therewillbeblus wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:02 pm
To my knowledge, I've never seen a Jean Rollin film. Where should I start to know whether or not this box is for me?
Here's the Eurotika episode on Rollin (NSFW)
I really like the dreamy atmosphere of Rollin. Fascination is probably the best starting point and probably his most accessible film. His vampire girl films are his key ones especially his trilogy (The Rape of the Vampire, The Nude Vampire and Shiver of the Vampires) followed up by Requiem For A Vampire (which he followed up/remade in 1997 with Two Orphan Vampires). Something to cross fingers for would be if Indicator could re-print the novella adaptations of some of his films that Redemption released.
I really like his zombie film The Grapes of Death (but then I love Brigitte Lahaie, who gets an unforgettable cameo scene, and the electronic score) but it is quite different from his vampire films. His other zombie film The Living Dead Girl was notoriously heavily edited in its VHS release in the late 1990s (I think by over three and half minutes in its Redemption VHS release) so it would be a coup if that could be released. And his
third zombie film, Zombie Lake, is perhaps better passed over without comment, or treated as a goofy comedy!
And while they are probably only for the Rollin fans, I really like his bizarre 90s takes on the serial killer femme fatale film (Killing Car) and adventure film (The SIdewalks of Bangkok). The thing about Rollin is that at his best he creates a really beautiful, dreamy (if languorous) atmosphere that is rather hypnotic. You don't really go to his films for the plots but the combination of surreal imagery, beautiful women and interestingly poetic eroticism.