taste and censorship during an extraordinary career spanning sixty years and more than 170 films. His delirious spontaneity turned the raw basics of popular cinema—sex and violence—into an avant-garde whirl of sensations.

Franco's taste for the kinky and horrific, his idiosyncratic visual style, and his lifelong obsession with the Marquis de Sade, birthed a whole new strain of erotica. Films like Succubus, Vampyros Lesbos, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, and The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein throw out the rulebook and reinvent genre cinema, while even his weakest efforts exude something strange and wild amid the chaos. Meanwhile, multiple international variants turn the Franco filmography into a dizzying hall of mirrors, entrancing for the aficionado but confusing for beginners—until now.

Originally published in 2015, Murderous Passions delves into Franco's career from 1953 to 1974 (a second volume, Flowers of Perversion, covers 1975 to 2013). Assisted by esteemed critic and researcher Julian Grainger, Stephen Thrower shines a light into the darkest corners of the Franco filmography, uncovering a wealth of new information. Unparalleled in scope and ambition, this revised and updated edition of Murderous Passions contains eighty more pages of images, many in colour, and a thorough index.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

512 pages, Hardcover

First published March 16, 2015

Reviews

[Paul Stolp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Thrower is responsible for my favorite film book ever published (Nightmare USA) and he nearly equals it with this first in a two-volume set covering the filmography of the incomparable Jesus Franco. Though many find it bewildering, I adore Franco's cinema. As far from Hollywood as you can get (a great thing in my book), Franco's cheap, strange and personal films are certainly not for everyone. The best of them, though, utilize cinema to capture a truly strange dream world that moves to its own unique rhythm. This book--covering all of Franco's films up through 1974 (the rest to follow next year in volume two)--is an exhaustively researched, loving tribute to a truly unique filmmaker (and to his muses, especially Lina Romay.) While everyone is at the theater watching the new Star Wars, I will happily be at home, watching or re-watching a Franco film. Thank you, Stephen Thrower and thank you, Jesus Franco.

[Patrick.G.P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and informative work on one of cinema's greatest directors. Stephen Thrower's work on Jess Franco is invaluable and treats this master of exploitation cinema with the respect he truly deserves. Not a book to be read in one sitting but a fantastic book to dip into after watching one of Franco's films, or to look up fascinating notes on the production of these movies A must for Jess Franco fans!

[Rckay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Join Stephen as he hacks his way through the tricky jungle of Jess Franco with enthusiasm education erudition edgy energy and without embarrassment and with just a little of his own insanity to attempt to find the heart of this master of the dark Jess Franco.

By the end we are only half way there ! But we have reached a port. Ships will b by soon. One will take u home (if u survive the incoming storm) the other will drop us on the next and final island 'Volooomtoooo'.

It's volcanic they say.

Thoroughly recommended for fans noobies and nudies.

[Ned Netherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

An epic undertaking, Stephen Thrower and Julian Grainger dive deep into every film Franco made up to the year 1973. Cast and crew lists, alternative versions, potential release dates and filming dates [the latter two become increasingly murky as we get to the 70s] and then Thrower gives us his own personal reviews, which are informed, witty and illuminative.

So glad I managed to get hold of this sadly rare treasure, it deserves to be on the shelf of every book store.

[Holger Haase · Rating 5 out of 5]

First in a massive 2-volume tome dedicated to Jess Franco and his movies. Insanely well researched and one of the best film books of this century.

[Nigel Parry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential for any follower of Jess Franco!

[Movieland Video · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the biggest instigators of unreliable information in the Jess Franco story is the man himself, but Stephen Thrower aims to deal only in verified facts for the first volume of this priceless tome that covers his filmography from 1959 - 1974. If the book ever returns to print, I will purchase a second copy just in case anything were to happen to the original - I simply love it that much. If you are without this book, it’s worth even the most outrageous eBay prices.