Getting close to Halloween, I excitingly got set to open a bottle containing a "new" Jean Rollin film to watch for the first time. Intrigued by reviews making this sound like a somewhat different work from Rollin, I rolled out into dark in order to witness the night of the hunted.
View on the film:
Taking his distinctive dream-logic into the future, writer/directing auteur Jean Rollin & cinematographer Jean-Claude Couty weave Rollin's Gothic Horror motifs with a superbly clinical Sci-Fi edge, landing in long, icy shots down metallic high-rise buildings surrounded by sparse sign of humanity on the ground.
Filmed in just 2 weeks, Rollin skilfully keeps signs of production limitations off-screen when looking into the unblinking eyes of Elysabeth in ravishing close-ups, melting to Rollin's and Couty's beautifully composed wide-shots drawing a rich melancholy atmosphere from the white gown wearing (but in a rare case, vampire free) Elysabeth walking silently towards a misty, fading horizon.
Somehow taking just one day to write (!) the screenplay by Rollin displays little sign of its short creation, with a impeccable character study of Elysabeth. Introducing Elysabeth being on the run from mysterious figures, Rollin continues his major theme of women being the leads, in this case taking a delicate approach to studying Elysabeth's fragile mental state.
Gradually revealing a government cover-up powered by a haunting industrial hum, Rollin lays out the horrifying state of Elysabeth's mind, whose encounter with lover Robert when on the run, and even reuniting with her long-term "flatmate" Veronique, being memories which neither of them can hold, due to the memory loss-illness that they have no control over (similar to Catherine having no control on her blood lust in Rollin's The Living Dead Girl (1982-also reviewed.)
Enchanted with a excellent Dominique Journet as broken eggshell Veronique,Rollin regular Brigitte Lahaie gives a hypnotic performance as Elysabeth, whose clipped dialogue is given depth by Lahaie's brittle, daydream body language and wide started eyes looking out into the night of the hunted.
View on the film:
Taking his distinctive dream-logic into the future, writer/directing auteur Jean Rollin & cinematographer Jean-Claude Couty weave Rollin's Gothic Horror motifs with a superbly clinical Sci-Fi edge, landing in long, icy shots down metallic high-rise buildings surrounded by sparse sign of humanity on the ground.
Filmed in just 2 weeks, Rollin skilfully keeps signs of production limitations off-screen when looking into the unblinking eyes of Elysabeth in ravishing close-ups, melting to Rollin's and Couty's beautifully composed wide-shots drawing a rich melancholy atmosphere from the white gown wearing (but in a rare case, vampire free) Elysabeth walking silently towards a misty, fading horizon.
Somehow taking just one day to write (!) the screenplay by Rollin displays little sign of its short creation, with a impeccable character study of Elysabeth. Introducing Elysabeth being on the run from mysterious figures, Rollin continues his major theme of women being the leads, in this case taking a delicate approach to studying Elysabeth's fragile mental state.
Gradually revealing a government cover-up powered by a haunting industrial hum, Rollin lays out the horrifying state of Elysabeth's mind, whose encounter with lover Robert when on the run, and even reuniting with her long-term "flatmate" Veronique, being memories which neither of them can hold, due to the memory loss-illness that they have no control over (similar to Catherine having no control on her blood lust in Rollin's The Living Dead Girl (1982-also reviewed.)
Enchanted with a excellent Dominique Journet as broken eggshell Veronique,Rollin regular Brigitte Lahaie gives a hypnotic performance as Elysabeth, whose clipped dialogue is given depth by Lahaie's brittle, daydream body language and wide started eyes looking out into the night of the hunted.