31 Performances Ripe for Rediscovery (13) Theresa Russell in BAD TIMING (WITH A GUEST CONTRIBUTION FROM DEREK HILL)

"I'm not ambitious, not an artist, not a poet, not a revolutionary."

Of the most baffling and head-scratching bad reviews Roger Ebert ever gave a great film, few are as perplexing as his panning of Nicolas Roeg's 1980 masterpiece Bad Timing.  Of course, Ebert wasn't the only critic who hated this incredible film but his critique of it was extremely harsh.  Despite his deep hatred of the film, even Ebert couldn't deny the brilliance of Theresa Russell's performance for Roeg and he ended his review with this:

"If there is any reason to see this film, however, it is the performance by Theresa Russell (who was Dustin Hoffman's lover in "Straight Time"). She is only 22 or 23, and yet her performance is astonishingly powerful. She will be in better films, I hope, and is the only participant who need not be ashamed of this one."

Bad Timing finally got its due a few years back when Criterion released their tremendous special edition of it, a move which finally allowed the film to find the audience it had so long deserved.  The film's re-release also served as a reminder to the astonishing talent of Theresa Russell, as daring and provocative as any actor we have had in English film in the past several decades.  While it is quite tragic that Russell has spent most of her career languishing in roles not suited at all for her considerable talents we can celebrate the few filmmakers who recognized just how special she is, with Nicolas Roeg remaining the artist who gave her the most memorable roles of her career.

I was initially going to write more on Theresa here but honestly the guest contribution that my friend, author and film-historian, Derek Hill sums up so much of what I feel and think about her I will just go ahead and leave you with his stirring words.  Hopefully some of you remember the Q&A I did with Derek awhile back here at Moon in the Gutter, and hopefully even more of you have read his marvelous book Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood's Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers: An Excursion Into the American New Wave.  Thanks so much to Derek for writing these lovely words for Moon in the Gutter about one of our mutual favorite actors:

Derek Hill on Theresa Russell in Bad Timing, 2012-

Theresa Russell's performance in Bad Timing is as formidable and memorable as anything Brando gave us. Now, bear with me. The two are obviously different in their approaches to acting. Their methodology, technique, and range are wildly dissimilar. Brando was trained and Russell wasn't. She seems awkward in front of the camera at times, unsure of herself and she sparks with naturalistic rawness. She's combustible and we're never sure what she'll do next. That's exciting in a movie like Bad Timing, where she plays a character, Milena, who is pure chaotic attraction. She's the mythic femme fatale, but Russell thoroughly humanizes her, stripping her from the trappings of cliché and making her identifiable to anyone who has ever been consumed by a woman like her or to any woman who is her. Roeg isn't interested in sustaining genre conventions (the story incorporates elements of the spy, mystery, romance, and noir genres) and Russell has no interest portraying Milena as a traditional vixen anyway. Russell is fearless in the role, and in that respect, she's brave. As brave as Brando in Last Tango in Paris. As brave as any actor who risked it all for their craft. She remarkably makes acting heroic, and that's a rare thing because relinquishing one's ego for the good of the movie is easier done in theory than in actuality. 

Bad Timing isn't an easy movie to experience. It shouldn't be. Although it's entrancing to watch, we are ultimately observing a story about an intense sexual relationship fraying and destroying the two people involved in it. We are watching a personal apocalypse. Roeg has quite a few brilliant movies on his resume—Performance (co-directed with Donald Cammell), Walkabout, Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Eureka. For me, however, this one cuts the deepest, the one that has embedded in me with a fierce, mysterious power over the years. Much of that is due to Russell. 

I love to watch actors take a leap into the unknown. I love going into the mystery with them.  

--Derek Hill

31 Performances Ripe for Rediscovery (18) Annabella Sciorra in MR. JEALOUSY

"What would you do if I bit your face right now suddenly?"

You know the way people gush and go on and on about Audrey Hepburn in the sixties?  That's kind of the way I feel about Annabella Sciorra in the nineties.  I always wished that someone like Woody Allen or Nora Ephron would build a series of endearing romantic comedies around her tapping into her incredible warm wit or that Abel Ferrara would finally give her the lead in one of his films instead of just granting her one scene-stealing supporting role after another.  Those cinematic wishes were never granted which is one reason that I am so grateful to Noah Baumbach, because he is one of the few directors who actually gave Annabella the kind of part she so richly deserved, that of the unforgettable Ramona Ray in his sadly often overlooked charmer of a film Mr. Jealousy.  

I fall immediately back in love with Annabella Sciorra every time I watch Mr. Jealously.  From the first time we see her fixing her hair to the strains of Luna's haunting score to the film's final images where we are greeted to her unforgettable smile one final time, I am just totally transfixed with each and every viewing.  There is so much grace and style in Sciorra's work and she's so utterly sublime in Mr. Jealousy. 

The truly great actors can say it all without saying a word and I love the way Sciorra listens in Mr. Jealousy.    Baumback gives most of the film's dialogue to Eric Stoltz's uber neurotic title-character but it is Sciorra who we really hear throughout the film.  Annabella is one of the most expressive actors I have ever seen which is why she could portray both charm and menace (check out her jolting work in Ferrara's The Addiction) so incredibly well...she is an absolute master at showing us what she is thinking and understanding.  

Noah Baumbach has I suppose made better and more accomplished films that Mr. Jealousy but it remains my absolute favorite film he has signed off on and most of that is due to Annabella Sciorra's lovely performance.  The film can be found in many a bargain-bin as it has never found the audience it deserves but I have to believe that I am not the only one who has fallen under the very bewitching spell that Annabella Sciorra casts as Ramona Ray.  

Annabella Sciorra continues to work regularly in film and television, and on the stage, and she continues to haunt my fevered cinematic dreams no matter how small the role.  I kind of adore her...

-Jeremy Richey, 2012-

A Moon in the Gutter Q&A With Author Jill C. Nelson

I am extremely pleased this morning to present this new Q&A I recently had the great fortune to conduct with author Jill C. Nelson, whose new book Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985 was just published. I first discovered Jill's amazing work a few years back when I read the excellent work she co-authored with Jennifer Sugar, John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches, one of the most fascinating books I have read in recent memory. Jill's new book is just as incredible (I will have a look at it here in the upcoming weeks) and I am honored that she agreed to take some time out of her busy schedule to participate in this interview. So give us a read, drop a comment and then order both of her books...here we go!

