Night of Open Sex (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Apr 10, 2020
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Jess FrancoRelease Date(s)
1983 (February 25, 2020)Studio(s)
Golden Films Internacional S.A. (Severin Films)- Film/Program Grade: D
- Video Grade: B
- Audio Grade: C
- Extras Grade: C+
Review
Severin Films has been busy releasing a variety of films as of late, from Eurosleaze to the erotic to the undervalued, all on Blu-ray with fresh film transfers and extras. Their last several titles have been no different, offering up a kaleidoscope of cinema’s mostly forgotten films.
In Jess Franco’s Night of Open Sex (aka La noche de los sexos abiertos) Moira, played by the always seductive Lina Romay, is an exotic dancer at a night club that specializes in unorthodox performances—whether they be atop vintage cars or amongst pornographic magazines. Moira finds herself caught in the middle of a plot to retrieve hidden gold amidst different factions of thieves, finding pleasure, treachery, and cruelty at every turn.In Jess Franco’s Night of Open Sex (aka La noche de los sexos abiertos) Moira, played by the always seductive Lina Romay, is an exotic dancer at a night club that specializes in unorthodox performances—whether they be atop vintage cars or amongst pornographic magazines. Moira finds herself caught in the middle of a plot to retrieve hidden gold amidst different factions of thieves, finding pleasure, treachery, and cruelty at every turn.
It’s fair to say that Night of Open Sex is a mishmash of ideas, most of them stemming from the desire to film Lina Romay in a variety of sexual positions and situations. The plot loses its way often because of all of the erotic detours, as one would expect, but there’s also a fairly graphic torture scene, as well as a moment of intended rape that may or may not be consensual (it’s never made entirely clear). The visuals are strong and many beautiful locations are utilized to give the film scale and variety. In the night club scenes, the stage performances by Moira and the audience reactions were obviously filmed separately. It doesn’t matter much because the entire point is to see Lina Romay writhing around naked all over the stage. It’s one of Franco’s more lurid and unforgiving Spanish productions, which for his filmography, is saying a lot.
The film comes to Blu-ray from a 4K scan of the original camera negative. Everything looks quite good, particularly the color palette and skin tones, with strong levels of detail. Leftover speckling and occasional splice marks are the chief moments of leftover damage. For the audio, there is a single Spanish 2.0 mono LPCM audio track with optional English subtitles. It’s a louder soundtrack that most, but separates the elements in a decent manner, though there are lots of leftover moments of hiss, clicks, thumps, distortion, and dropouts.
Extras include the following:
- In the Land of Franco Part 2 (HD – 15:27)
- When Donald Met Jess & Lina Part 2 (SD – 9:35)
- The Night of Open Jess (HD – 20:31)
Night of Open Sex is not an easy film to like, but it's certainly a title worth your attention if you’re a fan of off-the-wall cinema.
– Tim Salmons
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