The Iron Rose
1973 Directed by Jean Rollin
Synopsis
A young couple out for a walk decide to take a stroll through a large cemetery. As darkness begins to fall they realize they can't find their way out, and soon their fears begin to overtake them.
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The esoteric yet entrancing B-movies of Jean Rollin are grotesquely lewd works of art that’s got this stilted creepiness to them which I can’t get enough of. His films are dreamy juxtapositions of sex and horror, basically trash cinema for the art house crowd. If I can make a point of comparison, I’d say his style is reminiscent of Jesus Franco by way of Carl Theodor Dreyer, you know just the right blend of licentious decadence and macabre poetry. The usual qualities of a Rollin film are found in The Iron Rose, one of the few non-vampire movies he’s made and, interestingly, a chamber piece at that as it features two main players, set primarily in one location. It’s Rollin’s…
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One of the best films ever.
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Rollin a indéniablement un oeil de cinéaste. Certaines de ses images, toujours d'une grande simplicité, sont très fortes et son style naturaliste, presque austère, est le bienvenu dans un genre (l'horreur) qui favorise l'artifice et le spectacle. Mais dans ce cas-ci, comme ses personnages, il ne sait où aller, perdu et cherchant en vain une base solide à laquelle s'agripper.
Nous suivons un couple s'enfoncer dans un magnifique cimetière ancestral où une végétation hirsute tente d'avaler des croix de fer, des cryptes en décrépitude et d'immenses pierres tombales. En une nuit l'homme et la femme se perdent, se chamaillent, se réconcilient, s'éloignent, se rapprochent, se tripotent dans un lit d'ossements humains, deviennent fous, font n'importe quoi sans qu'aucune motivation ne…
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Visible matte box. Encounter, passage. Mic shadow. Clown, cemetery, distant siren….that’s a bingo. Mesmeric undulations of muscle under skin. Trusting one’s instincts versus their observations. The familiar becomes alien. Spinning camera moves. Deteriorating mental state and wardrobe. Purgatory. The speed with which night’s spell is broken is rather jarring, as it should be.
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I can tell that those more well-versed in Rollin's catalog find "The Iron Rose" to be one of his best efforts. I only have one other movie in his filmography to compare it to - the dreamy, masterful "Requiem For a Vampire" - and I felt this one came up woefully short.
"Iron Rose" feels like a case of a filmmaker having a minimal budget but a great location: Rollin shoots the hell out of his cemetery setting and it looks great from any angle, bathed in moonlight and fog. But the film's basic premise - a couple becomes lost in a graveyard and can't find their way out - is literally all there is to the movie. This is a film in search of a story or any means of conflict. Instead we get two (overly) energetic actors scrambling between sepulchers and headstones for 80 minutes.
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Slow, odd, existential not-really-a-horror film despite what the box art and IMDb listing suggest from Jean Rollin. A poet meets a girl at a wedding. They have a bicycle date, and then the boy suggests that they go for a walk inside the cemetery. After making love in a crypt (no, really), they find that it has become dark and they cannot find their way out of the maze-like cemetery. Then things get weird, as the boy becomes increasingly paranoid about finding the way out, and the girl becomes a bit unhinged.
Not bad, not amazing, and glacially slow, but the performances are very good, particularly Francoise Pascal as the odd, possibly insane girl. In short, it's an early Jean Rollin film, so you should pretty much know what you are getting, though it has less nudity than a lot of his other stuff.
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The esoteric yet entrancing B-movies of Jean Rollin are grotesquely lewd works of art that’s got this stilted creepiness to them which I can’t get enough of. His films are dreamy juxtapositions of sex and horror, basically trash cinema for the art house crowd. If I can make a point of comparison, I’d say his style is reminiscent of Jesus Franco by way of Carl Theodor Dreyer, you know just the right blend of licentious decadence and macabre poetry. The usual qualities of a Rollin film are found in The Iron Rose, one of the few non-vampire movies he’s made and, interestingly, a chamber piece at that as it features two main players, set primarily in one location. It’s Rollin’s…
-
I can tell that those more well-versed in Rollin's catalog find "The Iron Rose" to be one of his best efforts. I only have one other movie in his filmography to compare it to - the dreamy, masterful "Requiem For a Vampire" - and I felt this one came up woefully short.
"Iron Rose" feels like a case of a filmmaker having a minimal budget but a great location: Rollin shoots the hell out of his cemetery setting and it looks great from any angle, bathed in moonlight and fog. But the film's basic premise - a couple becomes lost in a graveyard and can't find their way out - is literally all there is to the movie. This is a film in search of a story or any means of conflict. Instead we get two (overly) energetic actors scrambling between sepulchers and headstones for 80 minutes.
-
Rollin a indéniablement un oeil de cinéaste. Certaines de ses images, toujours d'une grande simplicité, sont très fortes et son style naturaliste, presque austère, est le bienvenu dans un genre (l'horreur) qui favorise l'artifice et le spectacle. Mais dans ce cas-ci, comme ses personnages, il ne sait où aller, perdu et cherchant en vain une base solide à laquelle s'agripper.
Nous suivons un couple s'enfoncer dans un magnifique cimetière ancestral où une végétation hirsute tente d'avaler des croix de fer, des cryptes en décrépitude et d'immenses pierres tombales. En une nuit l'homme et la femme se perdent, se chamaillent, se réconcilient, s'éloignent, se rapprochent, se tripotent dans un lit d'ossements humains, deviennent fous, font n'importe quoi sans qu'aucune motivation ne…
-
Visible matte box. Encounter, passage. Mic shadow. Clown, cemetery, distant siren….that’s a bingo. Mesmeric undulations of muscle under skin. Trusting one’s instincts versus their observations. The familiar becomes alien. Spinning camera moves. Deteriorating mental state and wardrobe. Purgatory. The speed with which night’s spell is broken is rather jarring, as it should be.
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One of the best films ever.
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Solid story, very atmospheric. I liked it.