THE CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN
Requiem For a Vampire
In contrast to the long talky passages in The Shiver of the Vampires, Rollin's next movie, Requiem for a Vampire (1971; French title: Requiem pour un vampire) contains long, nearly silent episodes. Little dialogue of any importance whatsoever is uttered until late in the movie. This reduced emphasis on dialogue allowed Rollin to focus purely on the visuals, which involve several stunning sights: a woman falls into an open grave and is nearly buried alive, a pair of young women are pursued across fields by a group of animalistic vampires who grunt and pant, an underground vault contains a bevy of kidnapped victims chained to the walls, etc. The plot concerns two women on the run. In the first scene, they are dressed as clowns--who pour gasoline on their fatally wounded accomplice and set him afire. They then wander through the countryside, luring a vendor into the woods with the promise of sex before stealing his wares and setting off again aboard their motorcycle. Marie Pierre Castel and Mireille D'Argent dress like school girls, complete with knee high socks and long braids--but they carry guns and use sex to get what they want. Eventually, they stumble upon a castle, which is inhabited by a coven of vampires. The head vampire is a sad creation known as "The Last Vampire," who would like to use the girls as new blood for his bloodline. But his resolve isn't particularly strong, especially in light of the pathetic muscle-bound brutes who call him master.

Requiem for a Vampire contains one of the most perverse scenes in all of Rollin's cinema: the brutish vampires rape and assault victims chained to the dungeon walls. Rumors persist that Rollin filmed this scene for the financiers, who made no other demands upon him. However, the movie builds dramatically to this scene. Without the scene, the movie contains a gaping hole in its middle. Admittedly, though, the scene looks different than the surrounding scenes--as if it had indeed been filmed separately, with different lighting and different film stock.

Pairs of young women (frequently lesbian lovers) would be featured prominently in many subsequent Rollin movies, including six of the seven movies in this initial salvo of Rollin DVDs.

NEXT PAGE »