Lèvres de sang

The movies of Jean Rollin are an acquired taste. He specializes in haunting, sensual, visually impressive movies that frequently concern memory, or memory loss, and obsessively feature beautiful naked women, usually vampires. Maybe Rollin's therapist can fully explain why his movies deal with this subject matter over and over, but hey, I don't care, it sure works for me! If you haven't seen any of his work, 'Lips Of Blood' is as good a place to start as any, but frankly I've never seen a bad movie by him yet. They're all good. I'm hooked!

Jean-Lou Philippe stars (and co-scripts) as a thirty something man who becomes obsessed with a photograph which reminds him of of his almost-forgotten childhood, which is sketchy at best. He attempts to track down the location in the picture, and this brings back memories of a beautiful and mysterious girl (the lovely Annie Belle/Briand, who also worked with Deodato and D'Amato) he once met. He finds himself uncovering a family secret and his life goes in a direction he could never have anticipated.

'Lips Of Blood' is yet another wonderfully evocative, dream-like film from Jean Rollin. A truly unique film maker who creates fascinating worlds that are both seductive and dangerous. Rollin is one of the best kept secrets in horror, and a master of erotic fantasy.

The films of Jean Rollin will be an enigma to many who have not experiencing his work, yet for those who allow themselves to be taken elsewhere by his cinema it can prove a highly rewarding experience. The viewer is often taken to places that invoke bewilderment, unease, and sexual desire. By no means Rollin's best film, Levres De Sang (aka. Lips of Blood) is a beautifully lyrical, slow burner that has the uncanny ability to take the viewer into an ethereal, dream like world, where the erotic and the neurotic are intertwined.

The story of a photographer, upon seeing a poster, is reminded of his childhood where a mysterious female vampire. However, this being Rollin, do not expect a traditional vampire movie (although his vampire films are arguably the most faithful to the Gothic aura and mythology of the vampire). Mostly dialogue free, with the acting catatonic, this only adds a surreal edge to the proceedings. And no vampire films have a greater sense of eroticism; it is easily to succumb to female vampires whenever they are on screen.

For the uninitiated, approach with caution. But this is a fine example of the originality and unique approach which is to be found in 1970s European sex and horror cinema.

Of which, Jean Rollin was undoubtedly the master.

This is my first Rollin film - and I loved it. Gloriously silly and surreal, I detect many sly references to Bunuel (the boring cocktail party) and Fellini (the cold empty beach like the apocalyptic end to 'La Dolce Vita' - did Spielberg get his floating coffins in 'Empire of the Sun' from this???). The nubile vampires are so unscary and unerotic - they look more like hungry fashion models with a penchant for nasal fairy dust. Who did the hero's hair - Leonard of London? - let's bring back the male bouffant! I think he got that knitted top with the zipper up front after seeing Pink Floyd 'Live at Pompeii'. There are so many great moments - like where the photographer turns at the sound of the doorbell - before it actually rings. What did this mean? Precognition? Bad acting? Who cares. I actually saw this on SBS TV (free to air - unedited). Thankyou SBS - a gem.

LIPS OF BLOOD is the second Jean Rollin film I've seen and I have to say that I enjoyed it more than LIVING DEAD GIRL. The acting, script and sets are very unspectacular, sometimes goofy and somewhat unconvincing, but the arch of the story is a bit more interesting than the one in LIVING DEAD GIRL, which I thought was too slow for its own good.

Some scenes were contrived and the script is filled with holes, but I thought the overall film was okay. Nothing earth shattering but it's an enjoyable change of pace and attitude from other (mostly US) horror films out there. LIPS OF BLOOD hasn't turned me off from wanting to see more Jean Rollin films.

Lips of Blood has a languid quality that could've registered as decadence had it been made with any wit whatsoever, but instead of wit the movie offers us this vapid literal-mindedness. The movie is played with such soft-core-porn straightness that it's impossible not to snicker at it. Director Jean Rollin is sometimes described as a fantasist, but his fantasies are strictly pedestrian. Who but a teenage Goth-nit-wit could find anything to savor in this somnambulistic tale of a pale guy with bad hair being menaced by some half-naked chicks with dime-store vampire fangs? The movie requires more than suspension-of-disbelief, it requires suspension-of-intellect.

It's striking how amateurish and bereft of energy this movie is. Cult directors like Rollin are usually at least capable of some halfway decent staging, but there aren't even any images that stick with you, any trashy-iconographic moments. The problem is that Rollin himself doesn't seem all that charged up about his fantasies. Directors who deal in this kind of fetishistic material are usually at least somewhat interested in the subject-matter, but judging by this film Rollin could care less about vampires. The scenes all seem to plod on for hours with nothing happening, the cutting so flaccid that it's like we're being encouraged subliminally to nod off. Not a bad idea considering the display of cinematic indifference being carried out before us.