Hi Jill! Thanks so much for stopping by Moon in the Gutter to participate in my ongoing Q&A series. I am huge fan of the book you co-authored with Jennifer Sugar, JOHN HOLMES: A LIFE MEASURED IN INCHES and absolutely love your new work GOLDEN GODDESSES. To start off can you tell us where you are from originally and a bit about your background?
Hi Jeremy. Thank you so much for inviting me to participate in your ongoing series, I appreciate having the opportunity to discuss both books. It’s great that you enjoyed Inches and I’m happy to know you are enjoying Goddesses. 
I grew up in Burlington, Ontario, in Canada. Burlington is situated on one of Canada’s picturesque Great Lakes, Lake Ontario. It’s a friendly community, and I definitely appreciate it far more now that I’m approaching my mid-fifties than I probably did as a teenager.
     My father was from a town called Hamilton (about six miles west of Burlington). While I was growing up, and for a period of ten years, he was a Big Band leader (Gav Morton) at a former downtown nightclub called The Brant Inn. He played saxophone and clarinet, and arranged all of the band’s musical compositions. He also taught musical theory and arranging as a sideline. In his youth, he played with all the great Canadian Big Bands such as Mart Kenney and Bert Niosi, and travelled across country performing in dance halls and clubs. He actually quit high school at age sixteen to run off and join a band much to his parents’ dismay. This was in 1932. During his later years, and after leaving the music business behind, he opened up a Men’s wear store here in Burlington.
     My mother is French-Canadian originally from a pretty, little town called North Hatley, in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. She met my dad when he was on the road playing with the Mart Kenney Orchestra in Sherbrooke. She asked him for his autograph and six weeks later, they were married. My mother has also done some vocal work over the years. I would have to say that both of my parents and my two older brothers have had a great influence on my life in the area of the arts – music, art, and writing.
     Upon graduating high school and for a period of about four years, I travelled a fair bit to the west and east coasts of Canada, and to the west coast of the United States. I consider Southern California as my second home because I’ve visited there many times. I absolutely love the mild, dry climate, and I also have relatives and friends living there which is another reason I return often.
     After leading somewhat of a nomadic lifestyle, I married my husband in 1978 (we have two grown children), and attended college here in Southern Ontario. I graduated in 1981 as a Hearing Instrument Specialist. In 1986, I opened my own Hearing Care clinic in Hamilton, Ontario. A couple of years later, my best girlfriend joined me and we operated the clinic together until we sold it in the spring 2008, the same year that A Life Measured in Inches was published. I have stayed on in the clinic working three days a week which has enabled me to establish an ideal balance between researching/writing the two books, family and working. I feel I have the best of all worlds.

I know that the oral history on John Holmes that you co-wrote was your first published work. I’m curious about some of your early influences that got you first interested in both journalism and film.
    
       My eldest brother, who died in a horseback riding accident in 1992, was a writer and a painter, apart from his day job. I spent a good deal of time with him when I was a young girl and teenager and he definitely influenced my tastes in literature, art, film and music. Actually, I’ve come to realize in recent years that he was my mentor. I’ve always been an avid reader and as a high school English student, I enjoyed dissecting novels, writing essays and discussing the meaning of books and films. I was told by teachers that I had an ability to effectively reflect the heart of a story in my writing and I very much reveled in the challenge of character analysis, breakdown, and attempting to understand the message that an author or a filmmaker was striving to convey. Some of my favorite authors growing up and during my younger years (and even today) were John Irving, J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemmingway, Jack Kerouac, and Anne Marie McDonald to name only a handful. I admired the work of filmmakers such as Alan Parker, Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppola and Michael Cimino. Simultaneously, I have always been fascinated by pop culture and pop culture anti-heroes. Apart from my own personal interest, I have no formal education in the areas of writing, journalism, or a background in film. I wish I could say that I have, but it’s not so.

Before we get to GOLDEN GODDESSES I wanted to chat a bit about your wonderful work on Holmes, as it is easily one of the most fascinating biographies in recent memory. Can you tell us a bit about what all went into co-authoring the book and just how challenging was it writing about a man who constantly blurred the line between reality and fiction in his own life?

     I think a lot of people are now aware that in 2005, the book’s originator and my co-author (Jennifer Sugar) and I “met” on a message board for the film Wonderland. In a nutshell, the film is the story surrounding the robbery of nightclub owner Ed Nash that John had helped to orchestrate, which led to the homicides of four people involved in the Wonderland gang. The gang had resided in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles in the summer of 1981. After Jennifer and I met on the board, we began emailing one another back and forth and she told me she was working on a biography about John Holmes. At the time, Jennifer was in her early twenties and completing a degree in math and I was kind of flabbergasted that she had decided to take on a book of this magnitude, particularly without a background in writing. After gauging my interest in the story, and upon realizing just how much material there was to draw from and the sheer amount of work involved, about a year later she invited me to be her collaborator. It was interesting and exciting working with Jennifer because I think given the twenty-five year span in our ages and living in different counties, not to mention the fact we both had next to nil knowledge about the adult film industry or a background in writing, we each brought something unique and fresh to the project. Like me, Jennifer also enjoyed writing for personal interest, and together, we believed we could present the John Holmes story in a new light while decidedly staying away from stereotypes about John or sensationalized viewpoints. We shared a desire to tell his entire life story in a concise and fair manner by utilizing our own interview material, in conjunction with augmented material and resources. We discovered that John was indeed a chameleon and he definitely fabricated outlandish tales to heighten his marketability and likeability, but also, he was a very smart and rather crafty man who let people know in subtle ways -- and not so subtle ways -- that he was joking about many of the embellishments for which he is known. If you’ve watched the 1981 documentary, “Exhausted,” made by director Julia St. Vincent, you can see the sparkle in his eyes when he’s answering her questions. John would have been a tremendous salesman had he entered into another line of work. Because there were many contradictions from person to person, and from story to story, Jennifer and I decided that the only way to accurately tell John’s story was to allow everyone who had known him to have their say. That’s what we did which is why the book is an oral history.

Holmes was obviously an extremely complicated man with many demons but I admired so much how you and Sugar managed to capture his human side. After spending so many years researching his life and watching his work how did you finally end up feeling about John Holmes as a man and a cultural icon?

     We are proud that we were able to provide a true and well-rounded picture of John by using his own words and the words of the people who had liked, loved, known or worked with him. I’ve often said because John is dead, it almost gives people carte blanche to say or write whatever they choose to say or write about him because he is no longer here to concur or refute their words, which isn’t really fair but it’s life. That’s not to say that John didn’t participate in some heinous things or that he didn’t conduct himself in a despicable fashion during certain periods of his life, but it became evident while talking with people that there were two distinct individuals: John Holmes - before his descent into cocaine and freebase, and John Holmes - after his descent into chemical addiction. Anyone who has experienced or who is educated about cocaine’s affects on the brain after incessant and prolonged use, or who understands the long-term effects of addiction to drugs and/or alcohol might be better equipped to comprehend some of John’s motives and actions. It certainly doesn’t excuse his behavior, but it does help one to gain better insight.
     A part of me feels sad about John because like many other tragic cultural icons, I think he became a victim of his own lack of self-control and demise. I honestly believe that if he’d had a more nurturing upbringing or a better support system, he might have chosen differently for his life’s vocation. In hindsight, the 60s, 70s, and 80s decades were a much different time, so it’s hard to compare apples and oranges in that respect. As much as he enjoyed the lifestyle and the money during his early-mid years in the adult industry, from talking to various people, I do think he felt unfulfilled and underappreciated after a while. I am glad for him though that in the last years leading up to his death, he was able to enjoy a ready-made family with his widow Laurie and her son. There is a rather nice photograph in the second edition of “Inches” that shows Laurie’s son in his Halloween costume when he was a little boy and John had meticulously applied his clown makeup. John did enjoy being a family man and pursuing outdoor hobbies like hiking and fishing. He was also talented in the areas of woodworking and other facets of art. I think that deep down everyone wants to be able to live a normal life and to appreciate the little things that are really the most important things in life. Regarding his legacy in the adult industry, I think his record stands for itself: John’s worst films outsold the best films of the most popular female performers of the day. Apart from that, I do believe for whatever reason, John had the “it” factor.

Finally, after publishing the Holmes book you and Sugar got a great deal of justified acclaim. Was there anything said or written about your work that meant perhaps the most to you (whether it came from a reader, critic or someone that knew Holmes)?

     I think that Jennifer would agree that some of the most gratifying feedback we received about the book came from people who had been a part of John’s life. After finishing the book in one sitting, John’s godson, Sean Amerson, wrote to us and commended us for painting John in a fair light. Although we’d interviewed Sean for the biography, he had been concerned that we were going to trash John and so he was pleasantly surprised upon his discovery that we had shown the good, the bad, and the ugly – all sides. John had been Sean’s savior growing up so he was most appreciative of our efforts. Likewise, Laurie Holmes thanked us for taking the time to do our own research about John’s life and career in detail rather than relying on the existing information out there, so that we were able to present the whole of his life in a comprehensive and balanced book. You can’t buy that kind of praise, so we felt we truly succeeded in our objective to produce a succinct and definitive book.
     From a critical standpoint, I think the essay that Australian writer and film critic, Robert Cettl, wrote about “Inches” for his website Wider Screenings is a very nice feather in our caps. He had been quite anxious to review the book but we certainly did not count on the wonderful and extremely thorough piece he composed. We both felt that Cettl’s serious approach to the biography definitely did our work justice.

Excellent, now onto GOLDEN GODDESSES. Tell us about this upcoming book and how the idea for it came about.

    

About a year after Inches was published, I started considering the women we had interviewed and it seemed to me that it would be interesting to explore their lives and careers further. It just really felt right and like a natural next step for me to take as a writer. One of my concerns also was that their history be documented before some of the ladies passed away. Marilyn Chambers, who we had interviewed for Inches, had already passed in the spring of 2009 and I knew that some of the others like Georgina Spelvin and Gloria Leonard were quickly approaching or were already in their seventies. The nice thing is that we’d already established a connection with several of the females so I knew I wouldn’t be starting completely from scratch. By this time, Jennifer had graduated from school, started working full time and got married so Goddesses became my own project although she did write the foreword for my book which is great.
     Golden Goddesses highlights twenty-five female personalities from the classic or “golden age” of adult films that began their careers sometime between the years 1968-1985. The book begins at the onset of hardcore and ends at the start of the video-age. Most of the women featured were/are performers but I’ve also put the spotlight on directors, screenwriters and costumers. A couple of the ladies had worked in different capacities in the industry so it was interesting to reveal the different hats they wore. Each chapter tells of their childhood years, their careers in adult, and concludes with the present day. The book also incorporates film reviews throughout that are written by me, and a treasure trove of amazing and beautiful photographs. I should add there is a section at the end of the book titled “Honorable Mentions” featuring fifteen additional women who were integral to the golden era. I’ve written a synopsis on each one in conjunction with a photo, so all in all, the book celebrates forty women of the classic adult film era. I’m very excited about this project and I hope that readers will enjoy it as much as I have writing and weaving everything together.

I’m amazed by all of the wonderful actors you managed to interview for this book. How long did it take you to assemble and conduct all these interviews and edit them for publication?

     Overall, it took me approximately three years to assemble, conduct the interviews, and edit them for publication. Using the same premise we’d used for “Inches,” I have to admit, I tried not to edit too much of the actual interview material mostly because I knew this might be the first, only, or final time some of the females would have this kind of opportunity to  enjoy the limelight on this scale. I wanted to be sure that each interviewee was able to share whatever happened to be on her mind without fear that an important point or thought might be edited out. At the same time, I used a set list of questions – the same ones for everyone and then some that were curtailed specifically to an individual’s life or career. All of the interviews were conducted over the telephone, by skype, or by email except for one in-person interview with Seka which I did in Montreal in the fall of 2009. She was my first. Although I didn’t get to speak face-to-face with the majority of my interview subjects during the recordings, I did make a point after the fact of spending time with many of the women in person so that I could write an anecdote at the end of each chapter. I really wanted that personal touch.

Of all the ladies you interviewed were there any that were particularly difficult to track down and were there any that you really wanted to include that you weren’t able to?

     For the most part, I was able to track down everyone without too much difficulty that made it into the book. Again, I had already made some contacts via “Inches” but once it got out that I was doing a book of this type, word of mouth enabled me to set interview dates with several of the others. For example, after I interviewed Seka, she told some of her friends about the book. Suddenly, I started receiving emails from Seka’s network of friends and contemporaries affirming their interest. Considering that I am not a professional writer, I was very fortunate. I have to attribute some of that good fortune though to the critical success of Inches.
     Most definitely, there were specific people I had hoped to interview for the book but for several reasons they either declined, or they were not available, or there were other circumstances making it so that they weren’t able to participate. Vanessa del Rio is one I had hoped to interview but it just wasn’t in the stars. Mai Lin is another because we’d had several telephone conversations and she was very keen to talk, but in the end, it didn’t work out. As you are probably aware or can imagine with respect to adult performers, there are often negative situations and connotations at play that can conversely affect or compromise an individual’s desire to speak about their history in sex films apart from the reality that some of them are quite happy to leave their pasts behind. I completely understand and respect that. It is that same stigma however, which made working on a book of this nature so intriguing and compelling.

I know from following the book’s blog that GOLDEN GODDESSES is going to be as moving as it is informative. Was there anyone in particular you sat down with whose personal journey touched you the most?

     That’s a very good question. I can say unequivocally that Rhonda Jo Petty’s story touched me a great deal on a lot of levels. Rhonda is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who suffered extreme abuse at the hands of her father as a young girl and teenager. I remember while I was transcribing her interview I had tears rolling down my cheeks and even while proofing her chapter her story had the same impact on me. Like so many of the others, Rhonda has overcome a number of obstacles in her life, but her candid description of her volatile relationship with her father really moved me when I started to develop her chapter. I admire her for working through her feelings today so that she can find forgiveness for her father. To be fair, I have known Rhonda for five years now and throughout two books, so I know her better than I do some of the other women. Still, she is very down to earth and unpretentious to a fault. In truth, not only is Rhonda’s story moving, but I believe that each chapter has elements that will hopefully resonate with readers and remind them that these ladies are vulnerable yet strong human beings. Sure, they might not have won a Nobel Peace Prize or discovered a cure for cancer but in their own way, they have left a footprint in the history books as pioneers and feminists for bucking the system and staying true to their hearts.

