Cries of Pleasure Blu-ray Review

Jess Franco has had quiet a long and illustrious film career. From some of his more well-known films such as Barbed Wire Dolls, 99 Women, and Faceless, he has a few almost completely unknown titles as well, which can be expected when you have a filmography that spans decades. One of these less well know shall we say films is from 1983 and titles Cries of Pleasure. Like quiet a few of his films this is pure violent sexploitation, and actually based (albeit loosely) on a book by the Marquis De Sade.

Cries takes place in the span of a single day in one home with only interactions between a few people, the main one being Antonio. Antonio loves having sex. Heck when he was little he raped his maid. Now fully grown she is madly in love with him, but I’m getting ahead of myself. See Antonio married into money. A lot of money. His wife, Martina not only comes from wealth but she’s also a bit on the insane part. Actually she’s pretty much full blown breakdown nuts. She’s getting out of the insane asylum and Antonio has a plan to get rid of her for good.

First he has to bring home his new girlfriend Julia and have a lot of sex with her. He actually gets her on board with taking care of Martina, but then he gets the urge to violently assault his maid which ends extra badly, and kind of makes Julia start to have second thoughts on this matter. That’s not good as he wants to have so much sex with Julia is causes Martina to just go full on insane, have a breakdown, and get committed to the insane asylum for life, or worse. Problem now is that not only does Julia realize he’s nuts and violent to say the least, but she starts getting more and more attracted to Martina, who shows interest as well. This leads to not only sexual tension, but lots more sex. Things get even worse after that but I can’t spoil the ending.

After watching Franco films for many years I really want to know how this one is not more well known. I never heard of it, and I’m upset about that because it is actually one of his better films. He uses a lot of handheld shots that really add to the surreal feel of this film. Sure the film is low budget, and take place in a villa, and no where else, but the way Franco filmed this is just amazing. He’s able to take the violence, and soft core sex and ties it into the most basic plot between a group of five people and turn it into something almost magical. Its like watching a fevered dream come to life when your awake.

Severin has done another masterful transfer on this lost classic. The colors look great. This is a pretty bright film in spots and there is no glare or blur. The colors are all crisp and vibrant. And the nudity is so cleaned up it comes across almost tasteful, even though this is Euro-Sleaze at its best. The audio is fantastic. Nothing comes across muffled or fogged. It really is like watching a new film. And as its Severin they have included a great amount of Special Features.

In The Land Of Franco Part 1: Stephen Thrower Tours Multiple Franco Locations in Portugal
When Donald Met Jess and Lina Part 1: Filmmaker Donald Farmer Interviews the Power Couple in 1993
Jess Franco’s Golden Years: Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of ‘Murderous Passions & Flowers of Perversion – The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco’

Fans of Jess Franco, and films of this nature will undoubtedly want to add this to their collection. If you have never watched a Euro-Sleaze film this is as good as any to start with. Not for everyone’s taste, but definitely a must own for fans. Pick yours up today.

Overall 3.5 out of 5 Stars!