Cries of Pleasure (1983) User Reviews

LESS STORY, MORE SOFT CORE

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 4/10 · 26 March 2020]

As I noted in my review for the release of NIGHT OF OPEN SEX, director Jess Franco was an exploitation director who has been rediscovered by a new generation who love his films. That film and this one are both being released on disc from Severin and fans should rejoice at the chance to add them to their collection.

Unlike NIGHT OF OPEN SEX there is less story on display here and more sex than that film. It definitely is the more porn like film of the pair even if there is a soft core like amount on display. The story involves the wealthy elite, a man who brings home his lover to meet his wife about to be released from an asylum. Not only does he have a thing going with this woman, he's also involved with his housekeeper, a woman he and his wife raped and took in when she was younger. As the story moves forward we learn that he has plans to kill his wife for her fortune and escape with his lover. Or does he?

The story may be simple but Franco tried for something different here, employing techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock in his film ROPE. Utilizing long takes and minimal edits Franco does his best to follow the master but falls far short. The scenery looks lovely and the location is nice but much of what happens takes place indoors and that almost always involves sex, some of which takes on a sadomasochistic bent.

Once more Franco puts wife Lina Romay on display for all to see as the adulteress lover of lead Antonio Mayans. If her body weren't enough there is also that of Elisa Vela as the housekeeper and Rocio Freixas as the wife. Various couplings of the group are on hand from start to finish. It's difficult to describe why the film falls just short of the hard core status. Suffice to say there is plenty of female genitalia on display but little from the male lead and no penetration. The film could play on cable and not be cut.

So is it any good? Well the story in itself is kind of interesting. And if soft core porn is something you enjoy then you have plenty on hand here to watch. The odds are though that most will not be looking for this film. But that wouldn't include fans of Franco or those who love exploitation films. That group will be flocking to pick up a copy of the film and will undoubtedly find it quite fulfilling since Severin has done a wonderful job with the release.

Not only are they offering in on blu-ray they've tacked on a number of extras as well. Those include "In the Land of Franco Part 1" with Stephen Thrower touring multiple Franco locations in Portugal, "When Donald Met Jess and Lina Part 1" where filmmaker Donald Farmer interviews the couple in 1993 and "Jess Franco's Golden Years" an interview with Thrower the author of "Murderous Passions & Flowers of Perversion - The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco". Parts 2 of these extras can be found on Severin's NIGHT OF OPEN SEX.

Usual Franco

[nick121235 · 6/10 · 18 July 2021]

Franco's films are always cheap, quick, and easy- and yet the gorgeous cinematography always elevates them to the next level and makes them into art. Imagine if he actually put time and effort into creating an emotionally impactful story with good pacing. Anyway, his films always have a sense of absolute abandon and true passion to them that really allows you to get lost in them. You can tell they really believe in what they're doing, and even if it is a cheap movie they aren't just cash ins, they are his personal artistic vision- although that vision really is mainly about carnal pleasure and transgression. This one, like many of Franco's films, is based on a work by De Sade. I wish I knew which one, I enjoy De Sade and I think his works are funny, satirical, philosphical, gleeful in their transgression of social codes but biting in their wit and obvious in their playful nature. Much like Franco. These aren't works of cold, hard violence and torture. They're erotic works of humor that defy society and morality with violence and torture. And Sex. And that's different... in my opinion.

I wish there was a bit more plot here, as there's more sex scenes than there is scenes which advance the story, but maybe that's true to De Sade as well. Maybe not though, as De Sade's stories are usually littered with lengthy philosophical monologues.

That's not to say the plot is nonexistent, there is a plot and it's quite interesting, it's just that the majority of the movie doesn't actually involve it.

Anyway, an absolutely wonderful display of libertinage, elevated by decadent camerawork. Classic Jesus Franco.

Gratuitous, murderous Franco fun.

[parry_na · 6/10 · 1 August 2019]

During sex, a plan is hatched between two consenting adults. During further sex, the plan is carried out. To celebrate this dramatic moment, sex is had. Lots of it. And while prolific Spanish Director Jess Franco's camera isn't as invasive as on some other, more hard-core occasions, it is fairly graphic, and it lasts a long, long time.

I really like much of what 'Pleasure of Death' has to offer. Franco operates a handheld camera much of the time, and while this makes for somewhat shaky viewing sometimes, there is a real sense of scale and place achieved with this approach. The location is breath-taking, the surrounding views gorgeous. And yet this paradise means nothing to the five characters (or six, if you include the ubiquitous fly who insists on gate-crashing various scenes). This is minimalist direction even from a minimalist director (this extends to a scene where a character is slashed with a knife. No blood appears, making it difficult to notice what is going on. Only a cursory smearing is shown on the corpse in the following scene - a curious decision). In other words, no budget is turned into a positive, and the reason for filming in a certain manner. Many of his 'One Shot Productions' were achieved in a similar way, but without access to the absorbing locations, and using the less evocative means of video.

