Le Viol du Vampire
Encyclopedia
Le Viol du Vampire is a 1968 film
directed by Jean Rollin
, which is his directorial debut. The film consists of two parts: The Rape of the Vampire, and The Vampire Woman/Queen of the Vampires. Originally, the film was only supposed to be a short, but a second part was filmed and added later so that it was to be released as a feature film.
The poetic spirit and strong inspiration of American serials did not seem to attract viewers or critics at the time of its release, because of the terrible reception and the film provoked a scandal.
Although the film was seen in a negative view on the time of its release. Le Viol du Vampire remains an important film in the works of Jean Rollin. Indeed, several themes developed in his subsequent feature films are already there: not only vampires are fascintion with old cemeteries, but also lesbianism and a pronounced taste for eroticism. Some scenes and some characters were even copied almost identically in his other films.
are convinced that they are vampires. One believes she was raped by the villagers years before, and is blind; another is afraid of sunlight, and they all react violently to crucifixes. The sisters are being manipulated by a sinister old man who alternates between admonishing them to kill newcomers that threaten their exposure and groping their breasts. The four seem to worship a bestial idol in the forest who speaks to them with a disembodied voice.
The newcomers are three Parisians by the names of Thomas (Bernard Letrou), Brigitte (Solange Pradle), and Marc (Marquis Polho), who have come to the countryside to cure the sisters of their so-called illness. They do not believe that the sisters are vampires, they don't believe in vampires at all. Thomas is a psychoanalist who determined to cure them from their madness which he believes has been induced by the superstitious villagers who have driven the confused women insane with their religious symbols and persecution. He tries to convince them that crucifixes do nothing to them, sunlight won't harm them, and the blind sister can actually see. He takes all of this as proof that their vampirism is all in their minds. When one of the sisters fall for Thomas' charms, the old man orders another sister to kill him, Brigitte, and Marc, and when this fails he unleashes the peasants who brutally murder all the women they can find, which also includes Brigitte.
Thomas asks one of the sisters to bite him to prove her wrong and discovers she is, in fact, a vampire. It seems he has been misled by his own preconceptions. The two flee to the beach and are gunned down by Marc who is distraught bu Brigitte's death, at the hands of the peasants.
The human doctor who runs the demented clinic is under the supervision of the vampire queenan he has been secretly searching for a cure for vampirism.
The vampires abduct Brigitte's body from the cenotaph and Thomas later discovers that Brigitte is alive, she tells him that he imagined the entire trip, but he doesn't believe her. He follows her to the hospital where she is listening to an instruction tape, he stops the tape and kills her.
The doctor's plot is later uncovered, while the vampire queen stages a ceremony to marry the doctor to his assistant, her minions strip the assistant and whip her on the beach. The malcontents have not bowed to her rule and the revolution explodes, which ends with the vampires being killed and the vampire queen poisoned. Thomas and the vampire wall themselves in the cellar to await death, they do not wish to feed on the living, but are too afraid that if they stay free, their thirst will drive them to murder, so they sacrifice themselves instead, ending their freedom in each others arms.
network of small theatres including The Scarlett, Styx, and Midi Minuit, ordered Jean Rollin a short film on the them of vampires to serve a prologue to an old American fantasy film of the 1940s, The Vampire, A Creature of the Devil, which he had bought the rights and planned to rebroadcast. At the time, Rollin was still an apprentice film director, having only done his early short films and documentaries, but he wanted to embark on more ambitious projects and specialize in particular in the fantasy genre, he accepted the proposal from Lavie enthusiastically. With Parisian producer of America, Sam Selsky, he managed to receive a budget of 200,000 francs, which gave him the opportunity to assemble a small team and start shooting a film.
, around an old abandoned house which served as the home of the four vampire sisters. The woods and fields around furnished the framework for the outdoor sequences. Only the death of Thomas and the vampire sister was not filmed in Île-de-France
. In turn, Rollin chose a beach near Normandy, Pourville-lès-Dieppe, which was dear to his heart since his teens and had already used as setting in 1958 for his first short film, Les Amours Jaunes (The Yellow Lovers). The beach is seen again on numerous occasions throughout the filming, the team had to be innovative to compensate for the poverty of his means. The same beach was used as setting in his later films. During the scene, in which the four vampire sisters were stormed, the peasants were none other than Marquis Polho (who also plays Marc) surrounding several members of the crew, who had been employed for the occasions as actors, because Jean Rollin cound not hire extras.
has not yet given the film a score from Top Critics, but a 45% score from the RT Community. The film holds a rating of 5.4/10 at the Internet Movie Database
(based on 298 votes).
