Réquiem para o Vampiro

One of Rollin's best, although lacking the stylish gaudiness of his earlier masterpieces. However, considered as the work of an impressively productive director with about as many misses as hits, this film holds a high ranking in his oeuvre. He starts smash dab in the middle of obviously complicated unexplained criminal events, with the two female protagonists done up in ludicrous clown costumes. After the death of their fellow fugitive, they set fire to their car and wander off into the woods. Dark, young beauty Mireille Dargent stumbles into an open grave and ends up covered in opened dirt as nearby Marie-Pierre Castle watches, too scared to speak. Once unearthed, she and her friend find a seemingly abandoned castle with a decomposing body in the basement. Some uninspired vampires bring the girls to their dungeon of depravity. Dying vamp Philippe Gasté, the last of his kind in great need to make more with the help of vamp pal Anne-Dominique Toussaint, gives them a wee bite. They're somewhat uncertain about this idea of slowing turning into the blood-sucking undead, but things head in unexpected directions from here in typical Rollin style, if typical can be described as such. Although many of Rollin's women find themselves thrust unexpectedly into a world of evil, a close inspection of their characters from the beginning suggest a previous loss of innocence. Rollin's women do not succumb to these influences - indeed, they generally escape from their perilous situations - but it's important to remember that this sort of behavior may well not be old hat to them. Requiem uses extremely effective pacing, which many mistake as boring. Some extremely long takes contain little distinguishable action, denying the audience a passive film experience. This style of filmmaking instead demands total audience involvement, with only occasional instances of the glossy seduction suggested by the film's pretext. Rollin's decision to spend so much screen time on seemingly aimless wandering evokes a misguided spiritual quest, with obvious sexual connotations in the form of vampires. The experimental score by Pierre Raph, who worked with Rollin on the notorious Démoniaques, compliments this uncertain, possibly confused journey. In stark contrast to these rather profound elements stands the unnecessarily graphic sexual torture that goes on the castle's dungeon. This goes to an unnecessary extreme - I can't, for example, imagine anyone enjoying the image of a bat nestling in a woman's vagina. However, movies do need a target audience and Rollin could easily have chosen a worse genre into which to work his ideas. After this film, Toussaint began her career as a producer.. Dargent and Castle, prototypical Rollin girls, appeared in several other of his films.

After escaping an auto shootout, two sexy female clowns (yeah) stumble upon a mysterious old castle full of classy vampires and some giant viking-type men. There, they bear witness to the vampyric rituals and are forced to remain as vampires, but they must lose their virginity first to become a real vampire.

Like many Jean Rollin films, Requiem pour un Vampire is a very erotic, dreamlike film that utilizes limited dialogue and unlimited sexy French women. . . even though more than a few of them actually do have hairy armpits (I'm not just stereotyping!). Rollin includes more than a few fantastically cool ideas. . . especially the vampire bats that performed oral sex on the captive women. It's very well shot, Rollin's direction is superb in this picture. And, while it does lack a bit in the story, it still maintains a very enjoyable and likable fairytale-like quality. As any fan of this type of erotic horror will tell you, as long as you've got plenty of hot people getting acquainted, some blood, and a pretty setting. . . you're all set. There's really not too much to say about this film other than. . . enjoy it.

Final verdict: 7.5/10.

Vive La France!

-AP3-

REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE is the story of two women named Marie and Michelle (Marie-Pierre Castel and Mireille Dargent), who are on the run after some unknown -until later in the film- event. They're also dressed as clowns. Making their way to a crumbling castle in the countryside, they are besieged by thirsty vampires and their barbarous henchmen.

The first half of the film is nearly dialogue-free, mostly relying on the actions of Marie and Michelle to move things along. In the second half, they are prisoners, spending much of their time naked. A rather slow movie, lovers of action will most likely self-immolate around the 15 minute mark. However, if you enjoy weirdness, this is a feast thereof...

Requiem for a Vampire (1973)

*** (out of 4)

Erotic-horror from French master Jean Rollin about two fugitive girls (Marie-Pierre Castel, Mireille Dargent) who are on the run from the law and end up in a creepy castle where many young women are chained in the basement. The girl's learn that vampires run the castle and they want the two ladies to join the undead since they are virgins. With countless horror and porn titles under his belt, to me this is the best that Rollin has to offer as his art-house style perfectly blends in with the erotic nature of the subject matter and best of all is that the film never once feels too long nor does the pacing have any issues. One might say THE LIVING DEAD GIRL is the best the director has to offer due to how violent and gory it is but I think on the whole this here is the best. I think what works so well is once again that beautiful atmosphere that the director is able to bring. The movie really does feel as if you're watching a nightmare as there's this quiet, still atmosphere that really makes you feel as if you're in the land of the dead. I thought the opening fifteen or twenty-minutes is where the director really works his magic because we see the girls on the run, going through the county side and eventually arriving at this castle. I thought Rollin did a very good job at building up this atmosphere and things just turn downright crazy once the vampire enter the picture. The highlight of the film is a rather long sequence where several of the male vampires go into the basement and attack the women that are chained up. Full nudity galore as this sequence clocks in at nearly ten-minutes and it's nothing more than the men groping the woman and I'm certain this was done so that the male viewers could get more than just a eye-full. This sequence is tinted in this strange pink/rose color and it really adds to the film and the downright surreal nature is just untouched by anything else in the film. The rest of the movie deals with the women trying to decide if they should give in or not and of course there's more violence and nudity. I thought both Castel and Dargent were very good in their roles and the supporting cast isn't too bad either. They're all certainly a lot better than you'd normally see in a film like this. Those unfamiliar with the work of Rollin will probably find this one of the easiest of his films to get into and those just wanting to see some nudity and erotic stuff will find plenty here.

Marie and Michelle are two girls dressed as clowns and on the run from someone with a grudge, this is at least where the film begins with a shoot 'em up car chase through the french countryside. There male companion gets killed in the crossfire and the girls decide to hide out in a seemingly deserted Château where they indulge themselves in some Lesbian sex before they discover they are not alone .The last surviving Vampire and his followers want to enrol the two girls in to the realms of the living dead, but not before they get the girls to lure some fresh blood to the château with the promise of sex.

Rollin's imagery is superb,two wonderfully colourful clowns wandering through barley is quite an exquisite scene,in this often ponderously slow film, the vampires look cool except for some dodgy fangs, there isn't too much of a plot really and I can readily see why some would hate Rollin's work. Rollin seems to my eyes to have his own unique language of film which he sticks to till the bitter end. My main problem with the film is that it was cut to bits, The DVD sleeve said 88mins where in actuality it was a paltry 76mins,IMDB says 95mins so I'm not too sure what I've missed and how badly the continuity was hampered by this, a lot I would guess.Not my last Rollin film,I'll certainly watch some more