JESS FRANCO

Jess Franco was born on 12th May 1930 as Jesus Franco Manera in Madrid, Spain. We he was aged 6 The Spanish Civil War broke out. It was against this background that he began to compose music under the protection of his brother Enrique.

When the civil war finished in 1939 he was able to continue his studies at the Real Conservatorio de Madrid, where he finished piano and harmony. Being a Bachelor of Law and an easy-read novel writer (under the pseudonym David Khume), he signed on to enter the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográicas (IIEC), where he stayed only for two years, while he worked simultaneously as a director and theatre actor. Later he went to Paris to study directing techniques at the I.D.H.E.C. (University of Sorbonne), where he used to go into seclusion for hours to watch films at the film archive. Back in Spain he started his huge cinematographic work as a composer, with Cómicos (1954) and El hombre que viajaba despacito (1957), and later worked as an assistant director to Juan Antonio Bardem, León Klimovsky, Luis Saslavsky, Julio Bracho, Fernando Soler and Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, among others. He also worked at Ágata Films S.A. as production manager and writer.

 His first works as a director were industrial and cultural short films. The first of these was EL ARBOL DE ESPANA released in 1957. In 1959 he made his feature film directoral debut with TENEMOS 18 ANOS aka WE ARE EIGHTEEN or WE ARE EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD. After making a further eight films, both shorts and features, it was with his ninth film THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF aka THE DEMON DOCTOR/GRITOS EN LA NOCHE/SCREAMS IN THE NIGHT/EL DOCTOR DEMONIO/L'HORRIBLE DR. ORLOF, that he received international recognition. 

In 1968 he made NECRONOMICON aka NECRONOMICO - GETRAUMT SUNDEN/SUCCUBUS/NECRONOMICON DREAMT SIN/DELIRIUM was nominated for the Festival of Berlin. Because of this he was offered the chance to direct THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU, his first film with Christopher Lee.  His career got more and more consolidated in the following years, and his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror films to pure hardcore sex films.

He would go on to work with some well known names in cinematic history. George Saunders, Shirley Eaton, Klaus Kinski and Herbert Lom. Also he would also discover two very beautifull leading ladies, Soledad Miranda and Lina Romay, the latter would go onto to become his life time companion, until her death from cancer in 2012.

Even up until the time of writting this biography, Jess Franco is still making films and has just completed work on his latest two. I for one am looking forward to seeing them in the near future.