B&W poetics: Rollin's "Le viol du vampire"

"The Rape of the Vampire"(1968)

Directed by Jean Rollin
Starring: Solange Pradel, Bernard Letrou



I was expecting the film to be incoherent. The first segment is very linear and normal, employing extremely expressive and original camera angles. Second part, "La Reine Des Vampires" is a lot more confusing, but exhibits the same level of visual excellence and dreamlike, naive atmosphere. I wasn't put off or bored even though the story does get very fragmented and it's best to give up on following the constantly multiplying numbers of characters. I usually find films like Franco's "Succubus" or Jodorowsky's "Holy Mountain" to be slow and pretentious, but I didn't have any problem with the similarly haphazard and unstructured "Le viol du Vampire". It doesn't feel artificial because it's got its heart in the right place, which can be said about majority of Rollin's films. He may not have professional actors, but he nevertheless gets them to deliver emotional performances and create moving, if not realistic, characters. The acting may be unpolished, but Rollin has a gift for drama which he displays more consistently then the other Eurotica directors (Franco, D'Amato) whom he often gets bundled up with. The story is a mess, but a poetic mess, and images are arresting. "Le viol du Vampire" is more more adventurous with cinematography then director's more popular films "Fascination" and "La Morte Vivante". I have the warmest feelings for this very brave film and will be rewatching it again.

Jess Franco's "BLUE RITA"

Das Frauenhaus/ Blue Rita (Switzerland, 1977)

Written and directed by Jess Franco
Starring: Eric Falk, Pamela Stanford, Olivier Mathot.

It's a Franco film, it's set in Paris, Olivier Mathot and Pamela Stanford are in the cast, but it isn't a EUROCINE piece...

This visually stimulating spy picture was produced by Swiss sex film mogul Erwin C. Dietrich. It's vastly superior to such similarly glossy yet faceless, indifferently made pictures as "Sexy Sisters", "Love Camp" or "Voodoo Passion" which Franco had tirelessly been shooting for Dietrich around the time. The standout aspect here is certainly the visuals: lighting, costumes, interiors and wigs all turn it into a surreal pulp comic strip. The ridiculous English dialogue is delivered with deliciously cheesy intonations by the dubbers. With it's silly, fantastic atmosphere enhanced by a Jazz soundtrack "Blue Rita" deserves more attention that it has currently received.

Curiously, Olivier Mathot's characters suffer identical fates ( grotesque heart attacks) both in Franco's "Blue Rita" and "Cannibals"...

Middle of the road Franco in Cinemascope: "NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS "

NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS (Spain, 1976)

Directed by Jess Franco

Starring: Alberto Dalbes, Lina Romay, William Berger.

I was expecting a middle of the road Franco in Cinemascope, and that's what I got, only "Night..." is slightly better than middle of the road. A skull-masked killer is picking off heirs to the recently killed Lord's fortune. Multiple murder scenes are handled well except for the unconvincing burning alive, which betrays the modesty of the production. Extremely young and already unbearably sexy Lina Romay gives a very good performance as an illegitimate daughter of the murdered Lord. Alberto Dalbes is also in a better than usual form as the Scotland Yard detective with a past. It's great to see Franco himself make an appearance- like the rest of the cast, in a period costume.

Lovely framing, with very few slow and perfectly acceptable zoom shots. "Night..." presents a very rare example of a Franco film with night scenes actually filmed at night. The few present day-for-night shots are handled so skilfully as to be above reproach. Carlo Savina's music is melodic and grows on you. Humorous scenes with inspector forgetting his sombrero everywhere somehow aren't too out of place in this sombre story of revenge from the grave. The amount of plot twists is insane, but still JF manages to make a cold "whodunit" more emotional then his Italian colleagues. The final reveal may not be too convincing or sudden but it is presented dramatically and with a good deal of style.
Murders lack graphic detail but noone should watch a JF picture expecting detailed gore shots. The abundance of camera set ups and overall high degree of care for what must have been an extremely low-budget production is a plus. I'll be rewatching this stylish and tasteful "old school" Franco film after a while.

