Les paumées du petit matin

The Escapees is one of Jean Rollin's most obscure films. As I watched it I couldn't help but wonder just who this movie exactly was aimed at. It's a wilfully uncommercial film, even by Rollin's standards. And while I am for the most part a fan of the director's oeuvre I can't say I enjoyed this one very much at all. The main problem is it's so mundane and lacking in the otherworldly feel that is typical of the director's best work and is grounded too much in reality. While the basic idea of a couple of young melancholic girls on the run encountering a series of unusual events is textbook Rollin, the movie has none of the fantastique element to feed off. I've heard that this was a result of producers trying to impose certain restrictions on Rollin, and ensuring he did not make another of his idiosyncratic vampire movies. They wanted a more sell-able product but ironically ended up with an even less commercial film than the director would normally turn out. It's really not difficult to see why this became a lost film and effectively sank without a trace.

There are occasional moments that have the director's fingerprints all over them. Such as the scene in the ice rink at night. This memorable moment incorporates the poetic and slightly surreal imagery that Rollin is most loved for. Unfortunately, The Escapees rarely has any other sequences that approach this. Its fairly plot-less story just meanders from one low key scene to another with very little over all purpose. It doesn't feel like the director's heart is in this project and it isn't ultimately a lot of fun.

Marie and Michelle are escaping from a lunatic asylum. Michelle is a tough girl who knows how to survive on the road, but the extremely shy Marie desperately clings to her until Michelle gives in and promises help. The two get into a lot of trouble which puts their friendship to a test.

Rollin's lost movie, and lost for a good reason, as the director told in several interviews (one on the British DVD, for example): it was simply so poor no distributor bought it. The director blames this mostly on the scriptwriter. The producer had hired someone to keep the director from continuing with his usual vampire mystery stuff, and that kind of co-operation against each other couldn't work. However, "The Escapees" has enough magic moments to be worth watching. Especially when people stop talking such as in the ending, or when Marie skates on the ice, imagining she is admired by a crowd, but only Michelle is secretly watching her.

This movie gets a bad rap as it is not your typical Jean Rollin vampire romp. I guess not every movie has to have nudity and violence. I can't believe that's coming from my mouth. But it kept my interest which is very hard to do with so many movie options nowadays. It's a story about caring for other people. The one girl Michelle is very attractive and I hate to say that if she was not "hot" the movie would not be watchable as shallow as that sounds but I'm being honest. I'm not proud of that statement it's the truth.

It is surprising that this Jean Rollin film has no vampires, or cemetery and candelabra or even a gothic building and instead at the start a couple of young girls in an asylum. One is in the garden and a rocking chair creaking forlornly. Then she speaks for the first time and helps the other escape. There is a poetical way that the girls just appear with a gypsy like crew with exotic dancers and weird rowdy drinkers with a lovely stage with a junkyard filled with rubbish and a train that thunders through. The surreal scenes go to other ones without really any reason. Seemingly an ice rink appears after an odd place in an underground bar, a costume appears and she dances with a spotlight as if in magic. More with a big ship and other people liking to dance and in the end would seem to be a couple of swingers and from no were guns appear and suddenly there is flesh and death.

Although there is no horror and only a bit little sleaze and violence (courtesy of Brigitte Lahie no less) this is an unmistakable Jean Rollin film - nobody else could, or even wants to make films his way. Two girls, one rebellious and the other one almost catatonic, run away from a borstal-like psychiatric clinic, meets a butch pickpocket-girl, some black strippers and a bunch of sailors and ends up in various adventures. This almost plot less, commercially doomed movie, equally pretentious as it is naive, was bound to make 95% of its audience either laugh or leave their seats, but for a Rollin fan there are some beautiful shots to be found. The figure skating scene was incredible and so was some of the shots at the junkyard. I also liked the sad ending. Not among his best but an interesting footnote in his filmography... for a Rollin fan that is, all others beware! The most shocking thing about this film for me is that there is no...*gulp*... beach scene! What happened, Jean? A few years back you couldn't even shoot a cheap porno without a trip to the beach?