LIPS OF BLOOD

LIPS OF BLOOD

Hallucinogenic nightmares marrying beauty with terror, Jean Rollins's dark fantasies are at once both personal art and commercially viable (if challenging) exploitation. He approaches his fantasy with the intimacy of a lover, often to the exclusion of general audiences, telling stories that help him better understand his own obsessions. This personal ambiguity and subversive dream like quality makes his movies akin to poems or abstract portraits. If confusing and often frustratingly slow in pace, his unique visions of voluptuous female vampires, Outsiders, and melancholy settings replace traditional 'story.' When Rollins works from a tight script, he is formidable indeed, able to flesh out his eccentric dreams with believable characters and eventful plots. Lips Of Blood, along with Fascination and Grapes Of Death, are his most accessible films, packaging his trademark thematic preoccupations in a more audience friendly manner. A tight narrative lends fresh blood to the director's atmospheric modern myth of identity.

Lips Of Blood isn't only moody and visually compelling but told with more restraint and logic than is often the director's want. This only serves to reinforce his more personal fetishistic relationship with lonely settings and the erotic mystifying relation between perception and time. Frederick, a star crossed young man attending the premier of a new perfume, is captivated by the setting depicted in an elegant advertisement. The castle seems strangely familiar, so he pesters the photographer, who consents to meet with him at her studio to discuss the strange ruins. Racked with déjà vu, Frederic is assured by his mother that he never spent any time in such a place. But when he recalls a night visit with a lovely young woman at the castle, his awoken desire propels him to discover exactly who the woman was, and how both she and the mysterious ruins figure in his life. As Frederick descends into a labyrinth of secrets, betrayal, and very real danger, he accidentally unleashes a trio of female vampires who aid him in his quest for the woman in white. Eventually he learns that he must unlock his own mind to fathom the dark secrets of his heart.

Much of Rollins work is mythic in its deign and thematic emphasis, using ancient cross cultural archetypes and plot patterns to investigate tortured men, women, and spectres. From the Orpheus myth to Death and the Maiden, Rollins invests his moody seascapes and desire-tormented characters with attitudes and actions that connect them with cosmic ideals. Lips Of Blood is nothing less than a sumptuous gothic rendition of the Heroes Journey, an epic Quest of a man searching for identity, closure, and the object of his desire. And true to the myths of old, this fascinating look at the nature of memory and meaning isn't afraid to follow its gloomy, tragic incidents to their fatal and elegiac conclusions. A visual primer to the themes and style of Rollins, the plot unfolds with surprising precision and suspense. With beautifully captured macabre images the story moves at a crisp pace without sacrificing the atmospheric stealth or dream-like ambience we expect. In fact, the conventions of the plot emphasize the primal sense of weirdness. Frederick's past, memory, and secret life is coated, like the film as a whole, in a phantasmagorical sheen of decadent wonder. As psychologically intensive as it is mythic, the abundance of scantily clad women, vampires, and reckless sense of adventure can also be seen as a psychoanalyst's case study. Most importantly, though, is the sheer sense of doom and eroticism, making this a valuable addition to dark fantasy cinema.

Initially released through Image, Redemption offers Lips Of Blood with a new cover and a new anamorphic transfer in 1.66:1 widescreen. While there is a steady coat of grain, the picture looks as good as ever before, and the slight defects don't harm the viewing experience. Audio is featured in French Mono and is clean and clear with well-written English Subs.

Extras consist of an Introduction by Rollin and an Audio Commentary wherein Rollin describes the on screen action a bit repetitiously but also offers engaging insights into his production (although his English isn't that great). Also included are Interviews with Jean-Loup Philippe and Nathalie Perrey, which discuss Rollin's place in the genre. A Stills Gallery, Poster Art, and other Redemption USA Trailers conclude the offerings.

Review by William Simmons


 
Released by Redemption Films
Region 1 - NTSC
Not Rated
Extras :
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