Antena Criminal

Say what you will about Jess Franco, but the man has been working constantly in the film industry for over fifty years now and for better or worse he shows no sign of slowing down. While fans remain divided on the quality of his recent output, the man has made some amazing films in his career from Venus In Furs to The Diabolical Dr. Z and that fact that he’s still going at it, being no spring chicken and all and now in his senior years, is a testament to his dedication to the craft of movie making.

Sometimes more interesting than the films themselves is the man who made them and this time out, with Brian Horrorwitz’s documentary, Antena Criminal, Franco becomes the watched, no longer the voyeur he is many times throughout his career. The movie follows Franco on set and gives us a fly on the wall look at the making of his 2000 One Shot production, Blind Target as it’s being made in Spain.

With the camera capturing things unobtrusively and rather non-chalantly, it gives us a very intimate look at Franco caught in the act, so to speak. Working here on a very low budget film, Horrorwitz is able to get in close without studio interference or outside interruptions and really just let us watch Jess do his thing and the end result is a really interesting look at both the good and the bad. We see him up, completely hyped to be shooting this film and working, working, working and then later we catch him at a more somber moment where he’s having some serious problems getting his actors to perform to his expectations. We also see him setting up certain shots, taking a break or two off set, and generally just being human.

Despite the fact that we get to know Franco as the documentary unravels, he remains a strange guy with some unique and inexplicable quirks (part of his charm, really). The more we get to know him the more questions one can ask of him but the fact remains that here is a man who is addicted to movie making in much the same way that a heroin addict is addicted to smack. It’s a very strange phenomena and it’s interesting to see him get so into what he’s doing. While other filmmakers would spend their time whining about having to shoot on video with an inexperienced cast, Franco does have a genuine enthusiasm for the project and you can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he talks from time to time.

Outside of the actual ‘making of’ footage we also get some glimpses into his personal life as we see him interacting with his wife, Lina Romay, who plays the part of Tora in the film and looks rather startling here with her buzzcut hairdo and sunken eyes. She looks weathered and tired at times but remains Jess’ biggest supporter as well and they two have a genuine affection for one another that is readily apparent in a few scenes here. Lina and Jess have been working together for ages now, on projects from the explicit Doriana Grey and Female Vampire to the campy Killer Barbies to the more straightforward Faceless and its amazing that they’ve stuck together as long as they have and continued to work together on almost everything since.

Look at Antena Criminal as not just a ‘how the movie was made’ documentary as it really is more than that. Yes, it’s cool to see Franco running around with a gun that he needs to use as a prop and it’s neat to see the cast and crew having drinks in front of a bondage set piece but the real heart of the film lies not in documenting the sets and performers but in giving us a chance to see man essentially feeding his addiction through his art. On that level, it’s a unique and truly interesting movie. Yes, like its subject it was shot with a very low budget but that’s only appropriate and it doesn’t stop the camera from capturing some interesting and intimate moments or from revealing a side of Franco that doesn’t come to light too often.