Fascination - The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.

Fascination

France 1979. Director: Jean Rollin
Cast: Brigitte Lahaie, Franka Mai, Fanny Magier, Sophie Noel

The pinnacle in the filmography of French surrealist Jean Rollin. He may have done a few more accomplished and more coherent films in his career (although, frankly, probably not) but Fascination is something else.

A poor thief arrives to a big chateau inherited by two beautiful girls (Lahaie and Mai) who are also members on an upper-class bloodsucking cult. He takes advantage of their hospitality but when the rest of the cult members arrives it gets bloody. Simple thing really. Someone could probably make an interesting case about the upper-class sucking out the lower classes, but let's not. Most of Rollin's stories can be written down on the back of a matchbox and for a reason. Rollin always seem to improvise as he goes along, even if he doesn't really, so it's hard to really see any intended method behind his loose style. Other than it is, well, very loose. It's weird, though, it's hard to really nail down what's so great about Fascination. The shoot-out sequences are inept and amateurish, the dialogue is kept to a minimum and we probably shouldn't even mention some of the wardrobe. Nevertheless it's a fantastic film. It would be very easy to stick to clichés here, calling it poetic, artful, romantic, erotic, surreal etc, it's all here among the many scenes of nudity. But there's also something more to it that's hard to put the finger on. And the atmosphere is definitely there. Although ultimately I guess the only usable way to describe it is to call it for what it is. Very Jean Rollin. And Lahaie and Mai makes a lovely couple.

Unfortunately, the film seem to have crashed very badly at the French box-office. Mainly because of the lack of distribution and not, as one could think, because of bad reviews. It was at first intended that the film should open all over Paris, at staggering twelve cinemas simutaneously (very much considering the low budget), but due to the distributor wanting to get back at the production company, they decided to cancel all screenings of the film. It was dispatched into nowhere, later turning up at some small underground cinemas. The career of Jean Rollin in a nut-shell.


	Fascination France 1979. Director: Jean Rollin Cast: Brigitte Lahaie, Franka Mai, Fanny Magier, Sophie Noel The pinnacle in the filmography of French surrealist Jean Rollin. He may have done a few more accomplished and more coherent films in his career (although, frankly, probably not) but Fascination is something else. A poor thief arrives to a big chateau inherited by two beautiful girls (Lahaie and Mai) who are also members on an upper-class bloodsucking cult. He takes advantage of their hospitality but when the rest of the cult members arrives it gets bloody. Simple thing really. Someone could probably make an interesting case about the upper-class sucking out the lower classes, but let's not. Most of Rollin's stories can be written down on the back of a matchbox and for a reason. Rollin always seem to improvise as he goes along, even if he doesn't really, so it's hard to really see any intended method behind his loose style. Other than it is, well, very loose. It's weird, though, it's hard to really nail down what's so great about Fascination. The shoot-out sequences are inept and amateurish, the dialogue is kept to a minimum and we probably shouldn't even mention some of the wardrobe. Nevertheless it's a fantastic film. It would be very easy to stick to clichés here, calling it poetic, artful, romantic, erotic, surreal etc, it's all here among the many scenes of nudity. But there's also something more to it that's hard to put the finger on. And the atmosphere is definitely there. Although ultimately I guess the only usable way to describe it is to call it for what it is. Very Jean Rollin. And Lahaie and Mai makes a lovely couple. Unfortunately, the film seem to have crashed very badly at the French box-office. Mainly because of the lack of distribution and not, as one could think, because of bad reviews. It was at first intended that the film should open all over Paris, at staggering twelve cinemas simutaneously (very much considering the low budget), but due to the distributor wanting to get back at the production company, they decided to cancel all screenings of the film. It was dispatched into nowhere, later turning up at some small underground cinemas. The career of Jean Rollin in a nut-shell. © The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.