Wonderful.  With Golden Goddesses now released, is there anything else you would like to say about it for potential readers?

     I’ve seen the first pass and I have to say, BearManor Media has done an outstanding job with the layout and configuration.  I am planning an official launch of “Goddesses” in either November or December in Los Angeles with some of the ladies planning to attend, so there will be more news on that event once we have things finalized.
     One advantage regarding Golden Goddesses which with a little luck will become a collectible for vintage film fans is that because the book consists of twenty-five key personalities not to mention legendary women, there should be someone or something for everyone’s tastes. The book is presented in a chronological format but it doesn’t have to be read that way. My hope is that readers will embrace the women and their stories and gain a greater understanding of their lives and loves.

With the epic GOLDEN GODDESSES complete are you going to take a little breather or are you already planning another book?

     I am planning on taking a long breather now that the book is finished. It’s been a busy six years working on two books back-to-back so I’d really like to rest up a little and spend the next couple of years promoting Golden Goddesses and ensuring that it receives the TLC every new book release requires. I do enjoy the promo process so I’m looking forward to that. I have a couple of ideas in mind for future projects, but for now, I’m going to sit back and savor the satisfaction of having completed my first solo writing project while spending time with family and friends.
     I really appreciate the invitation to participate in this Q&A for your blog, Jeremy, and I’ll look forward to staying in touch once the book becomes available. Thank you.
    
I wish you all the best of luck with GOLDEN GODDESSES and all of your future work. I look forward to continue reading and writing on the book and really appreciate you stopping by and giving us a little preview. Thanks again and all the best Jill!

***For more information on Jill and her work, please visit the links I have highlighted above.  Also Jill has informed me that there is going to be a big gala launch for Golden Goddesses at the California's Hustler Hollywood store at 8920 West Sunset Blvd. on Thursday November 29 at 7:30pm. 16 Goddesses have confirmed their attendance so people need to RSVP asap @ (310) 860-9009 to guarantee a space. Also, Jill and at least eight Goddesses will be at Larry Edmunds Bookshop for a screening and slideshow on the following night also at 7:30pm. The address for that venue is 6644 Hollywood Blvd. RSVP @ (323)463-3273.***

Influences: Heather Drain

When thinking on any great artist I admire I always contemplate who possibly influenced them.  It's the reason I always flip to the index of an autobiography to search for possible clues to other artists who might have made an impression at some point, and it's the reason I always ask about influences in my Q&A series here.  I recently had the idea to start a new series where I ask a few of my favorite fellow artists, photographers, filmmakers and writers to stop by Moon in the Gutter and discuss the people who have had the most powerful influence over their work and lives.  I was thrilled when one of my favorite writers, the magnificent Heather Drain, agreed to kick-start the series.  Heather, whose fabulous work has graced the pages of Video Watchdog, Ultra Violent among many other fine publications, has graciously submitted this wonderful essay on some of her great influences to kick-start this new series and I am so, so grateful.  Thanks so much to Heather for this striking piece and, after reading, please visit her blog Mondo Heather for more examples of  her truly terrific writing. 

List-o-Mania by Heather Drain

Lists, especially where art is concerned, are a source of fun, interest and occasionally ire for me. Like a moth to the flame, I will gravitate towards a list, even when I know more than likely it's going to launch me into a two hour diatribe. But a great list can be a thing of beauty. It can make you feel like you have found some sort of kindred spirit or even turn you on to something new that could blow your mind. And worst case scenario, you can get a great piss and vinegar rant out of the deal. 

 

So when Jeremy asked me to create a list dedicated to the art and artists who have moved and influenced me, it was an offer I could not refuse. Putting together a creature like this is no easy task. Trying to itemize everything is a bit like someone trying to pick their favorite kids. Sure, they might have an idea of who goes where but then have a nagging tendril of guilt tugging at their sleeve about it. So in lieu of your usual numerical list, I will be listing a sampler of the artists who have made an indelible impression on my fevered little psyche. Undoubtedly, the minute after this gets posted, I will be slapping my forehead because I forgot something. If I listed everything creative that has moved me , this would be less of an article and more of a novel of Biblical proportions. Now, without further ado, here is my mondo-list of cultural influence!

One of the very first people that come to mind is Klaus Kinski, the legendary and, in some circles, (usually those made up of his ex-directors and ex-girlfriends), infamous actor. Of all things, it was his book “Kinski Uncut” that made me a convert, after picking it up in the late 90's, right as I was on the cusp of graduating high school. The book itself is like a violent passion play of words, all documenting the obsessions of this great and troubled artist. One of the most captivating qualities about Kinski is that he goes out of his way to detail his id-centered flaws more than his virtues. Kinski was once quoted as saying, “One should judge a man mainly from his depravities. Virtues can be faked. Depravities are real,” which I adore because it is true and if you love it too, then you must pick this book up. It's long out-of-print, but the “Kinski Uncut” edition can be had for a somewhat decent price. If you're wanting the original English language edition, “All I Need is Love,” that was yanked off the shelves since the publisher got cold feet due to litigious reasons since Kinski talks about a number of known people. Realistically, not unlike former adult film star Jerry Butler's own obsessed autobiography,“Raw Talent,” no one comes off more damaged than our narrator. That sort of testicular fortitude always and eternally sends me.

 

But it's not just Kinski the writer and man that I adore. He was one of the best actors to have ever emerged on the silver screen. Once you see him, you will never ever forget him. His ability to completely crawl into a role and make it his own never fades with time. Whether he needed to shriek and be wild or be quiet and subdued, he could pull it all off. For proof, just check out any of his work with the great and equally inimitable director, Werner Herzog, especially “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” “Nosferatu” and “Woyzeck.” Other Kinski greats include two of his Jess Franco films, “Count Dracula” and “Venus in Furs,” David Scmoeller's underrated thriller, “Crawlspace,” “Fruits of Passion” and Klaus's sole directorial effort, “Paganini.”

 

Speaking of sister Europe, the UK band Bauhaus has been moving me ever since my goth friend Mike lent me, back around the 11^th grade, the first volume of their singles compilation. To simply label them goth is a mere understatement, since to this day, there is really no one that did or does sound quite like them. All the right influences are there, ranging from David Bowie (hence their blazing cover of “Ziggy Stardust”) and T-Rex to the Surrealist and DaDa art movements, with a dash of Eno. In fact, their song “Antonin Artaud,” named after one of my other godheads, is all sonic teeth. It's gristle and beauty and shadows and filigree, which is everything Bauhaus was to a tee. Recommended: All of it, but especially the albums “The Sky's Gone Out” and “Burning From the Inside.” Masterpieces.

