Cecilia – Blue Underground (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Dates: Spain, 1980 (Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada), France, 1982 (Cecilia)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Muriel Montossé, Richard Darbois, Christian Dragaux, France Lomay, Olivier Mathot, Antonio Mayans, Robert Merckx, Pierre Taylou

Release Date: August 25th, 2020
Approximate running times: 105 Minutes 4 Seconds (Cecilia), 87 Minutes 50 Seconds (Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Both Versions)
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English, DTS-HD Mono Mono French (Cecilia), Dolby Digital Mono Spanish (Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada)
Subtitles: English SDH, English (Cecilia), English (Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada)
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.95

"Cecilia, a haughty aristocrat who enjoys taunting her servants with her flawless physique, finds her life turned upside down when she is violated by the victims of her vicious games. This eye-opening experience leads the newly enlightened libertine into a sordid series of swingin' socialite soirees, mind-bending bohemian happenings, and brazen backwoods orgies. But when her loving husband also embraces this omnisexual lifestyle, and her amorous antics arouse violence in her sadistic suitors, can Cecilia escape the cruel consequences of her own erotic excess?" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, “scanned and restored from its original negative, and presented in all its uncut, uncensored splendor in High Definition for the first time ever”.

Cecilia comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 41.3 GB

Feature: 20.7 GB (Cecilia), 12.3 GB (Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada)

The sources used for both versions are comparable, and any source-related debris is minimal. Colors look correct, details look crisp, black levels look strong throughout, compression looks very good, and the image retains an organic look.

Audio: 4/5

Cecilia comes with two audio options: a DTS-HD mono mix in English and a DTS-HD mono mix in French. Cecilia comes with two subtitle options: removable English SDH for the English language track and removable English for the French language track. Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada has a single audio track, a Dolby Digital mono mix in Spanish with removable English subtitles. All of the audio mixes sound clean, clear and balanced throughout.

Extras:

Extras for this release include English language trailer (3 minutes 13 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), image gallery (52 images – posters/articles/stills/home video art), a documentary examining the career of Jess Franco titled Franco-Philes: Musings on Madrid’s B-Movie Maverick (68 minutes 4 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Murderous Passions, Franco Volume 1: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús and Flowers of Perversion, Volume 2: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco titled Amoral Fantasies (16 minutes 16 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with director Jess Franco titled Sexual Aberrations of Cecilia (16 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English subtitles) and Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada, Jess Franco’s original version of Cecilia (87 minutes 50 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Spanish with removable English subtitles).

Summary:

Cecilia is a film made by Jess Franco after his return to Spain. The films that Jess Franco made in Spain in the early 1980’s are not regarded as his last great period of films. By the 1990's, Jess Franco would make the shift to shooting digitally, and most of these films are forgettable.

Anyone familiar with Jess Franco’s other European productions will recognize many locations that look vaguely familiar. That said, even with the use of recycled locations, the overall production design and look of the film is very high for a Jess Franco film post-1970’s. Visually, Jess Franco gives a very bland and simple story a classy and often dreamlike look to it. Jess Franco keeps things interesting without ever going overboard with his gymnastic camera tricks. Cecilia’s score, like so many of Jess Franco’s films, was composed by the incomparable Daniel White.

Story wise, there really is not much to Cecilia. The narrative is essentially a story about a sexually frustrated housewife who goes on a journey to rediscover her sexuality, only to ultimately discover that the one she wants the most, after all, is her husband. The sex scenes which make up the bulk of Cecilia are not some of the more erotic moments from Jess Franco, and yet even in their awkwardness, they are still just dirty enough around their rough edges. The most effective and erotic moment in the film occurs very early on, when Cecilia is in the scene where the chauffeur driver's brothers rape Cecilia.

The main attraction of Cecilia is Muriel Montossé in the role of Cecilia. A frequent Jess Franco collaborator, other Jess Franco films that she’s appeared in include The Inconfessable Orgies of Emmanuelle, The Devil Hunter, and Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties. She’s one of the sexier women to appear in a Jess Franco film, and she has a strong screen presence in Cecilia. Notable cast members include Lina Romay (Female Vampire, Exorcism) and Antonio Mayans (Night of Open Sex, Cries of Pleasure) in the role of Cecilia’s husband.

Though the pacing is very good, it would have been even better if Cecilia were about 15 to 20 minutes shorter than its 105-minute running time. Ultimately, Cecilia ends up being an above-average Jess Franco film, despite starting off strong.

Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada is not simply an alternate version, it is Jess Franco’s original vision of what later became Cecilia. Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada, released in 1980, is two years older than Cecilia.In 1982, Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada was released under the title of Cecilia by Eurocine, who added more footage that mostly consists of a back-story about how the protagonist met her husband. When given a chance to see Aberraciones Sexuales de Una Mujer Casada and Cecilia, it‘s obvious that Aberraciones Sexuales de Una Mujer Casada is the superior film.

Cecilia gets an excellent release from Blue Underground that comes with two versions of the film, a solid audio/video presentation, and a wealth of extra content, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer