400-419 Jean Rollin

[MichaelB]

It will indeed be completely uncut - the BBFC issued the certificate this afternoon.

[MichaelB]

• The Nude Beaver
• The Beavoniacs

[MichaelB]

Final specs for the latest Rollins.

The Nude Vampire:



The Demoniacs:

[therewillbeblus]

Making my way through these - I had previously enjoyed Fascination and still do. Rape of the Vampire was a little less consistent - though that's by design. The first section was a wonderful, near-experimental short film, but the bifurcated structure invites another hour that doesn't quite gel - either formally or tonally with the first. It's fine, but the style alone pares back as if Rollins needed to sober the lens to focus on the narrative, and that's just not what's interesting about his films.

The Night of the Hunted was a strange departure - a kind of sterile sci-fi slow-burn that recalled (very) early Cronenberg, Resnais, and late Antonioni(?!) It's probably the weakest link for me so far, but I appreciated what it was doing once I made the connections to that shocking dish of elliptical influences. It's a deliberately alienating and static movie to depict characters who are so out of touch with their identity and environment that they cease to understand their own characterization, mirroring our own lack of a throughline to connect to them. That doesn't necessarily make for a compelling experience, but it's an interesting approach.

[therewillbeblus]

My experience watching The Nude Vampire was little more than peering through a pair of Beer Goggles at the version of Eyes Wide Shut that its detractors see, and I was so relieved to take them off. Amateur prep work for The Night of the Hunted, whilst retaining a vampire edge, with the same distance from everyone and everything.. it's a shame Rollins forfeited his more intimate experimental-stylistic strengths in favor of a detached enigmatic atmosphere that has no reason to exist.

Man, this guy's all over the map for me, but I hope the current pattern of my Rollins Count/LB score of each subsequent film is pure coincidence, since it's a very linear and pessimistic graph

[MichaelB]

I wasn't going to say anything before because I thought it was a one-off typo, but for the record Jean Rollin is no relation of Howard, Sonny or Henry Rollins - he's singular in a great many ways, including that pretty fundamental one.

[therewillbeblus]

Well in that case, I’ll take back the opinions too

[therewillbeblus]

A few more:

The Demoniacs is a terrible pirate rape-revenge experiment. I don't think I've ever felt so alienated by the activity in a film, which is surely attempting to engage us on some level. I'd be interested in a reading that defends this choice as thematically artistic, but I just couldn't get on board.

Lips of Blood is pretty good! A lot more captivating with a central mystery around an enigmatic woman, ostensibly nefarious figures obstructing the protagonist's journey, and a fun subversive final act that's entirely in step with the obsessive and compulsive nature of infatuating affection mirroring vampirism. Not consistently

Two Orphan Vampires - What a strange movie, even by Rollin's (note the apostrophe, thanks) standards! The youthful "self-discovery" is sloppy, totally all-over-the-place - a tone set by their first conversation in the graveyard: A nonsensical internal dream illogic they share, followed by kittenish adventuring around the city to a slightly-bombastic elevator music score (the music is actually pretty great before and after, eclectic and matching the energy of each scene well). From there, it maintains this slapdash, (dare-I-say?) Godardian approach to fragmenting narrative, and then a more surreally comedic quasi-Bunuel feel in the last act. I loved how elliptical this one was (at times giving off Week End vibes, other times Ruiz in terms of character interactions) - it felt like Rollin was finally trusting his audience to engage with less defined holds on the mysticism, which essentially transforms this into a film about faith (in the lightest possible sense), partially in a self-reflexive way asking us to cultivate it towards the film's abstract narrative - particularly forcing a humbling agnosticism onto the viewer.

As opposed to other Rollin films that recognize a moral dilemma or element, morality is not a factor here. It's the most humanist film I've seen from him, in not attempting to condescend to or categorize the vampires in a way that dilutes their humanity, and the dignity therein. It's concentrated on nothing else but their sense of wonder and discovery and experience, which is sublime in every sense - even in disturbing encounters (a bit like City of Pirates) when they have bouts of loneliness and suffering. Their imaginations are too strong-willed, and that translates onto the screen and sustains a playful tone through dire straights. Plus it's just a lot of bizarre fun to watch constantly unpredictable action in a disjoined nouvelle vague-inspired art film manifesting as an (anti-)road movie of sorts, exploring all facets of our world and the meaning within - only without the burden of achieving a tangible form of enlightenment.

I was really dreading this late-career entry after a series of misses, but it was cool stuff, yet wouldn't begrudge anyone for losing patience. The looseness Rollin permits felt controlled and successfully majestic - a difficult thing to pull off well, especially the humor he derives from his outstanding lead actresses. It's a celebration of "mad poetry." I loved it.

[therewillbeblus]

Shiver of the Vampires feels like the most painfully glacial and most objectively poorly-made Rollin product I've seen yet (when you're shooting a conversation in a car, and accidentally get your camera caught in the dude's head of hair, definitely leave it in the final cut!) - but also maybe one of the most plot-heavy? As opposed to the transcendent Two Orphan Vampires, this strange brew seems to be going out of its way to not stimulate its audience. I'm really trying to get on board this Rollin train, but this guy's detrimentally unpredictable - either giving us exactly what we want, or provoking his audience by under-delivering on ideas, visual or otherwise, and it's annoying. I wonder how deliberate this is, given the clear skills shown elsewhere, including in his first feature (though I can't see the thematic gain of such a strategy aside from The Night of the Hunted)

[MichaelB]

THE ESCAPEES
(Jean Rollin, 1981)
Release date: 9 December 2024
Limited Edition (World premiere on 4K UHD)

Pre-order the UK Blu-ray, the UK 4K UHD, the US Blu-ray or the US 4K UHD edition.

Between the dystopian paranoia of The Night of the Hunted and the visceral excesses of The Living Dead Girl, director Jean Rollin takes a surreal detour into the Parisian demi-monde with The Escapees (Les Echappées, also known as Les Paumées du petit matin).

When two young women, the wayward Michelle (Laurence Dubas) and the withdrawn Marie (Christiane Coppé), escape from an asylum, they find themselves drifting through a nightmarish world of burlesque troupes, lascivious sailors, and hardened criminals. After a violent confrontation, the police close in...

With its supporting cast of key collaborators, including actors Brigitte Lahaie (Fascination), Louise Dhour (Requiem for a Vampire), Bernard Papineau (The Night of the Hunted), Jean-Loup Philippe (Lips of Blood), Natalie Perry (The Nude Vampire) and composer Philippe D'Aram (Two Orphan Vampires), The Escapees is at once atypical, yet unmistakeably Rollin.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K HDR restoration from the original negative by Powerhouse Films
• 4K (2160p) UHD presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Two presentations of the film: Les Échappées, Jean Rollin’s original version; and Les Paumées du petit matin, the alternative version with re-ordered scenes
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with film expert Tim Lucas (2024)
• One Day in Paris (2008): far-reaching interview with Rollin in which he discusses The Escapees and his other films
• Quant à Louise (2024): regular Rollin collaborators Natalie Perrey and Jean-Pierre Bouyxou remember actress Louise Dhour
• Previously unseen interview with actor Jean-Loup Phillipe (2024)
• Critical appreciation by author and musician Stephen Thrower (2024)
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity material, and behind the scenes
• New and improved English translation subtitles
• Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with a new essay by Lucas Balbo, archival writing on the film by Jean Rollin, an archival interview with the director, an archival interview with composer Philippe D’Aram, a tribute to Rollin by fantastique cinema expert Nicolas Stanzick, and full film credits
• World premiere on 4K UHD
• Limited edition of 10,000 individually numbered units (6,000 4K UHDs and 4,000 Blu-rays) for the UK and US

#PHILE412U
BBFC cert: 18
REGION FREE
EAN: 5060697922943

REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE
(Jean Rollin, 1972)
Release date: 9 December 2024
Limited Edition (World Premiere on 4K UHD)

Pre-order the UK Blu-ray, the UK 4K UHD, the US Blu-ray or the US 4K UHD edition.

(NB: The player-readable sides of the BD and 4K UHD editions will be identical regardless of where they were purchased, and the only difference between the BD and 4K UHD editions is that the latter has higher resolution and an HDR grade)

Jean Rollin continues his unique exploration of the vampire genre with Requiem for a Vampire (Requiem pour un vampire), featuring a cast of Rollin regulars including Marie-Pierre Castel (The Shiver of the Vampires), Mireille Dargent (Lips of Blood), and Louise Dhour (The Escapees).

When Marie (Castel) and Michelle (Dargent), two enigmatic women travelling through the countryside in clown costumes, stumble across a mysterious château, they uncover a sadistic vampire sect, the leader of which offers them eternal life to continue his bloodline.

Also released as Virgins and Vampires and Caged Vampires, Rollin's pulp-inspired fourth feature boasts an abundance of surreal and erotic imagery, and is accompanied by an eccentric free-rock score by composer Pierre Raph (The Iron Rose, The Demoniacs).

