Cecilia (1982) - AVAXHOME

If it weren't for the visual style, this film would have nothing going for it. Whereas INCONFESSIBLE ORGIES could be seen as a satire, this one just goes through the motions. In fact, the bulk of the film is made up of the same three plot points repeated: the couple are happy, Cecilia strays in accordance with their agreement so he gets jealous, then they're reunited and happy again until it happens all over again.

I haven't seen the Spanish version but apparently other footage added to the French version (directed by Franco actor Olivier Mathot who doesn't actually appear in the film even though he's credited) Eurocine's version reportedly preserves the body of the Spanish version with little cutting or shuffling (someone on another forum commented that it just played better in Spanish). There are some bits of humor, both intentional and possibly unintentional. When Cecilia's old lover (another Franco regular Pierre Taylou) manhandles her and has to be chased off by her husband, he meets up with Cecilia's gay uncle (Franco actor/art director Antonio de Cabo) who congratulates him on "how he handled her" to his and our bewilderment until further comments reveal that the uncle is referring to Taylou's horse-racing skills.

Lina Romay plays a woman who has turned her incestuous relationship with her 16 year old son into a nightclub performance mentions that they've just opened up a club and says to Cecilia that she hopes that she and her husband will come to which Cecilia replies "As a matter of fact, I think we'll come every night." That one, I've got to wonder whether that was meant to be innuendo or not (you can't really tell by the English dub but the combination of French audio and English dubtitles provokes a chuckle given how banal the dialogue is otherwise).

Curiously, Taylou (probably because he's a Franco associate and French) gets credit in the French version for a small part even though Antonio Mayans isn't credited at all despite a far more prominent role - in the credits on the back of BU's cover, there is an "Anthony Foster" credited - Mayans is sometimes credited as "Robert Foster" - even though his real name is mentioned in the summary above the cast and credits. Muriel Montrosse was credited as "Vicky Adams" on Franco's EMMANUELLE film as well as in the Spanish poster for this film though she is credited as "Mary Monty" on this disc's English credits. The French credits also cite Raymond Heil (ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN) for the cinematography (he may have only shot the French footage) instead of Spanish cameraman Juan Solar.

Marius Laseour and his wife Henriette Rostaine (under her pseudonym Illona Kunesova) have the production manager and continuity credits they usually have in Franco's native Eurocine productions though that may be to disguise the film's Spanish paternity. Daniel White's score just drones on and one wonders if the Spanish version has different music (as is the case with the Spanish versions of other Franco films either co-produced or reedited by Eurocine such as REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER and OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES). The pink "Fin" at the end is in a font that resembles the opening titles of EUGENIE '80 by the same producer so I wonder if the Spanish titles also had that font. The English Eurocine titles look vintage though newly burned in as the image freezes everytime they appear (which probably did not happen on original English or French prints). The direction is credited to Claude Plaut but the final credit is "A Jess Franco's Film" which may be a new addition.