As to journalist criticism, the film was very hostile. The Parisien wrote about Le Viol du Vampire as part of the happening and hoax normale; series of silent film and the film shot by amateurs idle and untalanted at the end of lunch on the grass of the parody style Red Rose, like the famous torticollis, and that the film lack any trace of humour. They also said that "each plays an air penetracted and we can only remain puzzled by the intentions of the director, Jean Rollin". "It is a moment of hope to find in this hurly-burly, few traces of the unusual and fantastic once enjoyed by surrealists in The Mysteries of New York, but we are forced to abandon even these small pleasures". Le Figaro was more aggressive and abusive. The critic who commented on the film seemed to have been carried out by a gang of drunken medical students, in fact, the host of this long film was so bad that Jean Rollin briefly considered stopping his film career, howerer, he eventually decided to continue, not only by passion for the cinema, but because Le Viol du Vampire still got a kind curiosity and proved successful enough and financially profitable.
, found in video, the cause of this disgrace is found in nature feature film black & white like many French distributors, this feature gave it a clean look archaic to confuse the contemporary viewer accustomed to the colour and often quick to consider the film in black & white. it was not until 2000 that Norbert Moutier, a great friend of the director, finally dared to publish it under his label cassette, NG Mount International.
The VHS was released in the UK on May 1, 2000 by Salvation Films
.
The DVD was released in France in 2003 by the production house and publisher CRA. It was released under the Jean Rollin collection. It had already been the subject of an edition in Salvation: comparison of the two editions is not disadvantageous to the French publisher. The Format is substantially the same, the image is a 4:3 in a ratio of 1.66:1. A small loss of image editing Salvation is caused by the clipping on the right of the image, while the entire image appears in the edition LCJ.
The film was released in the US on March 19, 2002 by Image Entertainment
. It is presented in 1.66:1, which is not enhanced for widescreen televisions. The special features include: Thearticl Trailer, stills gallery and promotional material.
Released in Europe
on October 20, 2007 by Encore films in a restored version. It has a new aspect ratio of 1.78:1, but it is slightly over-matted because the original ratio is 1.66:1. The special features include: Audio Commentary by Jean Rollin, the story of La Nuit des Horloges, Trailer, interview with Jacqueline Sieger, interview with Alain-Yves Beaujour, interview with François Tusques, cencored scenes, trailers for Les Demoniaques
, Le Frisson des Vampires
, La Nuit des Traquees
, and La Morte Vivante
, and a 28 page booklet.
Jean Rollin explained in an interview that,
Le Viol was a terrible scandal here in Paris. People were really mad when they saw it. In Pigalle, they threw things at the screen. The principal reason was that nobody could understand the story.
1968 in film
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
directed by Jean Rollin
Jean Rollin
Jean Michel Rollin Roth Le Gentil was a French film director, actor, and novelist best known for his films in the fantastique genre such as the vampire film Le Viol du Vampire and the first French gore film Les Raisins de la Mort .-Early life:Jean Rollin was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine , France to...
, which is his directorial debut. The film consists of two parts: The Rape of the Vampire, and The Vampire Woman/Queen of the Vampires. Originally, the film was only supposed to be a short, but a second part was filmed and added later so that it was to be released as a feature film.
The poetic spirit and strong inspiration of American serials did not seem to attract viewers or critics at the time of its release, because of the terrible reception and the film provoked a scandal.
Although the film was seen in a negative view on the time of its release. Le Viol du Vampire remains an important film in the works of Jean Rollin. Indeed, several themes developed in his subsequent feature films are already there: not only vampires are fascintion with old cemeteries, but also lesbianism and a pronounced taste for eroticism. Some scenes and some characters were even copied almost identically in his other films.
The Rape of the Vampire
Four sisters living in an old châteauChâteau
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
are convinced that they are vampires. One believes she was raped by the villagers years before, and is blind; another is afraid of sunlight, and they all react violently to crucifixes. The sisters are being manipulated by a sinister old man who alternates between admonishing them to kill newcomers that threaten their exposure and groping their breasts. The four seem to worship a bestial idol in the forest who speaks to them with a disembodied voice.
The newcomers are three Parisians by the names of Thomas (Bernard Letrou), Brigitte (Solange Pradle), and Marc (Marquis Polho), who have come to the countryside to cure the sisters of their so-called illness. They do not believe that the sisters are vampires, they don't believe in vampires at all. Thomas is a psychoanalist who determined to cure them from their madness which he believes has been induced by the superstitious villagers who have driven the confused women insane with their religious symbols and persecution. He tries to convince them that crucifixes do nothing to them, sunlight won't harm them, and the blind sister can actually see. He takes all of this as proof that their vampirism is all in their minds. When one of the sisters fall for Thomas' charms, the old man orders another sister to kill him, Brigitte, and Marc, and when this fails he unleashes the peasants who brutally murder all the women they can find, which also includes Brigitte.
