Celebrating the extraordinary life and works of exploitation cinema’s wildest maverick – the indomitable Jess Franco.

FilmBar 70 will be screening one of his finest films – the supremely sensuous ‘Venus in Furs’ and will explore his love of jazz with a special Filmbar presentation, ‘Club Franco’, where red drenched bodies writhe in unison to a psychedelic squall. There’ll also be a free Filmbar booklet featuring an interview with Maria Rohm, the beautiful star of ‘Venus in Furs’ and, of course, El Diabolik will be on the decks, blistering the eardrums with aural Franco-fried exotica. All this, and much more!

Venus in Furs: When lost jazz trumpeter Jimmy wrests the ravished body of Wanda Reed from the ocean, he recalls the horrifying atrocity that took her life, an atrocity he was implicated in and has been running from since. Fleeing to Rio, he rebuilds his life, only for his temporary security to be torn asunder when Wanda inexplicably, impossibly re-appears. Helplessly drawn to this intoxicating apparition, he descends into a kaleidoscopic maelstrom of sex and death, as Wanda takes vengeance upon those who so cruelly extinguished her existence… ‘Venus in Furs’ has often been hailed as Franco’s masterpiece, and while this may be disputed by his ardent admirers, the film consolidates many of his obsessions. A sumptuously sensory delight, ‘Venus in Furs’ decedent visuals are heightened by a fantastic score by jazz-rockers Manfred Mann. Also on board for this wild ride, we find the notorious Klaus Kinski, Filmbar fave Margaret Lee, and Maria Rohm at the height of her brittle beauty. A fusion of the morbid and the erotic, ‘Venus in Furs’ is the perfect entry point for those unversed in the vast oeuvre of Franco and the world of the Euro-erotic.