 |
| From http://www.parallax-view.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/ 01/frisson-des-vampires-shiver_of_vampires-1971.jpg |
Dir. Jean Rollin
Ah, Jean Rollin. An acquired
taste for some but it was natural for me to become a fan of his. Even Zombie
Lake (1981) couldn't damper my interest in him. Out of the directors in this
season, he has one of the most distinct filmmaking styles within his movies. Rollin
is a fascinating individual in terms of horror cinema, a director of mood
pieces whose work is absolutely artistic yet has been only given its due by
cult film fans. He's also one of the few strong cores in terms of French horror
cinema, barring individual films, for a few decades up to the Millennium and
the French New Wave of Extreme, making films from the late sixties to his death
in the late 2000s, all with a completely independent attitude to making his own
films how he desired them. While his films do have narratives, he prefers to
concentrate on mood, characters travelling through scenes and events, connected
or not, that require the viewer to absorb. Shivers
of the Vampires has a plot straight out of a Hammer horror film, but it
drifts through it, a slow considered pace that pulls you into the pacing the
film is set to.  |
| From https://38.media.tumblr.com/18ccee248d8e712c281681c52319b6c0/ tumblr_mrl6ado5cy1qzrs0co1_500.png |
A honeymooning couple decide to
spend their celebration time at the castle of her two cousins, unbeknownst to
them taken over by a female vampire who has turned the cousins in underlings. The
lead vampire targets the wife which the husband attempts to stop. Watching on,
as servants of the vampires, are a duo of mortal women, a trademark of Rollin,
and it's all scored to a prog rock score. Most of Rollin's films can quality as gothic Euro-horror, especially as he
has an obsession with vampires that lead to many of his films being on said
subject. With this film expect every trope - the castles, the graveyards,
caskets and the like - but depicted through a methodical, contemplative mood,
not in an intellectual deconstruction, but through an idiosyncratic tone that
is thoughtful but as capable of having gore and sexuality like a lurid genre
film, balancing between the two sides. He has also been viewed as an erotic
film director because of his other obsession for the female body and lesbianism
that, could be eyebrow raising in any other context, causing some to shake
their heads in disbelief, but in his case was far from tasteless as it could've
been. The reason why is that, while very gazing at the female body, usually
naked, Rollin's attitude to depicting women in his films never becomes tacky or
descend into nude women who "mysterious explored each others' bodies"
as one would usually presume this sort of Euro softcore tone to end up in. In
fact his depictions of women has a lot of evidence to praise him for, almost usually
the main characters or outnumbering the males in his films, the male vampires
in this film a rarity for him too when he usually has only female vampires, and
never depicting actresses as merely sex objects, instead always figures in his
dreamlike worlds that are sexual but can also remark on the circumstances
around them or be part of the strange happenings that take place. This also has
a remarked effect on this film's plot as well, where everyone is equal, the
vampires not inherently evil whilst the husband character is in the hero role
trying to prevent his wife from becoming part of the living dead. Actually, the
depiction of vampires here, as within the other Rollin films I've seen, are so much more interesting than in most
films, like the peculiar double act of the vampire hunters who were turned into
vampires themselves, hilariously called " bourgeoisie vampires" by
their female master while they spend most of the film as the eccentrics to her
straight (wo)man in their puffy shirts and elaborate mannerisms. Even the lead
actress, while the typical innocent seduced by the unnatural forces, isn't the
damned buxom damsel in distress you usually get in horror films.
 |
| From http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aOQLE4Fqk3w/TQojZwyZtkI/AAAAAAAAGBw/Li7 6hVgiepI/s1600/Le+Frisson+des+Vampires+37.JPG |
Out of many cult directors,
Rollin has an immense advantage is being a capable and talented filmmaker, more
so knowing how limited his resources and time could be per film, not only in
creating mood, but also in the content, such as a scene, as the two male
vampires walk around a room delivering a monologue, the camera follows them in
a continuous spin, a circle around the room. There is a clear surrealistic to
his films, using everyday objects and tropes of horror in unique ways. A scene
with a grandfather clock, another obsession of his, without spoiling it, is not
only a great image but the kind of image that says why I love horror cinema and
continually watch them. What would've been a pretty conventional narrative is
transformed into something very different, not only because of the ending of
the beach, which goes against expectations, swerving the usual finale for this
sort of story, but because as well as his lingering, methodical style turns it
into something unworldly as a result. This film contains a freeness, to
manipulate and play with the material, that is very memorable and very
different from convention.
 |
| From https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5130/5333923592_d22acd25e3_z.jpg |
Abstract Rating
(High/Medium/Low/None): Low
One of the more narratively
pinned films of Rollin I've seen, I can only give it a Low rating. Compared to
other horror films though, this is drastically different because Rollin is inclined to use the horror
template to create films that go against the conventions of this genre. It
isn't about scares or a visceral reaction in Shivers of the Vampires, but a scenario that is sensual and
radiates with a dreamlike tone, where an ordinary scene in another work, like
the husband coming across a secret meeting that reveals the vampires' truth
form, is taken as a moment that bleeds into everything else, out of
conventional events taking place. He is completely anti-horror, frankly, in
terms of the plotting and tones of his films, closer to supernatural surrealism
with added eroticism, or difficult to fully define in terms of any sub-genre,
yet he retains the most important parts of the horror genre in terms of
mystery, the unexpected and how the viewer is taken into a scenario which
exists out of reality, one which fused with a trippy rock score, has an added
energy to it. There will be more Jean
Rollin films on this list, all of the ones so far I've seen, even Zombie Lake despite the joke I made of
it early in this review, having equally unconventional moods which would
frustrate a genre fan expecting something traditional, but is more than just
nudity and sexuality, instead something elegant and captivating.
 |
| From http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/dvd_reviews51/ shiver_of_the_vampires_/frisson03.jpg |
A Cinema of the Abstract movie?
If it feels like i've had
difficulty in reviewing the film, its only because trying to define Rollin as a film maker is still
difficult in terms of peering him down, though things mentioned in the review
give some potential reasons. He is so drastically different from many other
directors, with only someone like Jess
Franco comparable in ways, that it's entering a complete different type of
genre filmmaking with him though factors, like the surrealism or the softcore
erotica, are traceable to other films. He's a filmmaker absolutely for this
blog, and in becoming more of a fan of his as I see and rewatch films, acquiring
them, I'll be eventually able to give a clearer, more distinct take on what
stands out with him, to the point I can get close to saying why I like his
films so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment