Archive for 2011
This is why you don't bring a knife to scythe fight.
Note: this review contains spoilers. Proceed with caution.
According to exploitation legend, the story of Fascination started when Jean Rollin imagined two turn-of-the-century women dancing, and indeed that is the image that opens the film. The women are Elizabeth (Franca Mai) and Eva (Brigitte Lahaie), two of a circle of noblewomen, led by Hélène (Fanny Magier), who have developed a taste for human blood and lure unsuspecting men to their midnight ceremonies. Into their clutches wanders Marc (Jean-Marie Lemaire), a thief on the run from the partners he’s double-crossed. In short, it’s pretty much lesbian vampire story 1A. [...]
Tags: 1970s, Brigitte Lahaie, Evelyne Thomas, Exploitation, Fanny Magier, Franca Mai, Georgie Fromentin, Jacques Marbeuf, Jean Rollin, Jean-Marie Lemaire, Lesbian Horror, LGBT, Muriel Montossé, Sophie Noël, Vampire
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"I wear the beard, it does not wear me."
The Diamond Age is a, somewhat indirect, sequel to Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel, Snow Crash, which explored a world where nation-states had broken down and been replaced by distributed republics called “Franchise Oriented Quasi-National Entities” (FOQNEs)—autonomous enclaves run as franchises of some corporation, party, or ideal, e.g. “Narcolombia” (the Medellin cartel), “CosaNostra Pizza” (the mafia), and so on. The plot concerned a memetic virus modelled on the Sumerian concept of me—a sort of programming language for human brains. [...]
Tags: 1990s, Cyberpunk, Neal Stephenson, Science Fiction
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"Cross-o-gram? Oh, yes. Very droll."
This review contains spoilers. Caveat lector.
So, The Nude Vampire: Dr Radamante (Maurice Lemaître) and his colleagues (Bernard Musson, Jean Aron) are evil scientists (is there any other kind), holding a young woman they believe to be a vampire (Caroline Cartier) hostage. For some reason, their plan involves a suicide cult, people in animal masks, interpretive dance, and girls in strange costumes. I’m sure it would have all played into their master plan, except before it can come to fruition, the vampire girl escapes, right into the arms of Radamante’s son, Pierre (Olivier Rollin). She’s recaptured, but not before piquing young Pierre’s curiosity. [...]
Tags: 1970s, Bernard Musson, Caroline Cartier, Exploitation, Jean Aron, Jean Rollin, Jean-Jacques Renon, Maurice Lemaître, Michel Delahaye, S.H. Mosti, Ursule Pauly, Vampire
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"You know, you should really think about getting a flatscreen; prices are lower than ever."
Reviewed from a screener. Oh, and the review contains spoilers.
What we have here is basically a standard film noir, only told in about 8 minutes, with the on-screen action boiled down to one scene: a man named Judd (Eric Schneier) kills a woman called Lolita (Christy Scott-Cashman). This scene is bookended by two telephone conversations that are played over the opening and closing credits. The conversations both involve Buchanan (Mark Grant), talking first with Judd and then with his wife, Daisy (Jennifer McCartney), who had been having an affair with Lolita. Apparently, Judd is after the money Lolita scammed off Daisy, but runs into trouble in the form of Buchanan’s head of security, Bartlesby (Angel Connell). This leads to Judd killing Lolita (the only on-screen action), followed by the police gunning down Judd. [...]
Tags: 2010s, Angel Connell, Christy Scott-Cashman, Drama, Eric Schneier, Hyper-Real, Jennifer McCartney, Mark Grant, Matthew Wagenknecht
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Yeah, that's about as dressed as Countess Karlstein (Lina Romay) gets.
Jess Franco has never really been one for tight plotting, which he proves yet again in 1973′s Female Vampire. Franco himself (under one of his many pen-names, Jess Franck) stars as Dr Roberts, a pathologist investigating a series of murders he, quite rightly, believes are being perpetrated by a vampire. Franco’s muse, Lina Romay in one of her first starring roles, plays Countess Irina Karlstein, a vampire who walks around naked and kills some people. Our leading man is Jack Taylor who plays — I dunno, a poet? He doesn’t really do much for the first hour of the film, except trim his moustache and wax philosophical in voice-over. He does have a handsome moustache, though. That’s really all the plot there is. [...]
Tags: 1970s, Exploitation, Jack Taylor, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou, Jess Franco, Lina Romay, Vampire
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Isabelle (Ovidie) and the winged spirit (Sabine Lenoël)
Unlike Jess Franco, who — as regular readers will remember — has regressed as director, Jean Rollin seems to have quietly grown into an accomplished auteur. His penultimate film, La nuit des horloges (“the night of the clocks”), is an artistic tour de force and by far the best Rollin film I’ve seen. Indeed, by far the best exploitation film I’ve seen in a long while. [...]
Tags: 2000s, Exploitation, Françoise Blanchard, Jean Rollin, Jean-Loup Philippe, Maurice Lemaître, Natalie Perrey, Ovidie, Sabine Lenoël, Sandrine Thoquet, Simone Rollin, Vampire
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