| by calum on 12/01/2004 08:17 | |
What you are reading here is a bit of a historic monument (well, for me anyway) because Jean Rollin was the very first filmmaker I ever interviewed.
This was five years ago, in 1999. If truth be told, I'm not Rollin's biggest fan - although I appreciate the style and sometimes gorgeous period set visuals that he managed to pull off on what were evidently tiny budgets. Of all his movies I like 1982's The Living Dead Girl the best, mainly because it plays out as less pretentious than the director's other stuff. Anyhow, this interview was originally published in the first issue of my short lived fanzine, Firelight Shocks, and also made an appearance in an early issue of Bite Me magazine (a horrific Scottish goth rag that I somehow ended up submitting to).
I spoke with Rollin when he was in Edinburgh to give his UK fan base a chance to catch his 1995 venture Little Orphan Vampires (Les Deux Orphelines Vampires). Rollin was in fine form during an audience question and answer session, commenting that the difference between pornography and erotica is that: 'In erotica you see the woman, in pornography you see the man too.' Likewise, he also mentioned, with his tongue placed firmly within his cheek, that he is unfamiliar with the word 'feminists'. Rollin also revealed that he considers Romero's original Night of the Living Dead to be the scariest film he's ever seen. A warm and friendly chap, though clearly a little frail (his nurse, Veronique Djaouti, appears briefly in Little Orphan Vampires) Rollin remains enthusiastic when talking about the good old days. He laughed loudly throughout our conversation (which even I found difficult to follow - Rollin has a very strong French accent) and seemed genuinely pleased when I kept him behind to sign a few autographs.
Unfortunately, the moron chairing this interview only gave me about five minutes with Rollin. How stupid is that? So I didn't get to ask nearly all my questions. Looking back this kind of pisses me off, but what do I care? The interview is still pretty decent and I hope you enjoy reading the comments of one of foreign horror's true cult favourites.
The Rape of the Vampire, Le Viol du Vampire
I believe that your debut feature The Rape of the Vampire (Le Viol du Vampire, 1967) was originally intended as a half an hour short. Can you tell me a little bit about how it became a full length feature?
A friend of mine had bought a film from England called The Vampire: Creature of the Burial, and he asked four theatres in France to show the film. When he received it, it was too short - it was only one hour and ten minutes long. So, he said (to me) ‘we need half an hour to put with this film we have, so if you can shoot it, we can release it in the theatres’. He (knew) that I was very fond of this kind of film… So I called the producers and I said ‘listen, if we make this half an hour film we (will) have four cinemas to put it in’. They said ‘OK (we) will give you a little money’, and so I wrote the script for thirty-five minutes and we made it! Then, afterwards, when this American producer sees what we have done for practically no money, he says: ‘OK, if you are given more money you can make an hour extra and we will have a ninety minute film’. So I wrote the sequel and, let’s see (pauses) the difficulty was at the end of the first shooting… at the end of the thirty five minutes everybody was dead in the story! So, we invented the Queen of the Vampires who comes in from the sea and makes everybody come back and (this was) the story of the film. It was done in two shootings, (the second) one month after the first.
The Rape of the Vampire predates any of the erotic Hammer works. How influential do you think that it was?
I don’t see the influence on Hammer with The Rape of the Vampire. The reason why audiences were so furious was because to (the) people who like this kind of film, the vampire film is Hammer. And, on the contrary, my film is very different and completely crazy! So it was… very criticised… because of the French and Hammer films and so on. The Hammer films work with restrictions you know: beginning, middle and end. My Rape of the Vampire is completely crazy – many propositions I mean.
Which brings me to my next question. You have spoken in the past about the initial audience resentment towards your films in France. Can you explain this further?
I can’t explain it myself. Why they like it now? (shrugs). For The Rape of the Vampire it was terrible, everybody was so furious! At this period I said ‘I will never do films again’. But the scandal was important and the film was a success because of it. so the producers tell me: ‘Make another one, we have money, try another one’. They gave me a little money to make another one (and) after that it was the beginning of it all… but the first one, terrible reception in France.