But, as sometimes occurs with this director, the dramatic tension, the sense of isolation and feelings of imprisonment, the characters themselves, are all smothered in endless bouts of sex, and to be honest - despite Lina Romay, who looks trim and beautiful here, and exudes her usual unabashed sensuality - it becomes rather boring to watch. Possibly Franco gets carried away with the physical talents of his cast, perhaps he is adhering to the wishes of producers and distributors, and perhaps he is just doing exactly as he likes. My money is on the latter -and this is one of Franco's divisive traits: that he makes films primarily for himself. While I love his work for that very reason, a bit of investment in character and storyline could have made this an enthralling piece of work.

Middle Ground Franco

[Michael_Elliott · 26 February 2008]

Gemidos de Placer (1983)

** (out of 4)

Jess Franco directed this film about a man (Robert Foster) who invites a woman (Lina Romay) to live with him so that they can drive his wife crazy when she returns home from an asylum. Once again Franco bases a film on the work of Marquis de Sade but the end results aren't too good. I had to view the film in Spanish without any subs so perhaps a proper version will improve my thoughts but I found the story rather boring, the pacing off and the sex scenes were unerotic and came off laughable during some parts. I'm not sure what was up with Romay but she was quite skinny here, which normally wasn't the case in her 80's period.

Forgettable Franco filth.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 3 September 2021]

Cries of Pleasure, from prolific Spanish sleaze-merchant Jess Franco, is mostly soft-core sex with very little story. If non-stop bumping and grinding is what you're after, complete with full frontal nudity from both sexes, then this is the film for you, but I would have liked a bit more plot to go with endless nookie, which I soon found rather tiresome.

The film stars Antonio Mayans as moustachioed stud Antonio, who has three women on the go: new acquaintance Julia (Lina Romay), lover Marta (Elisa Vela) and wife Martina (Rocío Freixas), who has just been released from an asylum. With help from Julia, Antonio plans to kill Martina for her money, but his newest conquest has made prior arrangements. Meanwhile, simpleton Fenul (Juan Soler) plucks his guitar as he watches the trio indulge in sex and sadistic debauchery.

Shot in a luxurious villa overlooking some spectacular scenery, Cries of Pleasure is one of Franco's better looking films, but it's also one of his most tedious, the numerous sex scenes becoming a boring blur of bums, boobs and bush. Occasionally, the action borders on the ridiculous, such as when a naked Julia arches her back and writhes in ecstasy on a sofa until Antonio and Martina come and give her something to moan about. And occasionally, it teeters on the brink of hardcore. But most of the time it's just really dull.

Cries of Pleasure

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 21 February 2023]

A remake of Plaisir a trois, an earlier film by Jess Franco that was inspired by the work of the Marquis de Sade, this finds Antonio (Antonio Mayans) as the would-be master of his house who states that everything is permitted for the sake of pleasure. He brings Julia (Lina Romay) home to meet his wife Martine (Rocío Freixas) just as she is released from the insane asylum, as he plans on using her mental illness to finally be rid of her and run away with his young lover. Seeing as how this movie ends with him strangled and then intertwined within one another's thighs, well, things don't seem to work out.

Juan Soler plays Fenul, the mute servant who exists merely to come into love making scenes and play the guitar and Elisa Vela is Marta, a maid, but the three people that matter the most are Antonio, Julia and Martine.

In 1982, Franco returned from France and Germany, places where he'd finally escaped the censorship of his origins. Now that General Franco - no relation - was gone, those standards lapsed and he indulged by making at least twelve movies in this year alone.

In this, Franco extends his takes and also while this seems to be a sexy softcore movie on the surface, underneath it is all doom. No one is making love for pleasure but instead for power or to try to keep from being destroyed or to just find something, anything in this wicked world to hold on to. Sexy movies where no one can really get aroused is a weird genre to be into, yet here I am.

Imagination is a force.

[alexferdman-98602 · 8/10 · 18 March 2020]

As I said before--when you see name Jess Franco be ready for a treat. The guy had a lot of imagination and managed put most of them into illusions called movies. When I first saw his flick "Downtown" where he played detective I said to myself--this lousy looking guy should make minimum wages and sleep in shelter not having name Jess Franco. Unfortunately it was me who been making minimum wages and sleeping in shelter.

Jess Franco gets down'n'dirty once again

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 24 June 2020]

Married playboy Antonio (a suavely slimy portrayal by Antonio Mayans) invites his lusty young mistress Julia (nicely played to the sultry hilt by luscious longtime Franco muse Lina Romay) to live with him at his fancy house around the same time that his wife Martina (fetching blonde Rocio Freixis) is being released from an asylum.

Naturally, Franco relates the engrossingly sordid story at a deliberate pace and completely wallows in a deliciously decadent and depraved atmosphere while still delivering plenty of tasty bare female flesh and lots of scorching hot raunchy sex. Franco's use of long takes and Daniel White's brooding score further enhance the overall mood of druggy debauchery. Moreover, the three main characters are really cruel, jaded, and deceitful rotters, with only Juan Soler as browbeaten simpleton guitarist Fenul eliciting any sympathy from the viewer. Good sleazy fun.