15. jul, 2014

Soledad Miranda - So Close, Yet So Far Away

' Unlike the generally flattering opinion people usually have about my body, I don't like it myself,'' confessed Soledad Miranda in an interview. Was it a way of criticizing herself, or was it modesty and irony on her part? Anyway, for me Soledad Miranda has been representing a myth for several years. And all thanks to Jess Franco's erotic-aesthetical emphasis of that body she didn't like very much. Many consider Jess Franco to be a shitty filmmaker, but I tend to disagree. He had his own style that was unique. Yes, most of his movies were intolerable to watch, but there was something about those movies that is difficult to grasp. The few movies that Soledad Miranda made with Franco are a good example of that. Apart from the unusual mixture of styles, nothing can be salvaged out of the incomprehensible and absurd plots. But Soledad Miranda manages, even in the most obscene pose en the most shamelessly obstentatious scene, to remain demure and innocent. You simply have to look at her all the time and you forget the other actors. That's probably what makes someone a star, but what do I know? On August 18, 1970, Soledad Miranda was killed on the highway to Lisbon, in a car accident from which her husband came out miraculously unhurt. If she hadn't died such an early age, would she have become a big movie star? We'll never know, but the haunting beauty of Soledad Miranda will remain captivating to me.