Label: Severin Films
Duration: 99 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Region Code: Region-Free
Video: 1080p HD Wide Screen (1.66:1)
Audio: English, Spanish Dolby Digital Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Lina Romay, Olivier Mathot, Pierre Taylou
With a staggering filmography of over 200 films to his credit Spanish euro-cult auteur Jess Franco was without a doubt one of the most prolific filmmakers of all time, that why we pay tribute to him every February - the man is a legend! With a film-count that high I will be the first and certainly not the last, to say that the quality of every single one of those films wasn't always of a the highest-caliber. The man made too many films for any one distributor to keep up with, so he was working with different producers and financiers with varying cash-flows through the years, but being the consummate craftsmen he was he did the best he could with what he had, and that's what I love about him, his love and enthusiasm for delightfully artful and awfully sinful cinema, at any price. The Sadist of Notre Dame (1979) is actually the third incarnation of a film that began as Exorcism (1974), a movie that failed to find theatrical distribution so Franco altered it to meet the demand of the current market, the triple-x skin flick market, inserting hardcore sex scenes and marketing it as Sexorcismes (1975). A few years later he went back to the source material, added about twenty-five minutes of new scenes, and released it for a third with a new title. Now surely that's sort of cinematic-chicanery that resulted in Franco's prolific, and sometimes difficult to dissect, catalog of titles.
In an unusual move Franco himself stars in the film in more than the usual cameo, playing a defrocked man of the cloth named Mathis Vogel, who at the start of the film has just arrived in Paris on the back of a garbage truck. He wanders the early morning streets among the drunks and bums, witnessing a talented drunk walking along while simultaneously pissing on the street, it's sets a melancholic tone right off the bat. Vogel's just been released from the asylum, but he still has plenty of inner-demons, a devout Catholic struggling with the erotic desires fueled by what he considers immoral women. Vogel begins prowling the Paris streets like a modern Jack the Ripper, knife-murdering prostitutes and whores, believing he is absolving them of their sins by taking their lives, an idea similarly explored with a lot less skin in the 80's werewolf film Silver Bullet (1985).
The devout Catholic still attends church to give confession to a priest (Antonio De Cabo, Devil Hunter) he attended seminary with, a man who chooses not to tell the authorities of the killings because he believes Vogel is a good God-fearing man, the hypocrisy of the church is not at all lost on Franco. The defrocked priest seeks the publisher of the dirty magazine The Dagger and the Garter, (Pierre Taylou, The Hot Nights of Linda), attempting to submit his own dirty tales to the rag. At the meeting Vogel is smitten by publisher's sexy secretary, Anna (Franco-muse Lina Romay, Jack the Ripper), following her back to her apartment, discovering that she's a sinful lesbian that belongs to a satanic cult, inspiring the priest to punish all the sinners to save their souls.
While I have not watched the other versions of the film, via the excellent set of extras on this release I was able to get an idea of what's been carried over, what's been added and what's been re-purposed to make this version. The scenes added by Franco are not of sex and murder, an unusual movie for the the euro-cult director. This is a more chaste version of the story - and even then it's not all that chaste - with the added scenes offering more depth to Vogel. On the whole it worked for me, Franco is surprisingly solid as the murderously conflicted priest, being the most substantial role I've seen him in to date. Unfortunately Lina Romany doesn't have a lot to do, more eye-candy than anything else, but even a little Lina Romay is more than enough candy to sooth this sweet-tooth of mine, she's was gorgeous, lust inspiring nymph. Speaking of eye-candy, we get some great locations in Spain and France, but the lensing from Raymond Heil (Cecilia) is not among the best we've seen from Franco in this particular era, but it's still alright.
The defrocked priest as a sinner-killing lunatic is a nifty idea, even if it's not executed to total perfection, the scenes that were re-purposed aren't quite integrated seamlessly, and I found myself scratching my head more than once trying to figure it all out, but it doesn't completely unravel the film either. Truthfully, it's not that different from any of Franco's other delirious thrillers from the 70's, still luridly entertaining and always strangely satisfying. If you're looking for his worst films I will point you in the direction of either Devil Hunter (1980) and Cannibal Terror (1981), both are trash.
Audio/Video: The Sadist of Notre Dame (1979) arrives on Blu-ray from Severin Films, sourced from the only known existing 35mm print of the film. This 4k scan of that theatrical print is rough looking, there are scratches and film damage throughout, some of which is mighty egregious, but they did the best with what they had, and now we have The Sadist of Notre Dame (1979) on Blu-ray, all things considered it's not too shabby. The image displays softness throughout, but the grain is decently managed and there's some detail. Colors are a bit on the cold side and some of the whites look a bit hot, which is something I think goes back to this being derived from a 35mm print, which hampers clarity, the effectiveness of color-grading and other restorative processes.
Onto the audio we get three options: we have dubbed French, English and Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles. Overall I think the Spanish track is probably but the strongest of the three in regard to fidelity but all three have issues, including hiss and some distortion, though I still preferred the English track which to my ears had better separation. The score from Daniel White (Barbed Wire Dolls) is a bit flat but adds to the film.
Onto the extras we get plenty of Franco-love beginning with the always reliable Stephen Thrower looking back at the film, nearly as much as I enjoy taking in a new-to-me Franco film is the joy of Thrower waxing on the Franco love, always a thorough and detailed appreciation, going into the three films make from the original film Exorcism (1975) and how that film was re-worked into the x-rated Sexorcismes (1975) with hardcore inserts - which include Franco himself in front of the camera - there's even a clip of him licking the clam! We also get a look back at the Parisian theater Le Brady with former Le Brady projectionist Jacques Thorens who gives a thorough history of the cinema through the years with loads of great pictures to accompany the story, this extra ties into the Franc love fest with various showing of his films in the 70's at the cinema - this is in French with subtitles. There's also a video essay from Franco-expert Robert Monell, plus an interview with Alain Petit who speaks about the three versions of the film, pointing out that Exorcsim (1975) didn't get a theatrical release because at the time porno was in such high demand at the time, thus resulting in distributors demanding a hardcore version, which spawned Sexorcismes (1975).
The single-disc Blu-ray release comes housed in a black Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of new artwork, the disc itself features the same artwork. There's not too much more I could have wanted as far as extras aside from a more pristine transfer of the film, maybe the x-rated version of the film for tits and giggles the way that Severin included the "Hard Banana" version of three-disc limited edition version of The Hot Night of Linda, but otherwise I am very pleased with what they ponied-up for on this release.
Special Features:
- The Gory Days of Le Brady - Documentary short on the legendary Parisian horror cinema (31 min) HD
- Stephen Thrower on Sadist of Notre Dame - Interview with the author of "Murderous Passions - The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco." (28 min) HD
- Selected Scenes Commentary with "I'm In a Jess Franco State of Mind" Webmaster Robert Monell (7 min) HD
- Treblemakers - Interview with Alain Petit, author of "Jess Franco Ou Les Prosperites Des Bis." (5 min) HD
Severin Films continue to please with the rare and raw delights of Spanish cult director Jess Franco on Blu-ray, while this is not one of his finest of this era I found the story behind it rather interesting, and the extras thoroughly explore that aspect of the film. On top of that we get Franco himself in a starring role playing a defrocked Catholic psychopath out to punish the impure , which is notable in itself. As usual Franco is an enigmatic and eccentric filmmaker, his movies aren't for everyone, sort of the way Italian cannibal films have a niche audience, so to do the sleaze-dripping films of Jesus Franco.
