The Shiver of the Vampires
(Le frisson des vampires, 1970)

Jean Rollin

France

96 min, color, French (English subtitles)

Review © 2005 Branislav L. Slantchev

Along with Fascination, The Shiver of the Vampires ranks as my absolute favorite Rollin film. In terms of visuals, this is pure cinematic delight. It is no fluke that I could not select the usual 20 or fewer images to illustrate this review and was forced to settle for 26 even after an agonizing selection process from an initial run of over 60 screen caps. My apologies if I have not included your favorite scene---and I can probably guess which one(s) they are! (As you can see, there is no full frontal nudity here because I'm trying to make this particular review PG just to lure new viewers into watching the film.)

Marie-Pierre Castel and Kuelan Herce	The entombment of the vampire slayers

Let's begin with the obvious: Sandra Julien who plays the recently wedded Ise There are very, very few actresses who can grace the screen with presence that even begins to approach hers. It is not only that she is strikingly beautiful---cover girl looks are a dime a dozen in the film industry. It is not that she is particularly impressive as a dramatic actress---here she says no more than 10 sentences and the tense drama consists of basically sucking on a dead pigeon. It is not that she undresses at every opportune moment and even some less auspicious ones---she is actually quite modestly shot just to annoy those who want to gape at her forms.

Unforgettable image	The unlucky couple arrives at the castle

So what, then, is her inexplicable attraction? For her magnetism cannot be denied: she pulls you into the film, and pretty soon you find yourself rooting for anything and everything that would make things go her way. She is the quintessential femme fatale without the darkness and the obvious sultriness that is usually assumed part of the charm of that dangerous beauty. If anything, she is as innocent as they come, with these deep huge eyes and gentle lips that would never mouth anything as vulgar as the simplest curse. But all this modesty is deceptive even if she herself is the not pretending. Even without intending it, by her very presence she will doom any man that comes near her, and a godly number of women as well.

Gratuitous shot of Sandra Julien	Isolde emerges from the grandfather clock

As I said, it is not at all clear to me what it is that is so attractive in her, but Rollin has cast her superbly and she carries the entire film just with her scenes. This is not to say that the other actors are unimportant. Far from it. Take Marie-Pierre Castel who plays one of the maids. I have raved about her role in Requiem for a Vampire, and here her performance is also stellar. I think she has exactly two lines in the entire film, and yet she is in almost every scene. Rollin has mastered the art of drinking deep from her eyes as well, and her face is the centerpiece of many sequences, conveying just the right emotion without words and without exaggerated theatrical expressions.

Ise's initiation into the vampire underworld	What all maids do when off duty

To be sure, the other leads leave something to be desired in the acting department. The two former vampire hunters and now sometimes reluctant but often enthusiastic bloodsuckers are often embarrassing. On one hand, they are clearly intended to be, as Isolde the wandering vampire calls them, "bourgeois vampires." They are decadent, self-indulgent, self-important, self-pitying, self-absorbed, and generally quite silly with all their 19th century attire, grandiloquent recitations, pretense at profundity, and pleas for understanding. On the other hand, they are supposed to be quite irredeemably evil: they think nothing of raping another vampire, or murdering potential witnesses (on the pretext that they want to spare the world the added evil of a new vampire), molesting their maids, and allowing the murder of their former lover, among other things.

Antoine has the book thrown at him	The two most significant leading ladies

They are both silly and dangerous, a strange combination that requires a lot of skill to pull off. Nothing short of a bravura performance would work, and although the two deliver on the silliness, they utterly fail on the menacing side, and instead end up looking as two overdressed wimps who can't wipe even their own mouths, let alone hunt fresh victims to satisfy their carnal vampiric lust. Despite their boasts, they don't seem to hunt much, if at all. In the one scene they drink blood, their maids supply it by voluntarily cutting themselves for their master's drinking pleasure. So these two were a bit of a disappointment, but it's not as major as to spoil the rest of the film.

Expressive expressionless faces	Ise longing for Isolde's next visit

The story can be summarized in a couple of paragraphs. We know that something is amiss from the opening of the film: two caskets are entombed as the maids and another woman, Isabelle (Nicole Nancel), look on. Later, the two maids enter a tower with two chained men with stakes driven through their hearts. Before dying, one of them instructs the maids to go immediately to the cemetery and stake the two recently deceased people so they will not turn into vampires. But when the girls go to the cemetery, it is too late for Isolde (Dominique) has awakened. To save themselves, the girls pledge to serve their masters who need to assistance of living people who can tolerate sunlight to find the requisite number of victims. So when Ise and her husband Antoine (Jean-Marie Durand) arrive at the castle belonging to Ise's two cousins (Michel Delahaye as the taller silver-haired one, and Jacques Robiolles as the darker long-haired one), it will just be a matter of time before they have to reckon with the creatures of the night.

