Virgin Among the Living Dead [Blu-ray] [1973] [US Import] [2013] [Region A] [NTSC]

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I forget who it was - maybe Truffaut, Maybe Godard - who said that the best way to criticise a movie is to make another movie. "Virgin" functions like a critique of Franco's more famous "Vampyros Lesbos". That one too had a more than average dollop of eroticism and dreaminess. However, in that movie, the eroticism failed to do anything, and the dreamlike nature of the story seemed employed to mask the fact that the script didn't make any sense. En esta edición vienen dos cortes de la misma película, uno de ellos "Christina, princess of eroticism" la cual es la versión original de 1973, dirigida por el prolifero director de culto, Jesus Franco. a b Alexander, Chris (2013-08-20). "Jess Franco's "A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD" (Blu-ray Review)". Fangoria. Archived from the original on 2015-02-17 . Retrieved 2015-02-16. This is a work of atmosphere and subtle eroticism. Although it is not a zombie film, death -- and those who wear its cloak -- is its central theme. La otra es la que da nombre al Blu-ray " A Virgin Among the Living Dead" la cual tiene 15 minutos de escenas extras, donde incorporan zombies, en lo personal este corte no es nada recomendable, y sólo debe verse como un agregado.

a b c d Thrower, Stephen (2015). Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco. Strange Attractor Press. p.276. ISBN 978-1-907222-31-3. A Virgin Among the Living Dead is one of the films from Jess Franco’s classic period and exists under a plethora of different versions, including both hardcore and edited versions. Franco was employed by a French producer and shot the film under the title Night of the Shooting Stars but it was subsequently released under the titles A Virgin Among the Living Dead and Christina, Princess of Eroticism. The film runs to 92 minutes in Franco’s original version, although this has been cut by as much twenty minutes of material in some versions seen around the world. In 1981, Jean Rollin, a French horror and erotica director, was hired to shoot extra material, some of which was taken from Rollin’s Zombies’ Lake (1981), and told to make it into more of a zombie film. This was re-released as Zombie 4: A Virgin Among the Living Dead, even though there is nothing to do with zombies in the original film. A condensed version of this version also turns up in the US compilation film Zombiethon (1986). Franco’s original version (seen here) was restored for dvd release in 2004. Christina (Cristine von Blanc) visits the mysterious countryside mansion of her Uncle Howard (Howard Vernon) On August 20, 2013, a Blu-ray edition, containing Franco's original director's cut, was made available by Redemption. [7] Rollin's zombie footage is on the disc as well as an extra feature separate from the film.A young woman named Christina (Christina von Blanc) goes to a small village where she's to meet some of her relatives as well as hear the reading of her father's will. Before long it dawns on her that something isn't quite right with the family when her uncle (Howard Vernon) slaps her for inviting an outsider to the house and when her dead father (Paul Muller) shows up to try and warn her.

Cristina visita la mansión de una familia que jamás había conocido, donde encontrara a un grupo de personas que dicen ser sus parientes y lo que encontrara va más allá de cualquier cosa vista antes. While the Image DVD relegated all of the alternate Rollin zombie footage to a separate 15-minute reel as an extra, the Redemption release includes the full versions of both the Franco cut (under the title Christina, Princess of Eroticism, which is close enough) and the bastardized version as A Virgin among the Living Dead, both with their French-language credits. Though it runs 11 minutes longer, the Virgin version actually contains a multitude of alternate shots sprinkled throughout and an additional (incoherent) sexual assault against our heroine thrown in with doubles for the actors standing in unconvincingly. A Virgin Among the Living Dead / Among the Living Dead / Christina, Princess of Eroticism / Zombie 4: A Virgin Among the Living Dead / Une Vierge chez les Morts Vivants / Christina, Princesse de L’Érotsime (1971/1973/1980) *** A Virgin Among the Living Dead is characteristic of the films that Jess Franco was making during this period. He has obtained the use of a beautiful location (a French chateau by the looks of it). He shoots much languorous and arty softcore erotica, all of which seems rather tame today – lots of scenes of women cavorting but little in the way of actual sex. Typical of his films, the plot seems irrelevant – almost as though Franco and the cast improvised most of the scenes themselves. The effect on a narrative level is more akin to the pretension-laden surrealism of a student film.Whittaker, Richard (2013-08-25). "DVDanger: 'Alyce Kills'/'A Virgin Among the Living Dead' ". The Austin Chronicle . Retrieved 2015-02-16. A beautiful young woman named Christina arrives in Europe to visit her estranged relatives in a small castle for the reading of her dead father's will. She eventually discovers that they are all undead, and they fear that when she inherits her father's mansion, she will ask them all to leave. But Christina is lonely and tells her Uncle Howard that she wants them all to remain there and live with her. She learns that a spirit called the Queen of the Night has claimed her father's eternal soul because he committed suicide by hanging himself. Christina winds up becoming one of the living dead herself, and at the end of the film, she and the rest of the family all solemnly march off into a swamp on the estate's grounds, accompanied by the Queen of the Night.

Although I cannot argue that the original cut could have used some extra pizzazz to create a more engaging film, the added zombie subplot failed to accomplish that. The footage is neat to see – Rollin was a good choice for the director’s chair in Franco’s absence – but the new scenes have nothing to do with the movie. They’re out of place, they kill the atmosphere, and they delay the already-slow pace. That said, A Virgin Among the Living Dead certainly fares better than Franco and Rollin’s other collaboration, Zombie Lake. Following the popularity of Dawn of the Dead and Zombie, the film was once again re-edited to be marketed as a zombie film. Armed with a body double for the lead actress and a handful of undead extras, Jean Rollin was brought in to direct zombie scenes to be added to the film. The result, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, was released in 1981. To make matters even more confusing, the film was inexplicably released on VHS in the U.S. as Zombie 4. The film was released years later on DVD with the 1981 Jean Rollin zombie footage removed and the film finally restored to the way Franco originally shot it, but the film's title on the DVD remained A Virgin Among the Living Dead, a title which Franco abhorred. [4] Home media [ edit ]Christina von Blanc (The Dead Are Alive) is Christina Benson, who has come to Europe for the reading of her father's (Paul Muller, a Franco regular) will. Soon learning that her relatives - like Howard Vernon as Uncle Howard - are all the living dead, she sees them as a way to avoid her loneliness and invites them to stay. But her father committed suicide, so the Queen of the Night (Anne Libert, The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein) owns his soul forever unless she can save him. Gibron, Bill (2013-09-17). "A Virgin Among The Living Dead: Remastered Edition". DVD Talk . Retrieved 2015-02-16. Note: this review and rating will apply to the 80 minute original cut known as "Christina, Princess of Eroticism".