Vampyros Lesbos - heiress of Dracula
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Vampyros Lesbos - heiress of Dracula |
| Original title | Las Vampiras |
| Country of production | Spain , Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1971 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jesus Franco |
| script | Jesus Franco Jaime Chávarri |
| production |
Artur Brauner Karl Heinz Mannchen |
| music |
Manfred Hübler Siegfried Schwab |
| camera | Manuel Merino |
| cut | Clarissa Ambach |
| occupation | |
| |
Vampyros Lesbos - Heiress of Dracula (Spanish original title: Las Vampiras ) is a Spanish - German feature film from 1970. The erotic-surreal horror film was directed by Jesus Franco , who, together with Jaime Chávarri, also wrote the script based on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula .
action
The lawyer Linda Westinghouse dreams of an attractive woman whom she actually meets on a Mediterranean island in the form of the mysterious Countess Nadine Carody. The Countess turns out to be Count Dracula's heir. Linda succumbs to Nadine's charms and lets her drink her blood. As they hunt for victims together, Linda regrets her step and kills the countess.
background
In accordance with Franco's view that the purpose of filming was to “show the female body naked ”, he moved the story to summery climes and replaced Count Dracula with the lightly or unclothed Countess Carody, played by Soledad Miranda . Likewise, the fictional character of Jonathan Harker was replaced by a female counterpart; Linda Westinghouse embodied by Ewa Strömberg . Renfield was also replaced by a female character named Agra, played by Heidrun Kussin .
As is often the case with the director Jess Franco, who is strongly influenced by surrealism , the plot of the film is not told in a stringent manner: reality and dream cannot be clearly separated from one another. The cut follows less logical than associative points of view and is reminiscent of improvisations in jazz music , in which various motifs and themes are "reassembled". Seeßlen and Jung note that Franco “carelessly mixes up a few set pieces of the genre” .
The film was shot in June and July 1970 in Istanbul , Alicante , Barcelona and Berlin . The German theatrical release was on July 15, 1971.
The German theatrical version was preceded by an excerpt from Heinrich Heine's poem Helena :
“ Press your mouth to my mouth, the
breath of man is divine!
I'll drink up your soul,
the dead are insatiable. "
Since the DVDs of the film available today are based on a picture master of the French version, this quote is missing there.
Film music
In 1995 the soundtrack of "Vampyros Lesbos" and " Sie kötete in Ekstase " was reissued and became a worldwide hit in dance clubs, so that further new editions followed in the following years. In 1997 Quentin Tarantino used excerpts from it for his film " Jackie Brown ".
Reviews
Film-dienst ruled that the film was “a craft horror film with a clearly speculative aim” . Obsession - The Films of Jess Franco notes that the film is "the ultimate in horrotica: surreal and trivial at the same time, an ambitious work of art and a sex cracker, a poem and a comic rolled into one" .
indexing
The Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People indexed the film on August 4, 1986 (No. 2631 / V). It was removed from the list again by decision of July 18, 2011 (Pr. 460/11) and publication in the Federal Gazette on July 29, 2011.
Web links
- Vampyros Lesbos - heir of Dracula in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Film review
Individual evidence
- ↑ Georg Seeßlen / Fernand Jung : Horror - History and mythology of horror films . Schüren Verlag Marburg 2006. ISBN 3-89472-430-7 , p. 300
- ↑ quoted in: Georg Seeßlen / Fernand Jung: Horror - History and Mythology of Horror Film . Schüren Verlag Marburg 2006. ISBN 3-89472-430-7 , p. 300
- ^ Federal testing agency for media harmful to minors: indexing proceedings against Vampyros Lesbos