DRACULA'S FIANCEE

(A.k.a. LA FIANCEE DE DRACULA; LE RETOUR DE DRACULA; DRACULAS BRAUT; L'AMANTE DI DRACULA)

An ageing Professor (Jacques Regis) drags his young assistant Eric (Denis Tallaron) out to a graveyard one evening in search of Count Dracula's remains, along with hopes of locating the legendary fiancée of the Count.

They watch from behind a bush as a redheaded female vampire enters the cemetery and takes a bite out of willing midget jester Triboulet's (Thomas Smith) neck. The Professor then sneaks up on the midget and demands to be told where he can find Dracula. Under protest, Triboulet insists that the vampire hunters much venture to an alternate world where "the parallel ones" will be able to lead their way.

And so, the Professor and Eric embark towards the ruins of the Tower of the Damned, where they are told the parallel ones reside with the Count's fiancée - the only one who can take them to their quarry.

They reach the tower in sunny daylight and find a pretty blonde woman dancing merrily there. Eric dismisses her as a village idiot and suggests that the dwarf has duped them. However, the Professor recognises that she exists mentally on another plateau and hypnotises her for more information. The girl points them in the direction of Dracula's fiancée - Isabelle (Cyrille Iste), Queen of Shadows - and their quest continues ... after a flash of the mad girl's breasts, naturally.

Our intrepid would-be vampire slayers are led to a convent called The Order of the White Virgins, where they are taken in by chain-smoking Sister Cigar (Mira Petri) and Sister Pipe (Marianna Palmieri).

The Professor is led to a meeting with the Mother Superior (Marie-Laurence), who explains that Isabelle is a local girl who has been driven insane by Count Dracula pending her upcoming marriage to him. In the meantime, the Mother Superior guards her by keeping her under lock and key in the convent. The downside of this, we're told, is that Isabelle's madness has had a profound knock-on effect on the other nuns.

Ah, that'll explain the excessive smoking, manic screaming and lesbian kisses!

When the Professor and Eric are permitted an audience with Isabelle, they find that she truly is off her rocker. She speaks little sense, until she reveals under hypnosis that Dracula can be found in his coffin, in a clock chamber. While under his spell, the Professor also instructs the very attractive Isabelle to leave the convent at midnight that night to meet with Dracula.

However, Sister Martha (Sabine Leonel) becomes wise to the Professor's plans to lure Isabelle away from the convent, and decides instead to hide the deranged woman away. And so, come midnight when Isabelle begins to respond to her hypnotic whims, Triboulet reappears to cart her off on his motorcycle and sidecar to the Tower of the Damned where she is to be hidden by the Ogress (Magalie Aguado) until preparations for her engagement ceremony to Dracula have been finalised.

The Ogress is given a live human baby to feed on by Triboulet and, in return, allows them past into a tunnel leading directly to Dracula's secret castle. But Isabelle and her diminutive companion were followed by Eric and the Professor, who shoot the Ogress dead and follow them down the tunnel ...

Once at Dracula's castle, the action shifts into even more barmy territory for the final half of this film as the engagement ceremony procedures get underway and the Professor comes closer to confronting his arch nemesis, Dracula (Thomas Desfosse). But, will the parallel ones get to the vampire hunters first? Will Isabelle succumb to the evil that tempts her? How many more breasts will director Jean Rollin manage to expose in the film's final 40 minutes?

DRACULA'S FIANCEE roars along at breakneck pace, making little sense as it bulldozes from one stylishly nonsensical set piece to the next. Admittedly it's well lit and often gorgeously designed, with a look of Gothic atmosphere that remains consistent throughout. Its tone is demented from beginning to end too, successfully making the film come across like a fevered fairy tale or the most derailed nightmare imaginable.

But for all its visual flourishes and madcap sequences, DRACULA'S FIANCEE falters on more fundamental filmic levels such as editing and storytelling. Rollin's script often makes no sense whatsoever, and editor Janette Kronegger seems to have been so preoccupied with atmosphere that all continuity and logic has been thrown to the side - resulting in an often incomprehensible whole.

Of course, those familiar with Rollin's body of work will argue that his dreamlike films such as LIPS OF BLOOD and REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE were never about a strong narrative. They were founded on largely dialogue-free scenes of haunting visuals and almost poetic sexual provocation.

FIANCEE attempts to meet these efforts but is undone perhaps by burdening the film with too much script at the same time. Rollin, it seems, wants to have it both ways - and the result is a rather messy, if occasionally jaw-droppingly stunning, film.

Sexy vampires, minor bloodletting, naughty nuns, Brigitte Lahaie (looking as good as ever when she turns up in the film's latter half to suck blood), lots of curvy pert breasts, a beach-set finale ... all the Rollin trademarks are here, albeit thrown at us at a dazzling pace. The dreamlike unravelling of his seminal films has been replaced by an almost pornographic need to throw his Gothic money shots at the screen with nullifying frequency.

Still, Phillippe D'Aram's score works well and producer Andrea Angioli has certainly provided a budget decent enough to cater for what is one of Rollin's most impressive-looking films. What the director lacks in focus he makes up for in energy, and however shambolic this lightning-paced stream of consciousness may be, it is at least never boring. And that's not bad going for a filmmaker who was in his mid-60s when he made this.

DRACULA'S FIANCEE is presented uncut in anamorphic 1.78:1. Images are reasonably bright and clean, with strong blacks and well-defined colours. Some motion blurring is however evident and the occasional scene does appear to be unusually faded for a 2002 production.

French audio is provided in 2.0 with thin optional English subtitles.

Static menu pages include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 10 chapters (note however that the film is actually divided into 12 chapters).

Best of the extra features is a 20-minute conversation with Rollin. This sees the director at his home reminiscing over his career as questions appear on screen in text format. Occasionally, interviewer Rebecca Johnson's off-screen voice prompts him for more extensive answers.

Rollin is at ease throughout the interview and speaks with a fluent memory about what inspired him to get into cinema and how his films are politically motivated. He also discusses why so many of his films are centred on two lead female characters, and how he would've been a writer if he hadn't got into making films. This enjoyable chat is presented in French with optional English subtitles.

The film's original trailer clocks in at just under 2 minutes in length, and is presented in non-anamorphic 1.66:1. The trailer comes equipped with original French mono audio, but unfortunately without the option of English subtitles.

There are also trailers present for FASCINATION, THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTED, KILLER'S MOON and SPRING OF LIFE.

A well-presented stills gallery of 55 photographs follows, set to eerie violin strains from the main feature's score.

DRACULA'S FIANCEE is a nutty race through Rollin motifs such as female vampires, blood on breasts, Gothic castles and Grand Guignol bloodshed. It's stylish, witty and often beautiful to look at. It also makes little sense and is too manic to allow viewers to appreciate some of its finer visual ideas. It's Rollin at his most frantic, and is further hampered by his own clumsily over-elaborate script.

Forgive it's shortcomings though, and ask yourself: where else do you get a film that single-handedly offers a woman playing the violin at dusk at the top of a vampire's castle, a female vampire feasting on a screaming baby in it's Moses basket, and an impromptu Arabian-style dance by a gonzo nun?

Sometimes it's qualities like these that outweigh anything else. And for these reasons alone, DRACULA'S FIANCEE comes (cautiously) recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis