Getting set to order Sergio Martino's directing debut Wages of Sin (1969-also reviewed) I decided to take a look at the other latest titles the DVD seller had listed on the site. Being enchanted by his creations since first glimpsing Fascination (1979-also reviewed) I was excited to spot auteur Jean Rollin's final work on the site,leading to me paying my respects.
View on the film:
Making the curtain call just thirteen months before his passing, writer/directing auteur Jean Rollin brilliantly places his body of work within the context of the history of Horror on stage and screen in France.
Floating the camera with debut cinematographer Benoit Torti towards Meduse on a silent Grand-Guignol theate stage filled with fading posters and photos of events held at the venue in the past, Rollin impressively transforms the surreal dream-logic atmosphere which has ran across his credits, into a eerie,more avant-garde mood.
Hypnotising the audience with Meduse (played by Rollin's wife Simone, who is given unflattering hard close-ups, but also surprisingly well done snake hair special effects) Rollin locks eyes on a deconstruction of the earliest forms of Horror fiction, from Greek theatre statues that bleed and tear up forever, to wooden sculptures wrapped in the spirit of ancient enemies.
Completing a theme which he had been building since The Night of the Hunted & The Living Dead Girl (1980 & 1982-both also reviewed) the screenplay by Rollin thoughtfully goes behind the monstrous mask of Meduse, to gaze at Meduse's repulsion on being a murderer who can't stop the condition rotting away at her heart to kill again, as Rollin presents his final portrait of Meduse, as a living dead girl.
View on the film:
Making the curtain call just thirteen months before his passing, writer/directing auteur Jean Rollin brilliantly places his body of work within the context of the history of Horror on stage and screen in France.
Floating the camera with debut cinematographer Benoit Torti towards Meduse on a silent Grand-Guignol theate stage filled with fading posters and photos of events held at the venue in the past, Rollin impressively transforms the surreal dream-logic atmosphere which has ran across his credits, into a eerie,more avant-garde mood.
Hypnotising the audience with Meduse (played by Rollin's wife Simone, who is given unflattering hard close-ups, but also surprisingly well done snake hair special effects) Rollin locks eyes on a deconstruction of the earliest forms of Horror fiction, from Greek theatre statues that bleed and tear up forever, to wooden sculptures wrapped in the spirit of ancient enemies.
Completing a theme which he had been building since The Night of the Hunted & The Living Dead Girl (1980 & 1982-both also reviewed) the screenplay by Rollin thoughtfully goes behind the monstrous mask of Meduse, to gaze at Meduse's repulsion on being a murderer who can't stop the condition rotting away at her heart to kill again, as Rollin presents his final portrait of Meduse, as a living dead girl.