The death of Spanish-born Jess Franco, legendary director of predominantly sex-and-horror-based material with as many as 200 directing credits to his name, was announced today; he died around a year after his muse and partner Lina Romay did. Trained initially as a musician before studying film at the Sorbonne in Paris, Franco began directing in the late 50s. By using the same actors, sets and locations on many films, Franco maintained an astonishing workrate, and while the quality of his work sometimes suffered because of this, films such as Virgin Amongst the Living dead, Eugenie, Succubus and She Killed in Ecstasy remain distinctive slices of 60s/70s art-trash.
Most of his films have been released in multiple versions with wildly differing titles, while Franco himself directed under a bewildering number of pseudonyms. Actors who regularly appeared in his films include Klaus Kinski, Christopher Lee, Howard Vernon and wife Lina, as well as the tragically shortlived Soledad Miranda, an actress most identified with his early work; fans should also look out for his name on the credits of Orson Welles' Chimes of Midnight, on which he worked as assistant director. He was still working up to his death, in spite of his bereavement. A remarkable filmmaker in many ways, and possibly the most prolific of all time.
