The Bare-Breasted Countess
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''Female Vampire'' (a.k.a. ''The Bare-Breasted Countess'') is a horror film written, directed, and co-edited by
Jesús Franco Jesús Franco Manera (12 May 1930 – 2 April 2013), also commonly known as Jess Franco, was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor, known as a highly prolific director of low-budget exploitation and B-movies. He worked in many different gen ...
. It was produced in 1973, but was only theatrically distributed in 1975. The film is set in
Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...
and stars actress
Lina Romay Rosa María Almirall Martínez (25 June 1954 – 15 February 2012), known by the stage name Lina Romay, was a Spanish actress and filmmaker. She often appeared in films directed by her long-time companion, and later husband, Jesús Franco. She ...
as Irina von Karlstein, a vampire who has sex with both male and female victims. In an unusual variation of the vampire myth, Karlstein performs
oral sex Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth). Cunnilingus is oral sex performed on the vu ...
on her victims until they die, draining them of their sexual fluids. Three versions of the film were shot: straight horror, horror mixed with sex, and a
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography or hardcore porn is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as sexual intercourse, vaginal, anal sex, anal, oral sex, oral, or Non-penetrative sex#Manual sex, manual intercourse; e ...
version. Franco's original title for the film was ''The Bare Breasted Countess'', but it was released under many different titles over the years. To assuage Franco, the film was screened as ''The Bare Breasted Countess'' at the 2009
Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse. Lisa Dreyer ...
in the United States, which Franco attended as guest of honor. The film's title was inexplicably changed to ''Female Vampire'' for its DVD release.


Plot

The plot revolves around Countess Irina von Karlstein (
Lina Romay Rosa María Almirall Martínez (25 June 1954 – 15 February 2012), known by the stage name Lina Romay, was a Spanish actress and filmmaker. She often appeared in films directed by her long-time companion, and later husband, Jesús Franco. She ...
), a mute woman who needs sex like a vampire needs blood in order to stay alive. Without speaking, the Countess is able to hypnotize victims and lure them into transfixed erotic acts. In addition, she is able to fly from the scene quickly due to her bat-changing abilities. When new victims are found fatally drained of potency, and left scattered around the town, forensic scientist Dr. Roberts consults his colleague, Dr. Orloff, who confirms that a vampire is responsible. A female journalist and few others meet with the Countess and confront her about her ties to vampires in her family. While the Countess tells the truth and admits that she is a vampire, few remain living to report the truth and warn other townspeople. The countess is also confronted by a psychic investigator who believes he is destined to become her lover and join her among the immortals.


Production

In director Jesús Franco's productions from 1972 and onward, his films became more inclined towards themes involving female sex and zoom in shots on female genitalia.Shipka, 2011. p.208 After the death of Franco's previous preferred lead actress
Soledad Miranda Soledad Rendón Bueno (9 July 1943 – 18 August 1970), better known by her stage names Soledad Miranda or Susann Korda (or sometimes Susan Korday), was a Spanish actress and singer. She starred in several films directed by cult filmmaker Jes ...
, he cast 19-year-old actress
Lina Romay Rosa María Almirall Martínez (25 June 1954 – 15 February 2012), known by the stage name Lina Romay, was a Spanish actress and filmmaker. She often appeared in films directed by her long-time companion, and later husband, Jesús Franco. She ...
as the Countess Irina.Shipka, 2011. p.210 Romay was more open about her sexuality than Miranda, which allowed Franco to focus on his more sex-based themes in his films. Franco originally made three different versions of the film.... a straight vampire film called ''La comtesse noire'' (''The Black Countess''), a horror-oriented erotic film entitled ''La Comtesse aux seins nus'' (''The Bare Breasted Countess''), and the hardcore pornography version ''Les avaleuses'' (''The Swallowers''). These 3 versions ran at 72 minutes, 82 minutes, and 96 minutes respectively. Franco felt that ''The Bare Breasted Countess'' was an
erotica Erotica is art, literature or photography that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erot ...
film as opposed to a
pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...
. Franco compared the use of sex in his films to the film ''
In the Realm of the Senses ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (, Japanese: , ''Ai no Korīda'', "Bullfight of Love") is a 1976 erotic art film written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of a 1936 murder committed by Sada Ab ...
'' by Japanese director
Nagisa Oshima is a Japanese name, Japanese given name used by either sex and is occasionally used as a surname. Written forms Nagisa can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *渚, "beach, strand" *汀, "water's edge/shore" *凪砂, "lu ...
whose film contained sex with social and political commentary. Franco compared his film to Oshima's, stating "there are lots of hardcore shots but nobody would say 'Oh, it's a porno film!' No. It's a very important story. I felt in 'Female Vampire''I did the same thing. There was a need to show it, like you must show how
Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...
sucks his blood, you need to show how this Countess sucks the semen." Some scenes with the vampires were filmed twice....in the manner of a traditional vampire film and also in a much more graphic style. The film was edited by Franco and Ramon Ardid (Lina Romay's then-husband) under the combined pseudonym Pierre Querut.


