Ms Kathleen's

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In a classic Franco mode of operation, nothing is making sense to Jimmy as he wanders through the carnival in Rio, and the narrative structure of the film serves to hide the truth (whatever that may be) from the audience. We never know more than Jimmy and trying to follow a plot in a Franco movie is folly as it jumps all over and we’re not totally sure what is a flashback to an actual event, what is a dream, and what is reality.

We know that Jimmy is haunted by the memory of the dead Wanda, a memory so strong with love and lust that he manages to somehow manifest her, and she becomes the catalyst for the events in the film. There is, of course, the revenge subplot that plays out amidst the romantic haunting. It is within this subplot that balances out the "non -Franco" elements of the film, creating the dichotomy of the personal film Franco wanted to make and the public film the studio wanted to promote. But it's not just a generic subplot to pad the runtime and sell to international markets, rather, this subplot is vital to the success of the film because Franco’s idea for “Black Angel”, while entertaining for the art and the music, would have been a very dull movie.