Recently I watched the restored version of Jess Franco's Al otro lado del espejo (1973, known in English as The Other Side of the Mirror). Having previously watched it in an unsubtitled and dreadful looking bootleg, it goes without saying that this was a much richer experience, and gave me a deeper appreciation for Franco's screenplay (erroneously credited to his ex-wife, Nicole Guettard - perhaps for quota purposes?). The basic story concerns a jazz musician, Ana (beautifully played by Emma Cohen), who is plunged into depression after her possessive father (Franco favorite Howard Vernon) hangs himself on the eve of her wedding. She leaves her fiancée and throws herself into her music, racking up a number of lovers at the clubs she plays at, but time and again she is driven to murder them by the specter of her father, who appears to her in the mirror of the title. The film is somewhat atypical of the director's work from this period. It's as poetic and fiercely uncommercial as contemporaneous films like Lorna the Exorcist (1974) or A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1971), but it lacks the full-blooded erotica that made those films easier to sell. Instead the film remains a haunting showcase for its lead actress, whose rounded performance and large, soulful eyes have no equivalents in the Franco canon. Not surprisingly, she won that year's CEC Award for Best Actress.
In terms of direction, the film is classic Franco, as the director conjures a lot from very little. Ana's journeys through the mirror are done simply but effectively, largely consisting of walks through a darkened hallway, but Franco's camera lingers on Cohen's face, allowing her haunted gaze to convince us. He achieves other simple yet memorable feats of imagination. The image of Ana's hanged father haunting her from various mirrors, recalling a hanged Paul Muller floating through the woods in A Virgin Among the Living Dead, makes a strong impression.
This film, like the aforementioned Virgin and several other important titles, was unfortunately not commercial enough for its producer, Robert De Nesle. In order to recoup his investment, he paid Franco to create a pornographic variant of the film called Le miroir obscene. Now that the director's cut has been properly restored, hopefully the film will be acknowledged as the hidden gem of Spanish cinema that it is.
In terms of direction, the film is classic Franco, as the director conjures a lot from very little. Ana's journeys through the mirror are done simply but effectively, largely consisting of walks through a darkened hallway, but Franco's camera lingers on Cohen's face, allowing her haunted gaze to convince us. He achieves other simple yet memorable feats of imagination. The image of Ana's hanged father haunting her from various mirrors, recalling a hanged Paul Muller floating through the woods in A Virgin Among the Living Dead, makes a strong impression.
This film, like the aforementioned Virgin and several other important titles, was unfortunately not commercial enough for its producer, Robert De Nesle. In order to recoup his investment, he paid Franco to create a pornographic variant of the film called Le miroir obscene. Now that the director's cut has been properly restored, hopefully the film will be acknowledged as the hidden gem of Spanish cinema that it is.