RIP Jean Rollin (1938-2010)
French filmmaker and novelist Jean Rollin — known for his erotic, gothic horror films — passed away on Wednesday. Rollin was an auteur who described his work as “fantastique.” I’m not that big of a fan of 70s Eurosleaze, but I like the films that I’ve seen by Rollin. Above is an untranslated trailer from Night of the Hunted, which is one his “art” films (and one of my fav Rollin films; reminds me a little of Alain Robbe-Grillet).
Tags: Film, jean rollin
he is one of the absolute masters in my mind, Night of the Hunted, Lips of Blood, and Rose de Fer probably being my favorites. thanks for posting about this, i neglected to when it happened :(
Never knew he wrote novels … RIP
all my fav filmmakers also wrote novels…but who knows if they’re translated. i should investigate….
i think the news of captain beefheart’s passing eclipsed rollin’s.
ps… zulawski also wrote novels… none of them are translated to my knowledge… do you know anything about that? perhaps there are bootlegs or something?
Mike’s recommendation of his 50 favorite films got me to watch Night of the Hunted for the first time last year. Damn, it’s a beauty. The ability to subtly infuse an amnesia horror/melodrama with a deeper philosophical core and wrap it in a sophisticated but unadorned—disorienting, kind of sick-making—visual style is impressive.
i think it was only zulawski’s father that wrote novels? like, The Silver Globe is based on one of his dad’s (or some other relative’s?) book? oh god i hope i’m wrong though, novels by a. zulawski would be fucking incredible. i have a 50 minute documentary called “Zulawski on Zulawski” that I need to watch soon, maybe that’ll shed more light.
yeah, i think yr right w/r/t beefheart. and not to talk shit, but rollin was about 100x more important to me than beefheart, despite the fact that beefheart is fantastic.
they aren’t, which is a bummer. closest thing i’ve encountered (in a really roundabout way) are the novels of mario mercier, who made 2 films and primarily wrote. the only one in translation, Jeanne’s Journal is, literally, an even more fantastique & sex-tinged version of Roussel (though Roussel is probably a ‘better’ writer). I wrote about it here:
http://esotika.blogspot.com/2008/02/jeannes-journal-mario-mercier.html
but yeah, on the Rollin mailing list there’s lots of talk (and hope) that maybe we can at least get some of the novels translated post-mortem. I’m really curious about them.
zulawski’s dad was a poet! they co-wrote scripts together…like 3rd Part of the Night and other early works. i think it was an uncle or something that wrote the epic that Silver Globe was based off of… but the man himself has written at least 4 novels. regarding zulawski, a fansite said “He also wrote the novels Il était Un Verger, Lity Bór (a.k.a: La Forêt Forteresse), V Oczach Tygrysa, and Ogród Milosci.” i want…..
where did you find the Z on Z doc?? would KG have it?
oh shit, niiiiiice. maybe i will inter-library-loan them just to stare.
yeah, i grabbed z on z from KG, subs & all, watching it now
i dig rollins stuff a lot – although maybe from a different viewpoint as i love 70s euro sleaze. i remember back in the uk redemption video put ut a few of his flicks like ‘living dead girl’ and ‘the grapes of death’ in nice restored prints. but it was all of those visually arresting vampire flicks like ‘the nude vampire’ etc that got me interested in rollin.
as a side note, re directors who also wrote books, ed wood penned a bunch of sex / pulp novels with great titles like ‘orgy of the dead’, ‘black lace drag’, ‘sideshow siren’, and ‘raped in the grass’….
http://www.ectomo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/edwoodpulps.jpg
pupi avati is another european director who writes novels and hasn’t been translated. his last film in the horror genre, “il nascondiglio,” was disappointing, but maybe the original novel is better. he’s best known for “the house with laughing windows” but i think he did his best work in the 1990’s with “the arcane sorcerer.”