Your follow up The Naked Vampire (La Vampire Nue, 1969) is, like its predecessor, difficult to follow, sacrificing plot for some beautiful visuals – this time in colour. Do you feel that the look of your films is more important than their plot?
Perhaps (pauses and laughs). There is a story in The Rape of the Vampire and a story in The Naked Vampire, but the story is always made (pauses) it is always an alibi for me to shoot some (visuals) that I want to shoot. You understand what I mean? It’s a tool…
Are you aware that your next film Requim for a Vampire (Requim pour un Vampire, 1971) was screened uncut over here on satellite television (on dodgy late night channel TVX) despite being censored for video release? How do you feel about censorship?
I’m glad to know that! They didn’t pay me! When was it shown on satellite TV?
Sometime in 1995 I believe.
I will see some of the cut versions. It’s too bad, for some of my films it is not so important… some erotica put in it just for commercial (reasons). But for some sequences it is a pity because it is a sequence I like.
Porn and Zombies
In the early seventies you began to venture into the field of hardcore pornography, even including such scenes in the horror film Once Upon a Virgin (Phantasmes, 1975). Why was this?
It was impossible for me to make such films as I was making before. The pornography was (popular) in France, so little cinemas where my films were playing became ‘X’ cinemas. It became impossible to shoot a ‘B’ picture like I had done and I have to (have money to) spend in my life.
So that is why I shot so much extreme… then one day I tried (to) make an ‘X’ film with a real story, like the films I made before. (Phantasmes) was completely shite…
Were you at all influenced by Spain’s Jess Franco who was also beginning to wed horror and sex?
Not at all, not at all. I count my influence as Georges Franju but not Jess Franco (laughs).
What some have said is your best movie Levres de Sang (Lips of Blood, 1975), has yet to be released over here. What can you tell me about the making of this film?
I think it is probably my best story… it is a very good idea. But we met great difficulties. We (were to be) working for five weeks, then on just the first day of shooting one of the producers pulled out! The rest of the producers said: ‘Oh God! Now you make the film in three weeks or we don’t make it (at all)’. So I chose to make it, of course, and I had to make the shoot in three weeks when (originally) it was a five-week shoot. So more difficulties… and there were many things that could not be shot… The film is a little unbalanced, but there are some sequences I like very much. Also, the ending is great for me…
You’ve also made some zombie films such as Pesticide (Les Raisins de la Mort AKA The Raisins of Death, 1977), which appears to be greatly influenced by the work of George Romero, and also Zombie Lake (Le Lac des Morts Vivants, 1980). Why did you decide to enter this genre?
It was the period of zombie films and the producer, again, said to me: ‘We need a zombie film, do you want to make one? Also, in the same period the great success was catastrophic films like The Towering Inferno, like The Poseidon (Adventure), like Earthquake and so on. So I said ‘maybe we can make a kind of film like The Towering Inferno, like The Poseidon Adventure and (also like) the zombie films. So we find an idea… Zombie Lake, it is just a commercial film. I don’t put my name on it.
Yes, I believe you go under the pseudonym of J.A. Laser.
Yes (laughs). Zombie Lake – it is a funny story. One day the producers phone for me (while) I’m adjusting my suitcase to go on holiday, and they say ‘we need you to make a fantastique zombie film…’ I went ‘when?’ and they said ‘tomorrow morning…’ I said ‘why not?’ Then, on the set, there is nothing. They just tell me what to shoot. I know now that the film was supposed to (have) been done by Jess Franco (but) he just didn’t turn up…
On speaking about your films Brigette Lahaie has said : ‘I don’t even think that it is justified to call them horror films because they really aren’t. They hardly ever try to be frightening or shocking. They have a timeless, romantic quality’. Would you agree with this?
Yes… as I have said, I don’t like so much gory pictures, what I like is the difference… when you see the older Dracula films of Universal you are not frightened. But there is, you know, something strange… that is what I try and find in my films. Not to scare people but, I don’t know how to say it, that strange little thing that makes my films different. It’s a kind of poetry and if you know my films you know exactly what I mean.
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