FASCINATION

I've seen many Jean Rollin films in my lifetime. FASCINATION is the only one that approaches "good". Like the majority of his filmography, FASCINATION is more concerned with skin than horror, visual splendor over narrative but it has a definite pull, a kind of beautiful gravity that lends an air of intrigue to the proceedings. In some ways, it is Rollin's most mature film. Gone are the "just because I can" moments of weirdness that polluted THE IRON ROSE, GRAPES OF DEATH, THE LIVING DEAD GIRL and ZOMBIE LAKE. In their place are scenes of light humor, unexpected emotion and eerie calm.


Jean Rollin Fascination

Set in 1916, FASCINATION stars Jean-Marie Lemaire as a charming young thief who seeks shelter in a chateau in the French countryside after ripping off his band of thuggish cohorts. He meets two young maidservants - played by the impossibly beautiful duo of Brigitte Lahaie and Franca Mai - who are keeping an eye on the place while the owners are away for the week. At first, the two young women are unusually playful. A little later, their advances become much more sexually flirtatious. After being seduced by Lahaie - who also manages to take apart the entire posse of thieves with a rather large scythe - Mai tells Lemaire that he must be gone before midnight. Lemaire, his interest stoked by the women's refusal to elaborate on the night's events, decides to stay, eventually coming face to face with a group of beautiful women who have a rather unusual taste for blood.


Brigitte Lahaie Fascination

FASCINATION is not a vampire film, though it's villains crave the blood of eager young men. Like many of Rollin's films, it is a tone poem. It contains just enough narrative and plot to keep the story moving forward but it is more concerned with stringing together scenes of beauty and intrigue than anything resembling Gothic horror. Whole scenes play out lazily with the camera moving slowly from point of interest to point of interest, allowing the viewer to soak in the melancholic surroundings, the meticulous costuming, the beautiful actors. We are never rushed into figuring out the scene we are watching. Rollin simply allows them to unfold, slowly or quickly depending on the circumstances, requiring us only to watch, to absorb, to soak in the richness of the visuals. When the film does turn the corner into horror, we are not presented with graphic bloodshed or explicit violence. Instead, we are treated to beautiful women in see-through gowns moving through the strong wind on a barely lighted bridge. Even these scenes of violence have an ethereal quality to them, a strange kind of beauty.


Franca Mai Fascination

Unusual for a Rollin film, FASCINATION is rather well-acted. Both Lahaie and Mai are amazingly easy on the eyes and both have a raw sexuality to them - little wonder in that as Lahaie made a name for herself in hardcore pornography - that makes the kinkier scenes genuinely erotic. Lemaire has all the queasy charm of a French lothario. Granted these are not challenging roles but the effort and dedication of the actors helps make FASCINATION a pleasure to watch. However, the show belongs to Rollin and here he creates a singular piece of work that stands above his more tired and Surrealistic films. I am not a fan of Rollin's work and never have been. I went into FASCINATION with the expectation of skin, sex and little else. I was pleasantly surprised every step of the way. It is not a masterpiece but it just may be Rollin's masterpiece, a real Eurotrash beauty that I will return to again in the future.


Recommended.