 

Being both a monster kid and European art film lover at heart, it was only natural that it would be love at first sight and sound with the works of Jean Rollin. I was blessed to have an early review gig where I was sent “Lips of Blood,” a film that to this day is firmly cemented as a work that I cherish completely. Rollin was a pure artist, featuring a body of work that is as visually lush as it is moving. He gave horror an emotional gravitas that is so special and often under-used, with a few exceptions. The man's a master, pure and simple. Recommended: “Shiver of the Vampires,” “Lips of Blood,” “Living Dead Girl” and more.

 

Kenneth Anger is another filmmaker whose work has seared its way into my vena cava. From his debut film, the violent and poetically sexual “Fireworks” (made when he was barely 20 years old) to his vibrant, magick filled masterpieces, with “Invocation of My Demon Brother” being the granddaddy, Anger is a cinematic game changer. If you want a true taste of art that is at times lush, harsh, colorful, dark and occasionally witchy, then you would be hard pressed to find someone better than Kenneth Anger. Recommended: All of it.

 

Writing wise, there have been eleventy prose writers whose works have left little heart shaped scar marks in my brain. Flannery O'Connor, Mikhail Bulgakov, Lermantov, Katherine Dunne, Poe, Shelley, Stoker, Caitlin R. Kiernan and way too many more to mention. However, there are two fiction writers in particular that have changed the writing landscape for me. The first is Poppy Z. Brite, whose debut novel “Lost Souls,” found me in my smallish hometown's public library years ago. Brite's florid, often lush prose and intrinsic understanding of his characters wooed me from the start. To this day, his numerous books and short stories are works that I revisit time and time again. Recommended: All of it but especially “Exquisite Corpse,” “Drawing Blood” and “Lost Souls.”

 

The other big fiction writer for me is a biggie, but one that didn't emerge fully into my view until later in life. It was a chance move, with me picking up my husband's copy of Charles Bukowski's short story collection, “The Most Beautiful Girl In Town” but once I started reading it, I could not put it down. It was the beginning of a love affair that continues to this day. I adore Bukowski's writing so much. Most people focus on all the really obvious stuff. You know, the hard boozing, the poontang factor, etc. What strikes me about Bukowski's work is the immense heart and honest worldview that he has. Many a foolhardy wannabe writer has romanticized the man's hard living, but forget that nonsense. Bukowski's work is the real deal and has the mix of truth, beauty, rawness and poetry that hits me every single time. It was that short story collection that got me through a grueling emergency room wait while someone very beloved to me was going through something potentially very scary and and life threatening. I am forever indebted to Bukowski for this. Recommended: “Ham on Rye,” “The Most Beautiful Girl in Town,” “Tales of Ordinary Madness,” “Women” et al.

 

A different type of writer who has influenced me is Jeffrey Lee Pierce, best known for his terminally underrated group, The Gun Club.

Pierce's music, both with the band and his solo work, is the stuff that the American dream (and nightmare) is made of. It's like the spirit of an old Southern bluesman got channeled through a west coast punk kid. Not unlike Bukowski, Pierce's work is raw, beautiful, at times heartbreaking and always compelling. Recommended: Everything but especially, especially The Gun Club's “Las Vegas Story.”

 

The Cramps saved my teenage life. Never has a band's sound so perfectly defined a good chunk of my sensibilities. Hearing their “Date With Elvis” album in particular was like finding a long lost family member. They are the sleazy primordial ooze of rock and roll and I will eternally love them for it. Lux Interior is my co-pilot. Recommended: Everything but especially “Date With Elvis” and the live album, “Rockinandreelinginauklandnewzealand.”

 

With music being one of my biggest muses, there are two bands, both seemingly different and yet similar in how they have never compromised and continue to make great and vital music. The first band in question is Devo, musical pioneers from the land where the rubber meets the road, Akron, Ohio. (Sidenote-it's amazing how many great bands and horror hosts have come out of that state. There must be some bizarre magic in the waters of Ohio.) It's easy to focus on the visual aspects of the band, whether it is their famous energy dome hats or the man-baby face of Booji Boy. The visuals are indeed great, often finding that ether where humor, pop culture and something a little more sinister intertwine. But the music is the thing and Devo has often delivered, with their music being something for everyone. There's bits of irreverent humor, dance-ability, guitar crunch and caustic warning about our own culture's de-evolution. It's real, kids. Recommended: “Duty Now for the Future,” “New Traditionalists,” “Devo Live,” “Something for Everybody.”

 

Following up Devo is another band that moves me forever and that is the best UK punk band ever, The Damned. Unlike a lot of their peers, The Damned have not only stayed together since the beginning, for the most part, and have continually evolved musically. From the three chord punk of their first album, “Damned Damned Damned” to the Seeds-flavored psychedelic garage rock of their 2008 album, “So, Who's Paranoid?,” they are a superb band whose work never ever grows old for me. I'm always in the mood for The Damned and you should be too! Recommended: All of it, but especially “Machine Gun Etiquette,” “Phantasmagoria,” “The Black Album,” “So, Who's Paranoid?”

 

Dipping briefly into the pinkies-out world of art for a minute, the works of Dali and Warhol continually send me into fits of visual and mental excitement. My love for surrealism and it's cousin, DaDa, runs deep but Dali's work in particular is so crystalline in its execution, color and vision. Plus, like Warhol, the man himself was living art. Taking the creative impulse one step further is forever exciting and often needed to keep things from getting too moldy and stagnant. With Warhol, his ability to use a visual form to comment on pop culture in a seemingly objective way is unparalleled. Even better was his pioneering role in underground cinema and like a white-haired catalyst, attracting a colorful array of brilliant, eccentric and occasionally mad people all around him. (I love Ondine!)

Recommended-These are masters, so get thee to a library and museum stat.

 

When I first started researching and getting into the sexploitation films of the 1960's, one of the things that compelled me was how a number of them blurred the lines between art house imagery and the lurid come hither of sleaze cinema. One filmmaker who fully transcended this line and made some of the most original movies ever, is my hero, Michael Findlay. Along with his wife, cinematographer extraordinaire and later on, a director in her own right, Roberta Findlay, Michael's blend of dreamlike imagery, a sense of often highly damaged sexuality and a bizarre literary sensibility is unlike anything you will ever see. It was “The Ultimate Degenerate” that first hooked me, but it was “Curse of Her Flesh” that sealed the deal. I've always instinctively had a burr about schools of film criticism that preach that movies that deal with pulp-like topics are automatically not worth covering or respecting. That right there is bollocks and guys like Michael Findlay are the proof in the pudding. If they think these films are disturbing, just look at your local news. Art is the mirror that we do not always want to look into. Recommended: The entire Flesh Trilogy (The Touch of Her Flesh/Curse of Her Flesh/Kiss of her Flesh), “The Ultimate Degenerate,” “A Thousand Pleasures,” “Take Me Naked,” “Janie.”

