With having enjoyed watching a double bill of writer/director Jess Franco's work during the IMDb's Horror board October Challenge of 2013,I started to search round for other near forgotten Franco titles,and was delighted to stumble upon one;which led to me looking in the mirror to find out who is the fairest one of all. The plot:Finding out that her sister is about to get married to Arturo Barbour, Marie Madeleine Whitman finds herself unable to cope with the knowledge that her sister is getting together with someone else,which leads to Marie killing herself.Finding her sisters body, Annette Whitman places all of the blame on herself,due to Annette having shown her love towards someone other than Marie. Sinking into a deep depression,Annette begins drinking heavily at a local jazz club.Taking a look at a mirror in her bed room one night,Annette is shocked to see the soul of Marie inside the mirror.Looking deep into the mirror,Annette is told by the soul of Marie that the only way they can connect again,is if Annette kills everyone who has fallen in love with her. View on the film: Whilst he does sometimes show himself to be a little bit too keen on the zoom- in, co-writer/ (along with Nicole Guettard) director and co-star Jess Franco gives the film an extremely distinctive saturated appearance,which allows for a wonderful feeling to gradually build over the "reality" of what Annette sees in the mirror.Expanding the original run time with a number of stylish sex scenes,Franco takes a scatter-shot approach to the scenes that allow them to feel like glimpse into the corners of Annette's mind,and for the scenes also to be rather steamy.Along with the saturated appearance,Franco also uses a number of smoothly done tracking shots to show the psychological fear break across Annette's face. Displaying a surprising hint of subtly,Franco and Nicole Guettard smartly never give a definitive answer over if the image of Marie in the mirror is real or imaginary,thanks to the writer's showing the sisters (possibly) incest relationship to be something which is buried deep with Annette's psych.Placing a good amount of the movie at a jazz bar,the writers match the notes from Adolfo Waitzman by making the men who die from Annette's killing spree to be flawed,but incredibly lively and very sincere in their feelings for Annette. Sadly restricted to the French-only cut of the movie, Lina Romay gives an excellent performance as Marie,with Romay softening the edges from the sex scenes by showing a real warmth in Marie's eyes over being reunited with Annette.Finding the unknown to be laying inside the mirror,the gorgeous Emma Cohen gives a fantastic performance as Annette,with Cohen giving Annette a strong,oddly innocent, sensual feel,as Cohen shows Annette to slow be unable to tell what is real and what is not,as she begins to look into the other side of the mirror.

As most know, there are 3 versions of the film. The Spanish is considered to be the true director's cut. The French changes the plot and swaps actors, while an Italian print adds hardcore bits to the newly added sex scenes from the French version. While it is frequently cited that the material in the French and Italian films were shot later, this is not entirely true. The Lina Romay footage was lensed later, but there are 3 extended nude scenes with Emma Cohen that were from the initial shoot, and I believe Franco would want them in any 'director's cut' DVD that will hopefully appear. They can easily be edited back into the Spanish print ( I've made myself a copy for future viewings ). Are the nude scenes essential to the plot, well perhaps not. But knowing how Franco adores the female form, coupled with Cohen's beautiful presence....I'd strongly feel he wanted them in the Spanish cut but was prevented by the strict censorship of the Spain at the time.