Perverse fairytale: Eurocine’s ZOMBIE LAKE

Zombie Lake (France, 1980)

Directed by (just?) Jean Rollin

Starring: Howard Vernon, Antonio Mayans, Anouchka Lesoeur.

Frenetic gunfights, lethargic love scenes, WWII stock footage nicked from some other Eurocine production – all scored with Daniel White’s theme from “Female Vampire”…

The first time I watched “Zombie Lake” I thought it was total rubbish.

Nowadays I quite enjoy it.

Most films that I’ve been watching in the intervening years were technically miles better than “Zombie Lake” (it’s not that hard to be better than this trash). But they simply didn’t have that endearing mixture of shamelessness and naiveté that’s a trademark of Eurocine du Paris.

This film has no tracking shots, no budget, no script. Instead it offers copious nudity, aquatic Nazi zombies and Howard Vernon.

What works:

-The skinny-dipping girl in the opening scene. Stunning!

It’s priceless seeing ageing Howard Vernon pottering about a picturesque village organizing a bunch of locals into zombie fighters.

“Zombie Lake” is an amateur film: very gauche technically and with only two professional actors in the cast (Howard Vernon and another Jess Franco regular, Antonio Mayans).

Jean Rollin and some other French trash activist Sandro pop up in tiny supporting roles.

"Zombie Lake” has a “twin” film – “Oasis of the Zombies”. Only “Oasis…” doesn’t have the benefit of nudity or Howard Vernon’s presence and therefore is way lower on entertainment value.

11th anniversary of mowing Satanists down with a machine gun: it's END OF DAYS all over again!

End of Days (US, 1999)

Directed by Peter Hyams

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollack, Udo Kier.

A favourite "latter day" Schwarzenegger film

END OF DAYS had crap box office, crap reviews but none of it could put me off. This is a supremely entertaining film.




What works:

-gratuitous violence, all sorts of excesses and genreal absurdity all make it a hugely entertaining picture.

-John Debney score - I even stole it for my own VHS slasher home movie:)

-Kurzman, Nicotero & Berger effects!

-Udo Kier cameo

What doesn't work:

-the (retarded) script is best ignored. Just watch cars explode, people burn, Arnold drink vodka, etc.

-frenetic editing somewhat ruins the effect of some supposedly epic action scenes.

-Schwarzenegger is no actor(I guess for some this belongs in "what works" column).

I have a great amount of respect for Peter Hyams for being a director/DoP, which cannot be easy on huge US productions.
The film is lit beautifully.
11 years on it holds up wonderfully well.
Well done, Peter Hyams. Only it's hard to forgive you after that "The Musketeer" abomination!

Cops and Robbers are alike:J-P Melville's "Un Flic"

Un Flic (France, 1972)
Written and Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville.

Starring Alain Delon, Richard Crenna, Catherine Deneuve.



Melville’s last film is in my top 100 films of all time.

Plot in one sentence: cop chases robbers.

What works: everything. Each element fits in perfectly: acting, cinematography, production design.

Film-poem, so harmonious and expressive despite the decidedly restrained performances.

“Un Flic” gives us a rare example of what can be achieved when director knows exactly what he wants and has the means to achieve that.
Minimal, sketchy dialogue would easily fit on 10 pages.
Visually “Un Flic” is extremely minimalist and stylish.
Icy beauty of Catherine Deneuve. Piercing eyes of Alain Delon.
Several scenes (such as the train robbery) display a great knowledge of suspense technique.

Today television made viewers forget what art of filmmaking is.
Films like “Un Flic” could revitalize cinema. But noone makes pictures like that today.
Melville is long gone with noone to take his place.

How Fulci's "Zombie" changed my film tastes

ZOMBIE(Italy, 1979)
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Written by Dardano Sacchetti, Elisa Livia Briganti
Producer Fabrizio De Angelis, Ugo Tucci.