Thomas asks one of the sisters to bite him to prove her wrong and discovers she is, in fact, a vampire. It seems he has been misled by his own preconceptions. The two flee to the beach and are gunned down by Marc who is distraught bu Brigitte's death, at the hands of the peasants.
Queen of the Vampires/The Vampire Woman
The vampire queen (Jacqueline Sieger) is introduced. She briefly arrives by boat to the beach where the dead couple lies. She commands her hooded cohort to grab the old man and pin him down to the slab of rock, she then proceeds to sacrifice him and licks the knife covered in his blood. The vampire queen reels her leading female minion to dismember the bodies of Thomas and the vampire sister so that they don't come back to life, but she fails. It is later revealed that she is in rebellion against the vampire queen. The blood from the old man revives Thomas and the vampire sister.The human doctor who runs the demented clinic is under the supervision of the vampire queenan he has been secretly searching for a cure for vampirism.
The vampires abduct Brigitte's body from the cenotaph and Thomas later discovers that Brigitte is alive, she tells him that he imagined the entire trip, but he doesn't believe her. He follows her to the hospital where she is listening to an instruction tape, he stops the tape and kills her.
The doctor's plot is later uncovered, while the vampire queen stages a ceremony to marry the doctor to his assistant, her minions strip the assistant and whip her on the beach. The malcontents have not bowed to her rule and the revolution explodes, which ends with the vampires being killed and the vampire queen poisoned. Thomas and the vampire wall themselves in the cellar to await death, they do not wish to feed on the living, but are too afraid that if they stay free, their thirst will drive them to murder, so they sacrifice themselves instead, ending their freedom in each others arms.
Cast
- Solange Pradle as Brigitte
- Bernard Letrou as Thomas
- Catherine Deville
- Ursule Pauly
- Nicole Romain as Marc
- Marquis Polho
- Louise Horn
- Doc Moyle
- Yolande Leclerc
- Philippe Druilette
- Jean Aron
- Mei Chen
- Edith Ponceau-Lardie
- Jean-Denis Bonan
- Jacqueline Sieger as the Vampire Queen (uncredited)
- Ariane Sapriel (uncridited)
- Alain Yves Beaujour (uncredited)
- Annie Merlin (uncredited)
- Oliver Rollin (uncredited)
- Barbara Girard (uncredited)
- Jean RollinJean RollinJean Michel Rollin Roth Le Gentil was a French film director, actor, and novelist best known for his films in the fantastique genre such as the vampire film Le Viol du Vampire and the first French gore film Les Raisins de la Mort .-Early life:Jean Rollin was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine , France to...
(uncredited)
Production
In 1967, French retailer Jean Lavie, owener of a ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
network of small theatres including The Scarlett, Styx, and Midi Minuit, ordered Jean Rollin a short film on the them of vampires to serve a prologue to an old American fantasy film of the 1940s, The Vampire, A Creature of the Devil, which he had bought the rights and planned to rebroadcast. At the time, Rollin was still an apprentice film director, having only done his early short films and documentaries, but he wanted to embark on more ambitious projects and specialize in particular in the fantasy genre, he accepted the proposal from Lavie enthusiastically. With Parisian producer of America, Sam Selsky, he managed to receive a budget of 200,000 francs, which gave him the opportunity to assemble a small team and start shooting a film.
Casting
Along with his assistants and technicians, Rollin could not bring in professional actors due to the low budget. Among the cast, who were the four vampire sisters, two of which were Ursule Pauly, a mannequin, and Nicole Romain (the blind vampire sister), was a stripper. Solange Pradel (Brigitte), Bernard Letrou (Thomas), and Marquis Polho (Marc), who played the three heroes had never been in a movie before and all the other cast were in the same situation. None of them had undergone training in drama, except Ariane Sapriel.Filming
The filming of Le Viol du Vampire began in 1967 and took place almost entirely in the Paris suburbs, at Claye-SouillyClaye-Souilly
Claye-Souilly is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-People:*Jules de Poliganc was born here in 1745. He was the husband of Madame de Polignac, friend of Marie Antoinette*Mancini family...
, around an old abandoned house which served as the home of the four vampire sisters. The woods and fields around furnished the framework for the outdoor sequences. Only the death of Thomas and the vampire sister was not filmed in Île-de-France
Île-de-France (région)
Île-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area....
. In turn, Rollin chose a beach near Normandy, Pourville-lès-Dieppe, which was dear to his heart since his teens and had already used as setting in 1958 for his first short film, Les Amours Jaunes (The Yellow Lovers). The beach is seen again on numerous occasions throughout the filming, the team had to be innovative to compensate for the poverty of his means. The same beach was used as setting in his later films. During the scene, in which the four vampire sisters were stormed, the peasants were none other than Marquis Polho (who also plays Marc) surrounding several members of the crew, who had been employed for the occasions as actors, because Jean Rollin cound not hire extras.