 

Another filmmaker whose work so beautifully blended the grindhouse with the arthouse is Radley Metzger. Actually, scratch that, because Radley Metzger is a pure bred artist, straight up. His cinematic eye is often sumptuous, but usually underscored with something more. Sometimes it's a sense of melancholy, wry humor or just an observant eye on the warm and sometimes dysfunctional dynamics that are a part of human relationships. Radley Metzger is a gem in the world of cinema. Recommended: “Camille 2000,” the absolutely superb “The Lickerish Quartet,” “Naked Came the Stranger,” “Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann.”

 

Last but certainly not least is the man, Lester Bangs. Lester is what I personally aspire to be as a non-fiction writer. The man's fire, hyper-intelligence, intense humanity and uncompromising approach, which at one point ended up getting him fired from Rolling Stone, is inspiring to say the least. Even better, here was a critic who would admit when he was wrong, which he famously did with the MC5, a band he initially panned but then went on to champion. So many critics go into this field for the wrong reasons, whether it is to live to tear down everything they see or just fellate their own egos. Forget that. Love is the number one reason to write. Your ego should be number 13. Being a writer is one of the most unglamorous paths and one often littered with rejection, so you better be in it because you love it and you have no choice and that is one of the many reasons why I love Lester Bangs. The man should still be here but we can at least glory in his works and try to process the inspiration through our own individual filters.

 

So there you have it! The veritable sampler of the artists whose works inspire, influence and move me to the extent that they are practically intertwined with my DNA. Undoubtedly, I am already thinking of 10 others that should be on here, but I will spare you my Russian-sized novel of influence and hope that this list got your own creative rivers flowing. Art saves.

 

© Heather Drain 2012

A Fascination Q&A with Filmmaker Damien Dupont

Tonight here at Fascination I am very excited to present this Q&A I recently conducted with filmmaker Damien Dupont, one of the directors (along with Yvan Pierre-Kaiser) of the upcoming documentary Jean Rollin,le rêveur égaré (Jean Rollin, The Stray Dreamer).  I am thrilled that Damien agreed to participate in this, as I know we are all excited about his upcoming film, and I can't thank him enough.  Enjoy the interview and support his upcoming work on Jean Rollin. 

Jeremy Richey:  Hi Damien. Thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule to participate in this interview. I really appreciate it and know my readers here will love it. To start off, can you tell us a bit about your background and where you are from?

Damien Dupont:  Hi Jeremy. It is a pleasure to answer your questions. So, I was a student at Paris VIII University, I studied Cinema. I met Thomas and Yvan at that time. We had the same plan: to become movie directors and producers. My first movies were made with University: an experimental movie on a doppleganger and I made a movie with Yvan: a short film about the critics who don’t like Horror Movies, Sci-fi Movies, etc. That movie contained false extract movies, made by ourselves too. We were inspired by Videodrome, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari and David Lynch’s movies. It was a kind of comedy.

How did you initially get interested in film and who were some of your early influences?

My parents used to take me to the cinema every week. They often talked about movies like Fog by John Carpenter or The Fly by David Cronenberg. My early influences were Naked Lunch by David Cronenberg, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, Fire Walk with Me by David Lynch. These movies were like a revelation. They opened my mind. They were so different from other movies I was seeing.

How did you first discover the cinema of Jean Rollin?

My first discovery was Le viol du vampire (The rape of the Vampire). This film was made in 1968 and is still completely crazy, it’s always a strange experience. To tell the truth, the first time, I didn’t like this movie. It was too strange, too “dadaist”. Now, I love it. It’s fun and crazy, maybe one of the strangest movies of the story of the cinema.

Tell us about Jean Rollin, le rêveur égaréand how the project came about?

One day, Yvan phoned me: “I’ve got the phone number of Jean Rollin. Do you want to meet him ?” Me: “Of course !”. Yvan called him. The next week, we met Jean Rollin. He was a kind old man living in Paris. We talked with him for several hours. He told us about his incredible life and career. His mother was a friend of Jacques Prévert and Jean Cocteau’s. His lost movie, L’itinéraire marin, was written by Marguerite Duras. In 1968, his first film’s audience (The Rape of the Vampire) wanted to lynch him as they hated this movie! During the seventies, Jean Rollin began to make porn movies, etc. Meeting him was a great moment. In the end, Yvan and I had the same idea: make a documentary on Jean Rollin. In the beginning, we wanted to make a short film of 26 minutes. After 2 years, it was 52 minutes. After 5 years, it was 78 minutes.

You got to interview a number of Rollin’s most notable collaborators and Rollin himself. Can you tell us who we will see in the film and was there anyone you were particularly excited to meet and talk to?

The shooting of the movie lasted five years. So we interviewed Jean Rollin several times over that period. His death stopped the meetings, it was very sad… In the end, he was very sick.

In the movie, you will see Jean-Loup Phillipe (friend and actor of Jean Rollin), Natalie Perrey (his collaborator from the beginning, she was an actress, an editor, a script-writer, a production manager etc. ; unfortunately, she died in 2012), Jean-Pierre Bouyxou (a movie critic and Jean Rollin’s friend), Pete Tombs (Mondo Macabro’s editor, Immoral Tales’ writer), Pascal Françaix (who wrote “Jean Rollin cinéaste-écrivain”), Brigitte Lahaie, Ovidie, Caroline Vié (a movie critic) and Philippe Druillet (the great French comics artist ; he worked on the set of The Rape of the Vampire and drew the movie posters of The Rape of the Vampire, The Nude Vampireand The Shiver of the Vampires).

I was very excited to meet Philippe Druillet and talk with him. And that was a great time and the last interview for the documentary… We drank lots of wine, he is a cool guy and a genius. He made all the furniture in his workshop himself… It felt like being in one of his comics, a very strange feeling! A really great moment and an excellent interview.

 

Your film has played a several festivals already. How has the reception been and will there eventually be DVD release?

The reception by the audience, the friends and the family of Jean Rollin was excellent. We didn’t expect it after 5 years of work. It was very moving.

The movie should be released in France in 2013 and maybe in North America in the same year and the DVD will have many features, hopefully.

What are your personal favorite films by Jean Rollin?

Iron Rose and Requiem for a Vampire are the most beautiful Jean Rollin’s movies. The quintessence of his unique talent.

With the recent Kino/Redemption Blu-rays and Finders Keepers soundtrack releases Jean Rollin has been getting more mainstream attention, to English language audiences, than ever before. Your film will certainly help strengthen his legacy even more. What is it about the works of Jean Rollin that remains so captivating?

It’s very hard to answer. I don’t really know. These movies are hypnotic dreams with beautiful naked women. They are unique erotic macabre movies. A beautiful wedding between sex and death.