Plot in one sentence: Listless heroes unsuccessfully try to battle existential doom and gloom embodied by a horde of shuffling zombies...

This was the picture that has launched my decade-long obsession with Italian genre films. Thank you, Mr. Fulci, your film was an eye-opener. “Zombie” has been released and re-released so many times in the last few years that it’s almost become a “mainstream” film in the realm of obscure Euro films.

What Works:
-Atmosphere of doom. I cannot think of another picture which would create such a powerful sense of despair and hopelessness.
-Close-up shot of Dr Maynard drawing blood from his vein with a syringe. Makes me wince more than the famous “splinter+eyeball” scene.

What doesn’t work:
-Belated introduction of Richard Johnson and Olga Carlatos (“Murderock”) as a husband and wife who hate each other. Their scene is overlong and unnecessarily pushes the film into “failed marriage drama” category, when the viewer is simply longing for another gory zombie attack.

I have seen “Zombie” close to a hundred times. First 50 or so times I saw it via butchered "Vipco" tape and didn’t even know how much footage was missing. But it didn’t really hurt the film. For me the strongest points were unpolished style and downbeat ending, not the gore.
I know every edit so well I could probably reassemble the film from original rushes if I had to. Since my free time and interest in film is currently limited, “Zombie” will surely remain the most oft-rewatched film of my life. “Zombie” was for me a stylistic revolution. After seeing Fulci’s horror masterpiece I couldn’t watch slick, big-budgeted, “happy-end-guaranteed” US pictures anymore. Despite the ridiculous plot and leaden pacing, “Zombie” is made with a sense of raw realism that still impresses today.

Although I fell in love with Fulci’s work thanks to “Zombie”, it’s his gore-lite “The Black Cat” and “Manhattan baby” that I most enjoy re-watching these days.

This review is dedicated to the memory of “VIPCO” which had brought the cut version of “Zombie” as “Zombie Flesh Eaters” to many home video viewers in the UK. Vipco has ceased to operate in 2007. Thanks a lot for those four obligatory trailers: “Psychic Killer”, “Cannibal Holocaust”, “Shogun Assassin”, “Mountain of the Cannibal God”!Yes, there were no extras, yes, the covers were poor, prints non-anamorphic and DVD prices sky-high. Someone even once called them "shitco" due to the poor quality of their releases. But I will miss that trashy label.

DEODATO'S "Live Like a cop, die like a Man"

Live Like a cop, die like a Man (Italy, 1976)

A Highly violent, transgressive and engaging film from Deodato, who’s more known for his simplistic cannibal pictures.

It’s been a while since I had such fun watching any film, genre or not. This was energetic and unpredictable. And did I mention the violence?

Lots of familiar faces fly by on the screen: Bruno Corazzari, Marino Masė, Franco Citti.

The protagonists of this film are two cunning murderers, basically. They just happen to serve in the police special forces! They behave like the grown up thugs from “A Clockwork Orange”.

Long-haired Ray Lovelock and slightly built Marc Porel with his enormous sad eyes make a cracking team and their scenes together are great.

We never learn why two young good-looking male cops share a flat, or why they even chose to be policemen when they’re a duo of goddamn calculating and violent lawbreakers by nature.

This kind of film is totally impossible to make today. Those days are gone. They seemed to have filmed all the bike chases without permits, just speeding through the streets like mad and filming it all with hand-held cameras, achieving a terrific “cinema-verite” effect. Superb and incredibly dangerous. Those stuntmen should have been given medals.

One of Deodato’s best films, certainly his most entertaining and fast-moving one. Also one of the very best Italian cop films I’ve seen yet. The ending should have been downbeat, though.

“Live like a cop” deserves 10/10 for sheer thrills, but I’ll knock one star off because of the copout ending. Those bastards deserved a different fate, that would have made them truly immortal!

So, 9/10 it is. Now go watch it!