Blue Rita (1977)

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Of all Jess Franco/Erwin C. Dietrich collaborations during the mid to late 1970s, this is the most bizarre. The two prolific auteurs here turn the tables on the 'women in prison' dramas for which they are collectively best known, by making 'respectable' men very much the prisoners, and seductive, glamourous women are in charge. Blue Rita (Martine Fléty) demands total obedience, sexual and otherwise, of her female co-horts, and their various forms of indoctrination are dwelt upon in typically lingering scenes of softcore lesbian activity. Franco achieves some haunting compositions with these scenes - which serves as a precursor for the kind of thing he did, more explicitly, in his latter-day One-Shot Productions - with many liaisons filmed through a fish-tank, and with misty disorientation within the sci-fi love/torture parlours.The look of this film is very different from the usual perception of an Uncle Jess film. No swaying palm trees or majestic, sun-drenched beaches. Instead, we have Parisian walk-ways, exotic, bustling streetways and picturesque city-scapes. Interiors are confined - or perhaps that should be unconfined - to chambers that wouldn't look out of place in 'Barbarella' or 'Logan's Run'; spacious and featureless, less like a sensuous boudoir and more like a set for an early music video, complete with dry ice.The characters are not massively well-defined, lost somewhat beneath the impressive and heavily stylised visual trappings, but my favourites include the briefly known Moira (Vivky Masmin) and the apparently naïve Sun (Dagmar Bürger).Regular musician Walter Baumgartner excels with a mad fusion of gurgling electronica, tribal and jazz, with a repeated brass section track that sounds like the theme to Coronation Street. It might be his most eccentric musical concoction.The story involves Rita, who hates men as a result of former abuse, and her female brigade, who kidnaps and tortures wealthy men and male 'spies' and makes them talk by sexually stimulating them to the point of insanity. This espionage nonsense is interspersed with Franco-favourite sleazy club scenes that are elevated by garish costumes, purple wigs and pink walls. Interesting use is made of colour, infusing every scene with a kind of garishness that provides a palpable contrast to the 'ordinary' world 'on the outside.' That contrast, I think, is my favourite element in this film. You really don't know what goes on behind closed doors.

Nightclub owner and erotic dancer Rita Blue (robustly played with lip-smacking wicked relish by yummy redhead Martine Flety) uses her place as a front for working undercover as a spy. Motivated by her vehement hatred for men stemming from the fact that she was sexually abused as a child, Rita and her seductive female cohorts not only gleefully torture guys as a means to obtain vital information, but also manhandle wealthy men in order to make them hand over their fortunes to them.Writer/director Jess Franco brings a deliriously baroque far-out psychedelic style as well as his trademark gloriously ripe and unabashed perversity to the enjoyable inane premise: The abundant tasty gratuitous distaff nudity, several wacky dance routines (the one involving a gal sporting pigtails rates as an absolute hoot!), fairly explicit soft-core sex, scorching lesbian couplings, bizarre torture set pieces, and a special green potion that makes dudes uncontrollably horny all ensure that this beautifully bent, batty, and berserk baby delivers plenty of sleazy sizzle. The cruddy dubbing provides a wealth of unintentional belly laughs. Alluring blonde Pamela Stanford easily steals the whole show with her highly arousing portrayal of the enticing Gina. Ruedi Kuttel's vibrant color cinematography gives this picture a bold'n'splashy look. Walter Baumgartner's funky jazzy score hits the right-on groovy spot. Franco fans should get a kick out of this choice kooky kitschfest.

During the 70' Jess Franco made lots of exploitation films with different success. Blue Rita is one of Jess Frano's finest efforts, because of Franco's great cinematography with many colorful scenes and carefully created atmospheric sets. Many of the scenes have a psychedelic touch and the music score is great.The storyline is kind of absurd, which should be expected by fans of Jesus Franco, involving soft erotic club performances combined with secret agency's and creative torture methods. Somehow the style feels like a combination of Succubus and Ilsa and the Wicked Warden, without the pseudo philosophy of Succubus, focusing on the atmosphere.For me this feels like one of Franco's most inspired movies and belongs to his best efforts. The overall rating may be lowered because of the many soft erotic scenes and the hard-to-follow / incoherent storyline, but for those who seek great original atmosphere like only Jess Franco could, this is a must see. The German spoken version should be preferred.

This film seems very much like a largely improvised affair to get from one soft-core nudity scene to the next. Some of the dialogue scenes, as one example, have the characters' mouths intentionally obscured, undoubtedly to maximize flexibility in dubbing in lines when that part of the script was actually written later on! The FX are also quite laughable, even for the time. Yet the whole experience has a strange allure to it partly due to the surreality of the semi comprehensible plot and partly due to some truly dazzling psychedelic visuals. The scenes in the jazzy strip club are just amazing, as is the costume design! The naked flesh on display is sumptuous.