Critical response
On the films original release, it received negative reviews. Review aggregate Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
has not yet given the film a score from Top Critics, but a 45% score from the RT Community. The film holds a rating of 5.4/10 at the Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
(based on 298 votes).
As to journalist criticism, the film was very hostile. The Parisien wrote about Le Viol du Vampire as part of the happening and hoax normale; series of silent film and the film shot by amateurs idle and untalanted at the end of lunch on the grass of the parody style Red Rose, like the famous torticollis, and that the film lack any trace of humour. They also said that "each plays an air penetracted and we can only remain puzzled by the intentions of the director, Jean Rollin". "It is a moment of hope to find in this hurly-burly, few traces of the unusual and fantastic once enjoyed by surrealists in The Mysteries of New York, but we are forced to abandon even these small pleasures". Le Figaro was more aggressive and abusive. The critic who commented on the film seemed to have been carried out by a gang of drunken medical students, in fact, the host of this long film was so bad that Jean Rollin briefly considered stopping his film career, howerer, he eventually decided to continue, not only by passion for the cinema, but because Le Viol du Vampire still got a kind curiosity and proved successful enough and financially profitable.
Home media
Unlike other films of Jean Rollin, Le Viol du Vampire remained very long in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, found in video, the cause of this disgrace is found in nature feature film black & white like many French distributors, this feature gave it a clean look archaic to confuse the contemporary viewer accustomed to the colour and often quick to consider the film in black & white. it was not until 2000 that Norbert Moutier, a great friend of the director, finally dared to publish it under his label cassette, NG Mount International.
The VHS was released in the UK on May 1, 2000 by Salvation Films
Salvation Group
Salvation Group is a UK based media company, specialising in exploitation film and alternative music. The company's original name and current trading name is Redemption Films.-History:...
.
The DVD was released in France in 2003 by the production house and publisher CRA. It was released under the Jean Rollin collection. It had already been the subject of an edition in Salvation: comparison of the two editions is not disadvantageous to the French publisher. The Format is substantially the same, the image is a 4:3 in a ratio of 1.66:1. A small loss of image editing Salvation is caused by the clipping on the right of the image, while the entire image appears in the edition LCJ.
The film was released in the US on March 19, 2002 by Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
. It is presented in 1.66:1, which is not enhanced for widescreen televisions. The special features include: Thearticl Trailer, stills gallery and promotional material.
Released in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on October 20, 2007 by Encore films in a restored version. It has a new aspect ratio of 1.78:1, but it is slightly over-matted because the original ratio is 1.66:1. The special features include: Audio Commentary by Jean Rollin, the story of La Nuit des Horloges, Trailer, interview with Jacqueline Sieger, interview with Alain-Yves Beaujour, interview with François Tusques, cencored scenes, trailers for Les Demoniaques
Les Démoniaques
Les Démoniaques is a 1974 film directed by Jean Rollin, about a group of shipwrecked sailors who brutally rape two young woman and the woman re-emerge after making a pact with the devil to get their revenge.-Plot:...
, Le Frisson des Vampires
Le Frisson des Vampires
Le Frisson des Vampires is a 1971 film directed by Jean Rollin. It is his third vampire movie.-Plot:Two newlyweds, Isle and Antoine, are on their honeymoon, on their way to visit Isle's two cousins. When they arrive in the town they discover that her cousins died the day before. Isle and Antoine...
, La Nuit des Traquees
La Nuit des Traquees
La Nuit des Traquées is a 1979 film directed by Jean Rollin, about people who have lost their memories in an environmental accident and are confined in a hospital.-Plot:...
, and La Morte Vivante
La Morte Vivante
La Mort Vivante is a 1982 horror film directed by Jean Rollin, it centres on a young woman who has returned from the dead and needs human blood in order to survive.-Plot:...
, and a 28 page booklet.
Controversy
On 27 May 1968, Le Viol du Vampire was released to theatres in Paris, by Jean Lavie and his associates. Its release coincided with the events of May, and the fact that it drew a large audience because of this. Due to strikes and riots, it was a rare theatrical production present at the time. The projection of the film unleashed terrible scandal, from the taunts and jeers of damage to threats against Jean Rollin.Jean Rollin explained in an interview that,
Le Viol was a terrible scandal here in Paris. People were really mad when they saw it. In Pigalle, they threw things at the screen. The principal reason was that nobody could understand the story.
Further reading
- Virgins & Vampires: Jean Rollin. Contains essays by Jean Rollin, edited by Peter Blumenstock. Included CD soundtrack from Les Deux orphlines vampires. Limited edition of 300 copies, autographed by Jean Rollin. (Crippled Publishing, 1997, ISBN 3-9805820-0-0).