Vampyros Lesbos (1971)

Too much of everything

Overrated and overhyped

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Well, I taped this movie because I found the title Vampiros Lesbos (or one could translate it to Lesbian Vampires, or the Vampire of Lesbos, or whatever - there isn't one) interesting. My friend also directed me towards it, though I do rarely listen to him. My conclusion though is that I really wasted my time watching this movie as it was dull, boring, and pointless.Dracula fell in love with a woman and made her a vampire, and this vampire only loves woman. One woman, a journalist or something, kept on dreaming about this vampire, and saw her one night in a weird restaurant. She then went to her island and had weird things done to her, and then after she goes to hospital and then is released, returns to the island to kill this vampire.It is a very bizarre, almost pointless movie. One of my friends says that to appreciate one movie, one needs to watch movies of other countries, and I agree that some movies from other countries had a style and ideas that are not found in those of America. Also, garbage like this also comes out, just as garbage comes out of everywhere.

This vampire film from director Jesus Franco is an unarguable example of a cult movie if ever there was one. It sure isn't going to appeal to everyone that's for sure. This is no ordinary horror movie – like a lot of Franco's films the horror is pretty half-hearted to say the least – it's much more left-field arty erotica. Franco is often criticised for being a bad film-maker, one who put out lots of films too quickly and with little care. To some degree this is true as his movies do always look like they were made fast and their low budgets always compromise them to some extent. Vampyros Lesbos exhibits these faults as well – it does have cheap sets and it does look like it has been made in a hurry – but this is one of the films from Franco that clearly shows that he had something really interesting to offer. His mix of horror, eroticism and surrealism puts him alongside French director Jean Rollin. At their best, both men made highly personal films that look more and more interesting and unique as each year goes by.Vampyros Lesbos can maybe best be described as a hallucinatory fever-dream. It has a striking feel and atmosphere. A great deal of its success can be put down to two things – its soundtrack and its lead actress, Soledad Miranda. The score by Manfred Hubler and Sigfried Schwab is pretty mind-blowing. It can perhaps best be described as psychedelic lounge music. It's very effective and creates an unusual ambiance all of its own. And as for Soledad Miranda, well she's pretty extraordinary. She starred in several Franco films at the time and she was always fantastic but this is her most famous and iconic role. Her character is Princess Nadine Korody; a mysterious vampire woman appears to a female lawyer in the form of a series of erotic dreams. Miranda is a very beautiful woman and she had an incredible screen presence. Her performance here is one of the greatest in erotic cinema. And the nudity never feels gratuitous with Miranda, always entirely natural and, dare I say it, beautiful. Ewa Strömberg is very sexy too but it's difficult competing with someone like Soledad Miranda and this is undoubtedly her film. The male cast has a few familiar faces but they are pretty negligible and there more for plot exposition purposes rather than anything much more. Franco himself does deserve some credit too for having the vision to bring all of this psychotronic madness to the screen in such a committed way. He does photograph things really interestingly at times, even if he is a bit of a zoom merchant.This is hardly a film for everyone. It's not even going to appeal to most horror fans. In fact it'll no doubt appal a lot of them. Because it's mainly about erotic imagery, as opposed to horror. And, like most Franco, it isn't plot driven in the least. Its story is a variation on 'Dracula' but it's more a means to an end and there is no attempt at generating suspense or anything like that. You have to be able to get into its very specific groove to get into it. It's overall a very strange film but for 70's Euro cult enthusiasts I would say this is an absolute must.

One of Jess Franco's most famous works, "Vampyros Lesbos" is also one of the most distinctive and fresh low-budget horror films that sprung in Europe during the early 70's. While it is a flawed affair, particularly as far as substance is concerned, it's style is so unique and otherworldly, that it's guaranteed to haunt and entice you for a long time after you watched. Adopting a stream-of-consciousness narrative, the film takes you into a feverish daydream (literally, as there are no night scenes in this one), loosely adapted from Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula", exploring the world of fetishes and sexual fantasies, through breathtaking psychedelic imagery of eroticized violence and exotic locales, as well as one hell of a groovy, nostalgic score by Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab. Of course, the film wouldn't been nearly as memorable without the casting of Soledad Miranda in the role of Countess Narody - quite possibly the sexiest vampiress to have ever graced the silver screen, with her unforgettable exotic beauty and bone-chilling screen presence. Overall, an excellent little psychedelic gem, that even if bothers some viewers with it's strange appeal, is a must see if only to be entranced by Miss Miranda.

Vampiros Lesbos is an extended film essay, based on Franco's lectures at a women's college at Cambridge University in 1968. In it, Franco addresses his thoughts on "the question of women and film," interpreted by Franco as many questions. In Vampiros Lesbos, Franco ponders the significant question of whether or not a woman could find the same meaning in life as men, exemplified my Count Dracula. In doing so, he examines women's historical experience as well as the distinctive struggle of the woman artist. Franco defines the question of women and film as being three inextricable questions: women and what they are like; women and the women they sleep with; and women and hoe lesbian intercourse is depicted. A couple of bothersome features: First, the words lesbianism and omnisexuality are used interchangeably throughout the film and the script pertaining to the film. Second, the genres (e.g. cunnilingus) with which each actress is associated are clearly discernible, but there is almost non-existent notation of the actresses possible connection to any of the men, or the reasons that some of these actresses were considered lesbian.