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION 4K UHD SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K HDR restoration from the original negative by Powerhouse Films
• 4K (2160p) UHD presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Two presentations of the film: Requiem pour un vampire, Jean Rollin’s original French-language version; and Requiem for a Vampire, the English-language version
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson (2024)
• Selected scenes audio commentary with Jean Rollin (2005)
• Jean Rollin Introduces ‘Requiem for a Vampire’ (1998)
• In a Silent Way (2024): newly edited archival interview with Rollin, in which he discusses Requiem for a Vampire, one of his personal favourite films
• Queen of the Underworld (2024): newly edited archival interview with actor Louise Dhour
• A Pastoral Dalliance (2024): newly edited archival interview with actor Paul Bisciglia
• Les Frissons d’un requiem (2024): in-depth documentary on the making of Requiem for a Vampire by Rollin’s personal assistant, Daniel Gouyette, featuring interviews with key Rollin associates Jean-Noël Delamarre and Natalie Perrey, and film expert Daniel Bird
• The Poetry of Strangeness (2024): critical appreciation by author and film historian Virginie Sélavy
• The Last Book (2005): Rollin talks about his work as a novelist and reads from one of his short stories
• Alternative sequences
• Original theatrical trailers
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity material, and behind the scenes
• New and improved English translation subtitles for the French soundtrack
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with a new essay by Maria J Pérez Cuervo, archival writing by Jean Rollin on the making of the film, an archival interview with the director by Peter Blumenstock, an extract from the film’s pressbook, an English translation of Rollin’s story ‘The Last Book’, and full film credits
• World premiere on 4K UHD
• Limited edition of 10,000 individually numbered units (6,000 4K UHDs and 4,000 Blu-rays) for the UK and US

#PHILE403U
BBFC cert: 18
REGION FREE
EAN: 5060697922769

And Requiem for a Vampire is 100% uncut, regardless of how much the BBFC hacked out three decades ago.

[JSC]

I'm always excited for more Rollin, but it seems to be just my luck that The Iron Rose and The Grapes of Death
will probably be the last released.

[Orlac]

I'm always excited for more Rollin, but it seems to be just my luck that The Iron Rose and The Grapes of Death
will probably be the last released.

There's always ZOMBIE LAKE...

[DanteVescio]

I'm always excited for more Rollin, but it seems to be just my luck that The Iron Rose and The Grapes of Death
will probably be the last released.

I was sure we'd be getting The Iron Rose this November/December with July's newsletter clue. That was clearly The Iron Rose and not Requiem for a Vampire.

I did pre-order both Requiem and Escapees, but am mostly looking forward to Rose and Living Dead Girl!

[MichaelB]

Teasers can mean a release is imminent, it can mean a release is months away. Or, in the case of The Revenge of Frankenstein, literally years away, but there were specific reasons for that (namely, hearing that Sony was working on a 4K restoration just in time to cancel original plans).

The policy with Rollin releases is to put them out when they're ready, and Requiem for a Vampire and The Escapees were the next two in the queue.

[therewillbeblus]

Not released by Indicator (..yet?) but I caught up with La fiancée de Dracula and had a blast with its pulpy nonsense. The narrative pivots to so many absurd and unexpected places, as we come to follow and attract our sights on various characters, situations, and fantastical devices right as they become established (I loved the random gypsy nun, the lady who really hates crying babies, etc.), all barely contained under a kind of gonzo noir model, that's far more observational than participatory. It's a bit like Celine and Julie Go Boating meets In the Folds of the Flesh at times, the detectives (and nuns) often peripherally commenting on the activity or left stunned in a daze by magic, and the film ultimately doesn't care about them beyond their base utility to feed the machine of shlock. With insane shifts like these, Rollin knows it's better to be a voyeur, and the very self-conscious lean into trashy ideas is extremely welcome from an auteur that isn't always as obvious about his intentions behind the superficial exteriors. This makes a great double-bill with the preceding film in Rollin's canon, Two Orphan Vampires, which took the polar opposite approach towards ellipses and sincerely-mature themes - and since these are my two favorites so far, despite having little in common tonally, maybe I just like late-period Rollin? Can anyone recommend where to go next based on a fondness for either of these?

[ryannichols7]

it's been a few weeks now, but if you follow me on Letterboxd you may have seen I was sorta won over by Fascination and will now be trying out the rest of these. I am still not a blood/gore/screaming kinda guy at all, but Rollin kinda makes up for all of that with sheer atmosphere which is what I enjoy when delving into the macabre (think Universal Monsters, The Innocents, and Carnival of Souls for my barometer. I loved the score a lot and the setting was obviously awesome. I know many have noted that Rollin includes himself a lot in these films and I have been delving into the extras a bit more to understand this, and so it's clear I will need to go for more of these. anyone have any tips on what would probably be most up my alley? I'll probably support this project anyway given that Indicator have done a tremendous job with picture, sound, and the exhaustive extras*. and I think the packaging is pretty delightful. this guy clearly is a cut above the filmmakers of his kind I think, I'm just curious to see whether this is cinema I subscribe to more or not

(*-I won't lie, it still pains me that these movies have very lavish editions but other favorites of mine do not, but this is clearly the stuff that sells so I get it)

[Mr Sausage]

Fascination is also the movie that won me over to Rollin. Given your preferences, I’d try The Iron Rose next. It’s a morbid fairytale thick with atmosphere and symbolism. Probably the closest Rollin came to making a euro art film.

[MichaelB]

Although you might as well wait for the forthcoming Indicator edition of that one - it'll be out next year, and I'm very much hoping* it'll be in the first half of next year.

(*but categorically not promising, so I'd be grateful if people didn't treat this as gospel.)

[domino harvey]

Hate to say it, but Fascination ended up being the only one I liked and I abandoned further digging after seven more attempts at giving Rollin a chance brought me significantly worse returns (including the Iron Rose— sorry boys!)

[MichaelB]

(*-I won't lie, it still pains me that these movies have very lavish editions but other favorites of mine do not, but this is clearly the stuff that sells so I get it)

For the avoidance of any doubt, we're doing the Rollin films because we genuinely want to do them. This notion that we're slumming it for the money couldn't be further from the truth.

[Dave78]

anyone have any tips on what would probably be most up my alley?

You can’t go wrong with 'The Grapes of Death', 'The Iron Rose', 'The Living Dead Girl', 'Night of the Hunted', 'Lips of Blood' and 'Requiem for a Vampire' as a starting point.

[therewillbeblus]

Besides Fascination, the only other Indicator-released Rollin I've liked has been Two Orphan Vampires. But I loved it

[ryannichols7]

Fascination is also the movie that won me over to Rollin. Given your preferences, I’d try The Iron Rose next. It’s a morbid fairytale thick with atmosphere and symbolism. Probably the closest Rollin came to making a euro art film.

that would genuinely really interest me, especially since the forthcoming release of The Escapees also sounds like it may fit that bill. I have thought about Fascination a lot since watching, and even since writing that post!

Hate to say it, but Fascination ended up being the only one I liked and I abandoned further digging after seven more attempts at giving Rollin a chance brought me significantly worse returns (including the Iron Rose— sorry boys!)

I did buy it based off your comment (and it seemed to be the one released so far that I was most interested in), so we'll see if I agree with you otherwise or find a new appreciation for this dude

(*-I won't lie, it still pains me that these movies have very lavish editions but other favorites of mine do not, but this is clearly the stuff that sells so I get it)

For the avoidance of any doubt, we're doing the Rollin films because we genuinely want to do them. This notion that we're slumming it for the money couldn't be further from the truth.

sorry MichaelB let me make it a little more clear, I mean moreso that these movies get 4K releases with the nice packaging and whatnot. I know you guys really do actually want to release these (I've listened to Sam+John talk about them on the podcast quite a bit) and it's very obvious the passion, but the usage of 4K UHD for these but say, any given classic Hollywood title is moreso what I mean. plus of course those being studio dealings, I can imagine there's more hassle in the way of those getting UHDs as opposed to the Rollin releases where there's full dual-territory rights. truly, I appreciate the dedication to these films because I really and honestly would've never given them a chance had another label (aside from Radiance) put them out, you guys have done an awesome job. will be happy to wait for your edition of The Iron Rose

Besides Fascination, the only other Indicator-released Rollin I've liked has been Two Orphan Vampires. But I loved it

I'm genuinely intrigued to see him in late-career mode, but don't wanna jump ahead just yet. getting it in the sale!

[JSC]

I'd like to put in a recommendation for The Grapes of Death, which is somewhat different from
Rollin's other films, but in my opinion definitely creates an atmosphere of claustrophobia and dread,
despite it's being set in open countryside (it's sort of an environmental horror film with a touch of
Night of the Living Dead). Also, Rollin's final film The Mask of Medusa is definitely worth
seeing. The Rollin films I tend to avoid are The Sidewalks of Bangkok and Killing Car which
sometimes feel more like rough cuts for a film rather than complete works (although I understand that
Rollin was quite ill during the making of Killing Car and so wasn't able to invest as much time in it).