Release

The film premiered in France under the title ''La Comtesse noire'' on 7 May 1975. Producers added
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography or hardcore porn is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as sexual intercourse, vaginal, anal sex, anal, oral sex, oral, or Non-penetrative sex#Manual sex, manual intercourse; e ...
scenes to the film on some of its releases.Hawkins, 2000. p.96 The film has been released under several alternative English titles, including ''Yacula'', ''Jacula'', ''Bare-Breasted Vampire'', ''The Bare Breasted Countess'' and ''Naked Vampire''. The film was screened under the title ''The Bare Breasted Countess'' at the 2009
Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse. Lisa Dreyer ...
with Lina Romay and Franco in attendance (Franco's preferred title). ''Female Vampire'' was released by
Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 34 ...
on DVD on 8 August 2000. The film was re-released on DVD and
blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
disc by
Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the Berlin Wall#The Fall, fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. T ...
. The Kino release includes both a 71-minute "horror version" and a 101-minute "erotic version".


Reception

From a contemporary review, David McGillivray (''
Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
''), reviewing a 59-minute dubbed version of the film, stated the cuts have made a narratively complex film even more confusing, describing the film as "a fragment of a much longer film, although in this case the cuts have added a bizarre new level to a work already wrapped in mystery" The reviewer commented that "what exactly is going on, and what exactly Irina is doing to her victims, remains a mind-boggling conundrum", noting that "with the exception of the first encounter, she appears not to be doing anything at all." From retrospective reviews,
Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction – both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at the age of eleven & ...
referred to the film as "One of Franco's better films" as well noting that for Franco's fanbase it is "a masterpiece; to everyone else, wearisome tat." The online film database Allmovie gave the film one and a half stars out of five, but opined that the film "benefits from a haunting performance by Romay as the cursed vampire."


See also

*
List of Belgian films of the 1970s A list of films produced in Belgium ordered by year of release. For an alphabetical list of Belgian films see :Belgian films Notes External links Belgian filmat the Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie ...
*
List of French films of 1975 A list of films produced in France in 1975. See also *1975 in France Notes External links French films of 1975at the Internet Movie DatabaseFrench films of 1975at Cinema-francais.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:French Films Of 1975 1975 Lists of 197 ...
*
List of horror films of 1975 A list of horror films released in 1975. References Sources * * * * * * * * * * * External links Horror films of 1975on Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of info ...


References


Footnotes


Sources

* Hawkins, Joan. ''Cutting Edge: Art-Horror and the Horrific Avant-Garde''.
University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...
, 2000. . * Shipka, Danny. ''Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960–1980''.
McFarland McFarland may refer to: People *McFarland (surname) Places in the United States *McFarland, California, a city *McFarland, Kansas, a city *McFarland, Missouri, a ghost town *McFarland, Wisconsin, a village Other uses * USS ''McFarland'' (DD-237) ...
, 2011. .


External links

* {{Jesús Franco 1975 films 1975 horror films 1970s erotic films Belgian erotic films Belgian horror films Erotic horror films Films directed by Jesús Franco French erotic films Sexploitation films French vampire films 1970s French films Lesbian vampire media