Hommage à Jean Rollin by Lucas Balbo

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An Hommage to Jean Rollin (3/11/1938-15/12/2010),

by Lucas Balbo et Merrill Aldighieri.

As Lugosi said in GLEN OR GLENDA, «Hunted! Despised! Living Like An Animal!» could have been a quote for Jean Rollin’s career in films.

As young as 6 years old, young Jean took an interest in the cinema. He climbed the business ladder step by step, first a trainee, then assistant editor and finally director. From the start, he didn't take the easy path by diving straight into his chosen genre of Horror and Fantasy. In those times, the sixties, those cinematic genres were lumped into the same category with Porn by the popular press. However, in 1965, he revealed his true love by signing a short film that blossomed into his first feature, The rape of the vampire (Le viol du vampire).

«I quickly wrote a little story, found a deserted château and we began shooting. I had no experience and... well, I had a team of friends, I found by coincidence. It was everyone's first film. It really was an amateur film, and so we shot day and night, literally. There are some incredible stories from that shoot. At the end of the second consecutive night of filming with no sleep, the cameraman dozed off at the camera, and I noticed when I said “cut”and he didn't.» (Jean Rollin interviewed by Eric S. Eichelberger to be published in an upcoming issue of Rue Morgue)

His next directed film, The nude vampire (La vampire nue) in 1968, showed a leap forward in professionalism. Despite its exceptional originality, the film was still a flop at the box office and even caused riots in a few Parisian theatres - fuelled by the actual student revolution! Alone against all, Rollin continued in the next years to create originals films where we can feel the influences of the artist painter Georges Bataille, the writer Marquis De Sade, the poet André Breton and the surrealists in general, as well as French pulp novels like the ones of Gaston Leroux, resulting in a unique style drenched in the vampire theme.

Little by little, thanks to his perseverance and his strength of character, Rollin imposed his style. He is practically the only one in France to create steadily in the Horror and Fantasy genre. At the dawn of the 90’es, thanks to the international video market, he rose to cult status overseas, particularly in England, where his poetic quiet style was a delightful departure for the English speaking public who were then drenched in blood and guts on the screen.

Unfortunately, this was also the time when he discovered his kidney failure condition, which would lead to regular dialysis and further heavy life complications. That didn’t stop him from creating one of his most touching vampire film, Two Orphan Vampires (Les deux orphelines vampires) which demonstrates again his attachment to popular litterature and sexy vampire stories.

Despite more health problems, Rollin continued with the richest and most achieved films of his career with La fiancée of Dracula (2002), and La nuit des horloges which is still unreleased to this day theatrically, even in France. On December 15, 2010, after complicated surgery, Rollin died leaving his latest opus Le masque de la Méduse without a final edited print. Hopefully, the film is completed so, rest assured, the world will hear again of Jean Rollin...

October 2011