Nocturnal Forum

First, I would like to welcome everyone to my interactive Jess Franco blogsite herehttp://www.robertmonell.blogspot.com/

I would also like to discuss his films here and get some feedback from my UK friends. Jess Franco is NOT my favorite film director nor is he even my favorite Eurocult genre director but he is an original and worth discussing since he relates to almost everyone. There is a huge documentary project by Jose Garcia Sanchez being compiled in Spain right now and well as an ongoing retrospective in Bilbao. Interesting that Franco is now finally being picked up in Spain rather than picked on as he was in the 60s, by the censors. He left in the 70s to make films for Robert de Nesle's CFFP, which are his best works and almost impossible to see in good condition. He's also a very good actor, as shown in EXORICSM and the reedit EL SADICO DEL NOTRE DAME.

I would recommend LORNA THE EXORCIST and the recent SNAKEWOMAN. My all time favorite remains NECRONOMICON aka SUCCUBUS for it's late 60s psychedelia and general atmopshere. He's also a very nice person. I've talked to him and he is totally humble about his own work and generally interested in why people are interested in it. The exact opposite of the kind of arrogant blowhard some directors tend to be...

welcome bob. who else would use a riccardo freda monicker as his pseudonym?
took a bit of time to work it out but here is the proof.
i believe his de nesle titles are coming out on dvd in 2007-2008 and apparantly are being taken from the elements (don't quote me on that though).
nice blog, bob and welcome once again. moving to paris in april so maybe i could catch up with with alain petit at some point if that helps out still??!
oh and i have a few more contacts if you are still wanting to speak to people who worked with him - PM me if so.

Thanks for the welcome, Kit. Actually Freda is my favorite Eurocult director. Now, I had heard that Canal+ had the De Nesle films. Is that true? Yes, Alain is probably the leading expert on JF in France. He worked with him as actor, composer and writer. Robert Woods is also interested in finding out if his De Nesle Franco films are being released. Thanks again for you kind comments and always helpful information.

people always confuse canal plus (which is the tv station) with studio canal (who actually hold the rights to a large library of films.

i heard from a few sources that a number of the titles from the de nesle catalog are being released - but there have been some complications because jess is also claiming ownership on some of them.

i haven't looked through studio canale's catalog in some time but i am pretty certain those franco titles weren't in there... i believe the rights are held elsewhere in france - and not by jess either.

Studio Canal, then. Thanks for clarifying that. I had heard De Nesle's daughter Elisabeth, sold his rights and films to a company in the 80s or 90s, I thought it was Studio Canal, maybe it was another French company. I have De Nesle's death date as 1978, does that conform to your info? De Nesle also made a lot of Sword and Sandal films which were also reportedly in that package. Thanks