 

Thanks so much Damien for taking the time to participate in this Q&A!  I know I speak for all Jean Rollin fans when I say thank you and Yvan for making this film...we are all extremely excited to see it and we wish you both all the success in the world.  Thanks again!

A new Joseph W. Sarno Collection is on the way!

Joseph W. Sarno's landmark film Inga, as well as its solid sequel The Seduction of Inga, have been out of print on DVD for a number of years now so the announcement of a new box-set containing the films is very welcome news. Arriving on August 14th from Retro-Seduction Cinema The Inga Collection contains both of Sarno's great Inga films (including two cuts of each film) as well as The Indelicate Balance, one of Sarno's truly great works. This three-disc set looks to be basically a repackaging of the now hard to find original Retro-Seduction releases from early in the last decade but I thought it absolutely deserved mentioning for folks who might not have those original discs in their collection. Plus at under thirty dollars this lovely collection is a steal. Here are the full-specs and I do hope the liner-notes mentioned are the original ones written by Moon in the Gutter friend (and past Q&A participant) Michael Bowen, as they are extremely informative and valuable.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Disc 1

- Uncut Bonus Feature Film: Inga Swedish Version (English Subtitles)
- Inga Trailers: 2 Versions! Plus Trailer for the Inga sequel The Seduction of Inga
- Ultra-Rare Outtakes
- Commentary by Director Joseph Sarno, Asst. Director Peggy Steffans-Sarno, Producer Sam Sherman and Film Historian Bruce G. Hallenbeck
- Exclusive Audio Interview with Star Marie Liljedahl

Disc 2

- Documentary: “Innocence Lost: The Story of Inga”
- Documentary: Vernon P. Becker's "Memories Of Inga”
- Pop Video: “Inga's Theme” by Benny and Bjorn
- Sneak Preview: Joe Sarno's Suburban Secrets (2005)

Disc 3

- The "Grindhouse" Cut of Seduction Of Inga
- Feature Film: The Indelicate Balance (1969) with commentary by Peggy Steffans-Sarno and Gary Huggins
- Joe Sarno Trailer Vault
- 12 Page Booklet Featuring Historical Liner Notes

Ben Haggar from Breakfast in the Ruins on The Escapees (A Guest-Post)

One of my absolute favorite spots on the net is the incredible Breakfast in the Ruins, a film blog run by a really terrific writer named Ben Haggar. I was really excited recently to hear that Ben was going to contribute a guest-post for Fascination and today I am thrilled to present it! So here is Ben's excellent new look at one of Rollin's less-discussed films, the very intriguing Les Paumees Du Petit Matin (The Escapees). Thanks so much to Ben for contributing this very fine piece and I hope everyone will head over to Breakfast in the Ruins after reading!




With the renewed interest in Jean Rollin’s work that has followed in the wake of Kino/Redemption’s reissue campaign and FindersKeepers soundtrack releases, now seems as good a time as any to lavish some attention on what I’d consider to be perhaps the most overlooked item in his catalogue, 1981’s Les Eschappees, aka The Runaways, aka The Escapees.

Long written off as a minor film, ‘The Escapees’ remained largely unseen for many years, only seeing release on Region 2 DVD from Redemption in 2008, seemingly after they’d long cleared their vault of everything else Rollin-related. Even Tohill &Tombs, in their landmark study of Rollin’s work in ‘Immoral Tales’, seem lukewarm on the film, praising the opening and closing scenes and the way the relationship between the central characters is developed, but largely writing it off as a ‘failed thriller’, concentrating on the problems Rollin encountered with proposed co-writer Jacque Ralf, and noting that the film ‘drags woefully’ (Immoral Tales, p.160).

Perhaps this general lack of availability and critical enthusiasm – together with the lack of fantastical or exploitation elements – has tended to make the film a bit of a hard sell for casual fans. Despite all this, I would still consider ‘The Escapees’ to be an essential Rollin film. Though as flawed and idiosyncratic as anything else he lent his name to during the ‘80s, it is still a singularly personal piece of work, invoking all of his key concerns as both a director and a human being, and gaining a particular poignancy through its investigation of what happens when the fantastical world he created in his ‘70s horror films makes the painful transition to the drab and impoverished reality of marginal French life in which those films were actually produced.




It’s certainly hard to imagine a more quintessentially ‘Rollin-esque’ opening to a story than the one found here, as two troubled girls (Laurence Dubas and Christiane Coppé) make their escape from the stifling confines of a particularly oppressive psychiatric institution, united in their search for … who knows what? Adventure, beauty, companionship? Above all, the mysteries of ‘the real world’, of which they know little, despite extrovert Michelle’s claims to the contrary. With a little tweaking, we could almost be watching an unfilmed prequel to ‘Requiem for a Vampire’, but rather than entering a fairytale world of chateaus and vampires, Michelle and Marie now find themselves lost in altogether more mundane circumstances.

Recalling the bleak visual sensibility of the previous year’s ‘Night of the Hunted’, Rollin’s camera captures suburban France at its most dismal and overcast, as the girls undertake their journey through freezing dockyards, rainsodden woods and motorway scrubland. Colour only enters proceedings when they stumble upon Maurice’s travelling show - a threadbare troupe consisting of a couple of exotic dancers and a faded fairground stage-set, who set up for business in a car graveyard near an unnamed port town, performing to a weather-beaten audience of workers, sailors and transients.

The poverty-stricken sadness of Maurice’s show and its patrons is beautifully evoked (presumably because the production itself was pretty poverty-stricken), with the dancers performing to tacky canned music, just in front of the train tracks, where anonymous carriages roll on into the night. Conjuring the most forlorn kind of faded funfair seediness, the scene puts me in mind of the Graham Greene quote immortalised by the Mounds & Circles weblog: “Seediness has a very deep appeal; it seems to satisfy, temporarily, the sense of nostalgia for something lost”.




Although functioning as a simple and affecting tale in its own right, ‘The Escapees’ can on another level be read partly as a extended metaphor for its director’s struggle to realise his more outré visions amid the crushing banality of the world outside his head – an interpretation that the film at times seems to explicitly acknowledge. Certainly, the monologue Maurice delivers to the two girls in defence of his show could scarcely be any more on the nose when it comes to drawing a self-reflexive parallel between the plight of the film’s characters and the way that Rollin viewed himself and his collaborators in the ghetto of porno/horror filmmaking;

“Everyone here is an artiste. A true artiste. And what you see here is theatre. The theatre of the street. The original, the most beautiful. […] Look at my fairground stall, the sailors arguing… it is the great mystery of the fairground show.”

Although impossibly hackneyed by conventional standards (despite the increased realism, Rollin’s gift for naively stilted, unnatural dialogue scenes has not deserted him), the wider resonance of Maurice’s monologue, his exultation of a grand mystery within what any ‘respectable’ citizen would deem a squalid, tacky and dangerous situation, is moving indeed.