Isolde arrives for the next conversion step	The two bourgeois vampires

Distressed by the news of her cousins' recent death, Ise asks Antoine to leave her alone for the night, and so their marriage goes unconsummated. Being a virgin is a dangerous state in any vampire film, and Rollin is no exception. Ise's first night at the castle is also the first night in her transformation to a new being. At midnight, the grandfather clock in her room opens and Isolde steps out, immediately mesmerizing the hapless Ise. The vampire then takes Ise to the cemetery, where she administers the first bite, initiating the process that would eventually turn Ise into an eternally cursed being.

Unconventional killing implements	How I dream of waking up

Antoine's subsequent attempts to save his wife prove futile. With every night, she succumbs to the charms of her new love, and draws away from her husband just as she becomes less and less tolerant of sunlight. She is so far gone that when Antoine shoots a pigeon during one of their walks around the castle, she is compelled to drink the bird's blood. Ise is not the unwilling victim here, however. She does have a chance to avoid the fate Isolde and her cousins have in mind for her when she stumbles across Isolde's coffin perilously exposed under the sky. Ise hesitates for a while: opening the casket would kill Isolde and leave her mortal, letting it remain closed would allow the completion of the initiation. With a slight smile, Ise chooses the latter.

Gratuitous shot of Sandra Julien	Sure, you are my "husband," dear

Unlike Ise, the two maids only serve their masters under duress. They never really say anything (except Marie asking them once why a woman's life could not be spared) but their deadened faces reveal it all. They are trapped and even though they go through the motions, they would welcome an opportunity to escape. When Antoine realizes just how far gone Ise really is, he attempts to us the car to take her away. But the engine won't start, and Marie's giggling and watching him closely reveals that she must have sabotaged it to force him to stay and deal with the noxious cousins and Isolde. The two maids are in the end instrumental in the denouement and win their freedom with an unexpected act of rebellion.

Bloodlust takes over Ise	Gratuitous shot of Marie-Pierre Castel

Despite their powerful allure, the vampires simply cannot influence just anyone: it seems that there must be something inside a person to make him or her vulnerable to their charms. Ise has it, but neither Antoine nor Isabelle do. When Isabelle finds out that her ex-lovers are alive and, in some sense, well, she is actually repulsed. She had admired them when they hunted at night, but now that they have turned into the very creatures they once slew, she finds them rather unmanly and pathetic. She cannot be turned, so she must be sacrificed, which Isolde does, thereby severing the last connection of the cousins with their former lives. The resentment that Isolde is so much more decisive and powerful than they are, roils the cousins enough to arouse them to rape their tormentor. This they do with obvious delight, even as Isolde screams that she hates men (a lesbian vampire, surprise! surprise!)

Just a beautiful shot	Ise is unmoved by Antoine's pleas

Antoine attempts to confront the vampires by pulling out a crucifix but they overpower him and tie him up. He wreathes on the floor, begging Ise to help, but she only smiles with derision and allows herself to be led away for the final conversion ceremony. Without supervision and sensing a chance to escape, the maids free Antoine who promptly abducts Ise in the middle of the ritual. While the cousins give chase, Isolde attempts to retire to the safety of her coffin only to find it ablaze and herself trapped in the cemetery by strategically emplaced crucifixes. She perishes from hunger after desperately trying to satiate herself with her own blood, and the two maids are finally free.

The co-conspirator on the night of rebellion	Antoine whisks Ise away through the cemetery

The final chapter, however, is sad. Antoine carries off Ise to the beach that Rollin loves so much, he has filmed on it for The Rape of the Vampire and Lips of Blood, at the very least. This is where the cousins catch up with him and their quarry. When Ise is given the choice yet again, she voluntarily goes to them, abandoning her now ex husband. In a particularly painful scene, she walks up the her cousins, and surrenders herself to them. In full view of Antoine, they bite her, strip her, and continue drinking her blood until the sun rises and kills all three of them. The film closes with the distraught Antoine running aimlessly around the beach, shooting in the air, and shouting his love for her gone wife. Sad, poetic, and exquisitely crafted, this film is a definite must-see.

Isolde's gruesome death	The sun brings the end of the vampire family

The Redemption DVD is very nice, much better, in fact, than almost any other Rollin film they have released thus far with the possible exception of Fascination. The video is presented in 1.66:1 widescreen, which is unfortunately not anamorphically enhanced although this is quite common for this aspect ratio that is not that much wider than academy. The mono soundtrack is quite loud, which is excellent because the music by the band Acanthus is superb (and reminds me quite a bit of Goblin, the perennial scorers of Dario Argento's best films). The English subtitles are without problems as well. Overall, a very solid presentation that does justice to the psychedelic color scheme of the film. In terms of extras, the disc is bare-bones. There's a trailer, a small gallery of stills, and a director filmography. I don't understand why Redemption don't make the extra effort to reward fans with a commentary track or an interview with the director. Anyway, this is as good as it has gotten so far, and hence this DVD is certainly the way to go. And you know you want to go that way.

December 9, 2005