Symptoms

Before entering the business José Ramón Larraz Gil also known as Joseph Braunstein, Joseph L. Bronstein, Jos L. Gil, J.R. Larrath, J.R. Larrath, Joseph Larraz, Jos R. Larraz, Jos Larraz, J.R. Lazzar, Remo Odevaine had worked as a comic strip artist and a photographer, both of which had an important influence on the way he made films. Born in Barcelona in 1929, Larraz moved to England, via Paris, in the last sixties. Hes a self confessed anglophile. One of the things he likes most about England is the wooded countryside, with its atmosphere of dank mystery. Larraz’s films are filled with shots of eerie, inspiring sunsets, woods and Neo-Gothic buildings. His England is a place with a life of its own.

Its not Arcadian like Michael Powells A Canterbury Tale (1944), or apocalyptic like Jorge Graus Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti (1968). It has elements of both. In Larraz’s films the architecture and scenery are often more important than any of the main characters. He makes these elements a vital part of his films and shoots them in an inventive number of ways. Its a different style of filmmaking, one thats inspired by Larraz’s continuing fascination with the beauty of England, as well as the inevitable constraints of a low budget. After working in Barcelona drawing comics for two or three years, he got married. With his new wife he moved to Paris to find work.

It was 1952, seven years since the end of the war. Paris was battle scarred and filled with Spanish republican refugees. Over the years, many film-makers have looked to comics for inspiration. Larraz is unusual, because hes moved from comics to film. During the 15 years he lived in Paris, Larraz switched from producing comic strips to working as a professional photographer. At heart Larraz is a passionate film fan For him the important thing is to shot, because for me my life is celluloid, a need he shares with other low budget European sexploitation directors, such Jean Rollin, Jesus Franco and Renato Polselli.

Softcore sex films were big business at the time and they thought it would be fun to do one of those. Larraz wrote a simple story containing loads of sex. They had some money and a story, all they needed was a capable producer to organise things and marked the finished product. Through Larraz Italian friend they eventually hooked up with the Danish based Sam Lomberg. The film, Whirlpool (1970), was released in 1969. When he began making the film, all Larraz had to go on was his enthusiasm, his talent as an artist and photographer, and the experience he picked up along the way. On Whirlpool (1970) he worked closely with the lighting technicians and the cameraman, explaining the mood he wanted to create, then working out the lighting set-ups, framing the shots himself, and leaving the rest in their capable hands. Its method that he has used for each of the 2 films he has made since.

Whirlpool (1970) was begun in Barcelona, the exteriors were shot in London, and the film was dubbed in Rome. The film also starred the luscious Vivian Neves, one of Swinging Sixties most famous models. Whirlpool (1970) is a sex thriller set loosely in the photographic industry. The plot revolved around a photographer and his aunt, a murderous pair of the lookout for yet another victim. All of Larraz’s horror films feature this fascination with intense claustrophobic relationships that lead to dark deeds. Two years later Larraz was a co-writer in two Italo-Spanish co-production s: Attento gringo, tornato Sabata (1972), directed by Alfonso Balczar Pedro Luis Ramrez, and La casa de las muertas vivientes (1972), again by Alfonso Balczar, and theatrically released in Italy as Una Tomba aperta… una bara vuota, so An Open Grave… an Empty Coffin.

After, Larraz wanted to make a totally English film, one that had English technicians, money and actors. The resulting film, Symptoms (1974), was a minor masterpiece, and featured Donald Pleasences daughter, Angela, in her finest film role. The fil was good for Larraz in that he marked the beginning of a partnership with producer Brian Smedley-Aston, cinematically a well connected man. The films Larraz made in England were similar in some ways to other English sexploitation films from the time, particularly those made by Pete Walker. While British directors did their best to ignore the subject, Larraz used sex as vital ingredient, so it wasnt used as a simple crowd pleaser, but to add depth to the mystery and to implicit atmosphere of danger. Its useful to look at the heart of the unique ambience that pervades Larraz’s horror films. The dialogue in Symptoms was short, cryptic, and punctuated with almost oppressive silences, silences that made the film seem intricate and abstruse.

The pauses performed the same function as the lingering shots of moody woods, rivers, landscapes and buildings. They added to the mounting air of inexplicable jeopardy. Symptoms (1974) featured great understated performances by Peter Vaughan, Lorna Heilbron and Angela Pleasence. The supporting cast were also good and Larraz managed to make even the bespectacled Mike Grady deliver the goods. All of Larraz’s early films follow the same understated approach to sex as Symptoms , in fact the only one that ups the ante on this front is Scream and Die (1973). His first three films Whirlpool(1970), Deviation (1971) and Emma, puertas oscuras (1974) are evocatice, unsettling horror outings. The sexual dimension is there, but not with the same intensity as in Vampyres (1974) or Scream and Die!(1973). These two films arent really typical of Larraz’s output.

Scream and Die was a Spanish/English co-production. All the mysterious, atmospheric shots were filmed in England, the rest was shot in Barcelona. It was transitional film for Larraz, it solidified his links with the British low budget film industry, making it possible for him to do his first completely English film, Symptoms (1974). The credits for Screan and Die! (1973) implied that it was a British fil through and through. The kinky murder that kicks off Scream and Die! (1973) is a puzzle thats solved at the films climax. The effeminate killer is locked into an intense relationship with his mature aunt, played by Maggie Walker. In the unforgettable scene, the two screwed up relatives get hotnheavy on a king-size bed. The episode has all the hallmarks of the forbidden, which makes it impossible to avoid looking at the unnatural display. As they embrace violently on the bed the aunts face is flushed, her skin is saggy and white. The naked couple make love urgently, in a frenzy thats revolting as its unmistakably passionate.

Scream and Die! (1973) was Larraz’s most explicit sojourn into sordid sexual depths. In the same year, the film La muerte incierta (1973) also has an incest theme, but shot in the restrained, ambiguous manner he prefers. Here the plot centres around a planter who lives with his son in a remote part of India, and as an affair with a native girl who kills herself when he returns to England and remarries. After the wedding the planter becomes seized with a superstitious fear. The girl has cursed him, he feels her presence and imagines she is stalking him in the body of a tiger. Shortly after this presentiment, his wife and son become attracted to one another. La muerte incierta (1973) is a Spanish-Italian co-production. Larraz said this was a kind of movie shot in India and featured a few tigers. one of the tigers killed a man a week after we stopped shooting, relates Larraz. The newspapers said it was my fault because I teach the tiger to be vicious with a dummy. During the late seventies and eighties he had a good relationship with Spanish producer Jos Frade.

His 1974 film Vampyres (1974) was strigthly different in that there were several crescendos rather that just one. Cincinnati critic Tim Lucas rated it as a generally poor horror film… poorly acted… extremely gruesome and lacking the thickly delicious atmosphere of The Vampire Lovers and the dynamism of Count Yorga, Vampire (1970). Larraz coaxed heady performances from the two of them, and the atmospheric framing and lighting did the rest. Vampyres (1974) was areal team effort. The crew were like a mad family, enthusiastic about the work there were doing says Larraz, who worked closely with cameraman Harry Waxman and make-up man Colin Arthur to develop Vampyres uniquely eerie mood.

Vampyres (1974) was the last film Larraz made in England, opportunities were beginning to dry up, so he turned towards Spain for work. —bcult.it