I've only seen about 15 Jess Franco films so far, which is actually saying very little considering the countless amount of films he made, and in spite of the beyond-awful conditions the print I watched had, "Al Otro Lado del Espejo" (which translates to English as "The Other Side of the Mirror") still managed to make a impression on me, and might as well be the finest Franco film I've seen so far. Coming straight after Soledad Miranda's death, and not unlike the interesting but deeply flawed "A Virgin Among the Living Dead", this one is a haunting, beautiful study on death and grief, that "mirrors" Franco's own emotional breakdown after the death of his muse. The story stars Emma Cohen as Anna - a young bride-to-be who suffers a breakdown after her father (Franco-regular Howard Vernon) commits suicide on the eve of her wedding. She then starts having visions of her father through mirrors, beckoning her, and soon enough, goes on a killing spree against the men who sexually arouse her. The script is very cleverly written, with well developed characters that you actually care for, as well as being filled with Greek-mythology symbolism and Freudian motifs. Franco also benefits largely from having one of the best actresses he ever worked with playing the lead role. Cohen has that same innocents, doe-eyed beauty of Jessica Harper in "Suspiria", and gives one harrowing, psychotic and ultimately hearth-breaking performance as our grieving protagonist. The music, as usual for a Franco film, has great importance within the context of the film (since Anna is a nightclub singer who often "escapes" from her hectic life by entering into a "purely musical" state of mind), and composer Adolfo Waitzman (who also scored the same year's "A Bell from Hell" and the underrated "Pensione Paura") just nails it with a wonderful jazzy score. Another great aspect of the film is that this is probably the first Franco film that was actually creeped me out, and predates "Candyman" for almost 30 as far as "making mirrors scary as Hell" is concerned. Although the version I saw of this film was in a terrible state and was actually hard to watch at times, the cinematography appeared to be quite good, thus making it even sadder that it isn't available in a remastered, polished DVD. Speaking of which, the film is only available (this cut, at least) in Spanish with no subtitles, but since this is a very visual film (and if you know the main plot beforehand), it's not hard to figure out what's going on. The major problem with this film is that it starts quite well, but looses steam in between the end of the second act and beginning of the third, as Franco seemingly forgets he is a doing a horror film and just throws a series of non-stop, dull "jam sessions" that, though somewhat relevant to the plot, go on for a bit too long, ruining the oppressive atmosphere it had been building for so long. Thankfully, the film gets it's steam back at the ending, which remains the most powerful, twisted and just plain haunting I've seen in a Franco film. Overall, a brilliant gem of Spanish horror film that, though not for everyone, is essential viewing for fans of Eurohorror and Jess Franco alike. 9/10 Be aware, however, that the film is available in three different versions. The original Spanish cut, which is the version I've seen and the one Franco prefers; the soft-core French version which replaces Howard Vernon for Lina Romay as Anna's dead nymphomaniac sister; and the hardcore Italian version that adds even more sex and sleaze to the French version. The last two versions, though I've never actually seen them, seemingly does to the film what "House of Exorcism" did to "Lisa and the Devil", totally butchering what the director was aiming for, and should be avoided unless you're a hardcore Franco fan.

Obscene Mirror (1973) *** (out of 4) This is a pretty well, if highly praised, film from the Spanish director, which is (apparently) available in three different versions. The version getting all the love and praise is the Spanish version while the French and Italian versions are re-edited with hardcore scenes and an alternate cast added to the mix. The version I watched was the Italian one, which is hard to review due to the hardcore scenes, which were added. The basic plot, I believe, is the same from each version and centers on a woman (Emma Cohen) who suffers a breakdown after the suicide of her sister (played by Lina Romay in this version). Soon after the suicide the sister begins to see her dead sister inside a mirror, which causes her to go out, bring men home and kill them. Again, it's really hard to judge this film due to the added scenes and the fact that the Spanish version is apparently totally different but there was enough here to I loved to recommend people seeing this but at the same time you should certainly try and get the original version (which I will be looking for). The film reminded me a lot of Franco's Venus in Furs, which is among the director's best films. There's a deeply haunting, sad and tragic nature and atmosphere, which runs throughout this film and it wasn't hard to get caught up into the mental state of the main character. Franco's direction is very sharp throughout but most of the credit has to go towards Cohen who is simply terrific in the film. She doesn't have to resort to nudity or cheap thrills to get her performance across. I guess the best way to explain it is that she comes across like a spirit and just floats from one scene to the next, slowing breaking down in front of our eyes. Sadly the disc I watched also didn't feature any subtitles so I couldn't follow any of the dialogue, which there was plenty of and I'm sure if I could follow the story more I would have loved it even more. The hardcore scenes, which again, were added, are pretty ugly and add absolutely nothing to the movie. These scenes really killed everything that was going on so I found myself hitting the FF button through them. I'm hoping to track down the director's cut soon since most fans think this Italian version is a complete mess. If it is a mess and I enjoyed it this much then I can't wait to see what the Spanish one offers.