There is a certain warmth and romanticism to the way in which Rollin presents Maurice’s show that echoes through the whole film. The drunken crowd remains polite and respectful (for the most part), and a jovial, inclusive atmosphere reigns, even as sexual favours are bought and sold, and as the men invade the stage and lift the dancers above their heads in celebration. The party atmosphere only dissipates when the police arrive, and the crowd abruptly vanishes into the night.

Throughout its run-time, ‘The Escapees’ seems to evoke nostalgia for a kind of human warmth that has been lost from the modern world of wealth and respectability; a warmth that can now be found only amongst misfits and petty criminals, in places where progress fears to tread. Thinking back, this is a theme that can perhaps be traced throughout Rollin’s work, in the comfort his characters seem to find in the old, the derelict, the abandoned – only now the chateaus and cemeteries have been replaced by the community spirit found at Maurice’s show and, later, in Louise Dhour’s docklands bar.




The scenes in Louise’s bar struggle with that particular brand of awkwardness that often afflicts inter-character scenes in Rollin movies, but here too, it’s a convincing sense of warmth and belonging that shines through, anchored by a superb performance from Dhour herself as the matriarchal proprietor, drawing her small ‘family’ of damaged runaways around her as she reads the tarot and imparts advice, sharing an implicit understanding that they all basically share the same history, the same dreams. (A formidable vocalist, her rousing performance of the nautical ballad ‘La Mauvaise Priere’ is a real highlight too.)

It’s perhaps not the most original scenario ever conceived, but again, the simple empathy of Rollin’s approach to his characters gives it a comforting power that’s hard to deny. Until the quartet of decadent rich folk enter proceedings at the film’s conclusion in fact, it’s notable that ‘The Escapees’ is a drama in which the on screen action consists almost entirely of people being kind to each other, as the girls receive unquestioned courtesy and generosity from almost everyone they encounter. The film’s only real antagonists are poverty, social inequality, the law, and the unfortunate constraints of reality itself.




Like all of Rollin’s films, ‘The Escapees’ is an unapologetically sentimental work, thrown together in what can often seem an inexcusably slapdash and fragmentary manner. The earthbound setting perhaps draws undue attention to these perceived imperfections, and the film’s drifting pace, unconcerned with narrative urgency, may prove a bit of a stumbling block for some viewers, just as newcomers to the director’s work might find it hard to deal with the way the characters suddenly lapse into poetic reverie at every opportunity, giving voice to their dreams and fears into stilted, quasi-symbolist fashion.

That the film never even secured a release when it was initially completed is hardly surprising in the face of such wilful eccentricity, but now that we have the privilege of viewing Rollin’s films at our leisure, it would take a hard heart indeed to sneer as Michelle flicks through a picture book, telling Marie of shells shining on the ocean floor and pirates with their cutlasses, or as their friend Sophie announces that her forthcoming journey will take her far away, to unknown adventures. Like the ‘outsider’ and neo-primitive artists Rollin admired so much, his blunt manner of communicating his characters’ inner feelings bypasses the cynicism of any receptive viewer. As fans, we allow him to get away with bungling and pretension that would have us guffawing at the work of any other filmmaker – we can implicitly understand the honesty and depth of feeling he has invested in his characters, and the wider meaning of their plight, and we have no choice but to drop our critical guard accordingly.




Whilst Rollin is often written off as a ‘naive’ filmmaker though (even using the word in a positive context himself in describing films like ‘Requiem..’), his perceived amateurism shouldn’t obscure the fact that much of his technique is still extremely effective. In particular, the experience gained through nearly fifteen years worth of zero budget, shot-on-location filmmaking (has ANY Jean Rollin film ever boasted enough money for a purpose-built set?) had by this stage given him an incredible gift for capturing the emotional resonance of his locations – a skill which is utilised more clearly than ever on ‘The Escapees’.

Seemingly shot over a series of bleak and freezing dawns, the early morning scenes set in and around the docks have an incredibly evocative, sleepless feel to them - a girl slipping out of nightclub door hugging a leather jacket around her, rusty machinery, broken milk bottles and sailors lounging on the wharf watching cargo containers being lifted aboard ship. Whilst the film strives to keep the location fairly anonymous, these images effortlessly capture the transient world of every industrialised port city, from Hamburg to Yokohama, and the way Rollin is able to pull such deep associations from pretty much nothing at all helps highlight his strange, instinctive genius as a director, the surroundings in his films speaking to us as eloquently as his characters’ more direct flights of fancy.




As in ‘Night of the Hunted’, the sudden lurch into sex/violence footage that takes place in the final ten minutes of ‘The Escapees’ is strange and deeply uncomfortable, and, as is often the case in Rollin’s films, the motivation behind its inclusion is uncertain. Was he obliged to insert some salacious material into what would otherwise be a terminally un-commercial film, or was he just including it out of habit by this stage in his career? Or, more interestingly, was he shifting the tone for deliberate effect, to shock and repulse us just when we’d settled into the groove of a modest, heart-warming little film? Despite their tawdry explicitness (instantly upsetting the balance of what would otherwise be the one Rollin film you’d perhaps be able to sell your uptight world cinema fan friends on), the scenes featuring Brigitte Lahaie and Jean Philippe Delamarre as one half of a pair of duplicitous bourgeois couples who trick the girls into accompanying them home are still horribly effective in their own way. By this stage, our identification with Michelle and Marie is so strong that the very thought that they might not make it to the ship that awaits them at the harbour at 4am is unthinkable… and the fact that their fantastical voyage is halted by an invasion of sleaze and gore of course adds a further tragic resonance to the self-reflexive message Rollin seems to be trying to convey in this film.



The struggle between romanticism and realism in Rollin’s later films is nowhere more apparent than in the desperate need we feel for these girls to embark on their journey. Of course stowing away on a naval vessel bound for parts unknown is by any yardstick a pretty bad idea for a pair of young women, but from their own naïve point of view, it is the only possible course of action: to keep moving, to always be ‘elsewhere’, to try anything to escape their dismal surroundings. As Michelle says at the start of the film, “It doesn’t matter where. Elsewhere. There are always elsewheres everywhere.”

At first I thought ‘The Escapees’ and ‘The Runaways’ were pretty bland, utilitarian titles for this movie, but the more I think about them, the more perfect they seem. Michelle and Marie aren’t simply ‘escapees’ from the institution at the outset - their entire lives are focused on escape – from loneliness, from social norms, and from the confines of reality itself.

In one sense, their escape attempt proves futile, as venality and lust leave them more trapped than ever. On the other hand though, isn’t it a *direct* way out of the cold world around them that they’ve been seeking all along? By rolling out the ol’ ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ ending, isn’t Rollin essentially echoing the unsettling final message of many of his best films (Iron Rose, Lips of Blood, to name but a few), encouraging his characters to welcome death with open arms, as an opportunity to step beyond earthly banalities and embrace a kind of eternal mystery..? What are his films after all, if not a celebration of mystery, and what greater mystery can there be than that which lies beyond the veil?