Fascination

For those who have never experienced a film by Director Jean Rollin, this is the year where a fabulous company Powerhouse/Indicator has released 6 titles in the Blu Ray 4HD format of Rollin's repertoire for fans and beginners. All are recommended but this latest release 'FASCINATION' -1979 is a revelation. All the past DVDs and Blu Rays are left in the dust with this ultimate transfer of the film. I am commenting on the standard Blu Ray release. The acting and editing always criticized in the past are enhanced by the clarity ofthe image. The plot synopsis has appeared in other reviews but suffice it to say, this is one of my favorite vampire films of all time as it breaks traditions with the usual fangs and undead legends. The release is loaded with extras including interviews with Rollin, music composer Philippe D'Aram and actress Fanny Mager, a 1998 documentary on Rollin called 'VIRGINS AND VAMPIRES' which is a great homage to his work, and more including an 80 page booklet with essays and interviews. As with all of Indicators releases, they are numbered limited additions so grab them while you can. They are pricey but worth it. I have always championed the works of this brilliant Director and I hope this release will whet the appetites for beginnerswilling to have an open mind experiencing true erotic Horror.

With the nudity, scenery and atmosphere, Jean Rollin films are usually best to be seen in HD. This one has excellent locations with the castle and peaceful countryside. The entire thing is nice to look at with the scenery, peaceful atmosphere and full nude sequences. There's some blood in the film, but there isn't anything really graphic. I wouldn't recommend it if you're just looking for gore. The setting for the entire film is basically a castle with a surrounding moat. There's plenty to look at throughout with the inside, outside, atmosphere, and the plentiful nude scenes. The scenes with Brigitte slaying with the scythe could've been more effective if they were more graphic. However, the easy to follow story with the way the entire thing looks makes it an excellent midnight flick for those who want a big 70s style feel in a sex horror film or if you want an exploitation film that concentrates mainly on visuals. I also thought the replay value was really good.The quality is very nice and you get some excellent special features. The best ones are the 2 more explicit deleted sex sequences with Brigitte. Then there's another extra with Jean Rollin that discusses his work. This is really good also. You also get some trailers. I paid about $15 for it when the price went down and definitely thought it was worth it for both the film and those 2 deleted sex scenes and the Jean Rollin extra.

Okay, Jean Rollin is far from a great director, I suppose. He's really inept in some respects. For instance, the "action" and gunplay scenes at the beginning of this film are very amateurishly shot and staged. BUT (as Pee Wee Herman says, everybody has a big but) . . . Rollin is brilliant at creating a hypnotic, dreamlike atmosphere, and he has a real feel for surreal imagery. Rollin's a true original, his films truly aren't like anyone else's, and I award big points for originality.Fascination has basically no plot. A criminal on the run hides out in an old chateau and ends up the victim of a strange blood-drinking cult of women. That's about it. But believe me, you haven't lived until you've seen a half-naked Brigitte Lahaie wielding a scythe. Lahaie is a wonderful film actress. Besides being unusually sexy, she's blessed with real screen presence.If you're open to unconventional films, you owe it to yourself to check out Fascination, or any Jean Rollin films other than Zombie Lake.

I had the dvd of this one and then upgraded to the blu ray. It is not restored. There is still plenty of print damage on this one, however they did master this from the original film negative! The colors and picture is therefore better. This is a interesting story of female vampires in a castle that is very erotic. It's in french and it is as good as the classic 'grapes of death' too.It's in the tradition of 'vampyres' and 'daughters of darkness'. It's more literate than rollins earlier vampire movies. There is a plot here and those are more expirimental. Soon after this Rollins made the interesting low budget nazi zombie movie 'zombie lake' , it's not near as good as this but it's fun. This is a solid horror film and rollins did it right back then. So did the actors who pull this off too. A eurohorror favorite. The picture is unrestored here but acceptable. this is only in french with english subtitles. the blu ray has several extra deleted scenes with no sound, and a 1999 tv british tv show episode. From eurotic! or something close to that. The show would showcase directors form europe who made erotic films both horror and other types. They interview the late director and he's quite a interesting character. he died in 2010. But this does have a plot and is a solid movie, some of this directors movies are real art house stuff and this is a standard tale of anemia victims who pray on men for their blood!. Many consider it a horror classic from that era as well as his 'grapes of death'. Both solid flicks for even non Rollin's fans. I like the art house ones; except his first one. Which has no plot at all! The rest have a plot with lots of images and fantasies. His films can be said to be fantasy films mixed with horror , although this one is more straight horror.

Diese Rezension bezieht sich auf die UK-BD des Labels "Black House", die 2012 erschien und auf der der Film in einer Länge von 81:33 Minuten im französischen Original mit zuschaltbaren englischen Untertiteln zu sehen ist. Extras gibt es, bis auf fünf Rollin-Trailer, nicht."Fascination" entstand 1979 und gehört zu den Filmen Jean Rollins (1938-2010), die mittlerer Güteklasse sind. "Fascination" ist kein Meisterwerk, hat aber seine Qualitäten und Höhepunkte.Die Handlung spielt anscheinend Anfang des letzten Jahrhunderts. Ein junger und gut gekleideter Mann flieht vor einer Verbrecherbande, die ihm sein Gold abnehmen will. Er findet Zuflucht hinter den Mauern eines Schlosses, das verlassen scheint, aber zwei junge Frauen beherbergt. Er will die Nacht abwarten, um dann im Dunkeln heimlich verschwinden zu können. Die beiden Frauen verbergen ein Geheimnis und scheinen weder vor ihm noch vor seinem Revolver Angst zu haben. Und sie möchten, dass er auf alle Fälle etwas länger bleibt...Die Besetzung ist mal wieder gut (die obligatorische Rollin-Actreuse Brigitte Lahaie, als männlichen Part Jean Marie Lemaire und in ihrem Debut Franca Mai, die vor allem am Ende zeigt, was schauspielerisch in ihr steckt) und das Schloß ist eine großartige Kulisse. Gut ausgeleuchtet und fotografiert ist der Film auch. Natürlich zeigen Brigitte und die anderen weiblichen Darsteller auch mal wieder jede Menge Haut. Seine größte Schwäche ist seine ziemliche Vorhersehbarkeit, vor allem wenn man mit Rollin-Themen etwas vertraut ist. So bleibt der Film etwas im Mittelmaß stecken, was nur ein besseres Drehbuch hätte ändern können.

In the middle of rural France there's a castle where two attractive females - Eva and Elisabeth -waste away their days, waiting for some initially unspecified event. Elsewhere a group of bandits have robbed some poor sod carrying a fortune in gold and are about to make off with it when an argument splits their group and Marc makes off with the bag having betrayed his fellow criminals. After a struggle with his hostage he is located in the woodland by the other thieves and is forced to take refuge in the aforementioned castle, where he meets the two girls. Threatening them with his, er, gun the women appear to be distinctly unperturbed by his aggressive attitude towards them. Meanwhile the other bandits are keeping a safe distance from the castle effectively preventing Marc from leaving while waiting for their chance to launch an attack. It becomes apparent that Eva and Elisabeth are awaiting the arrival of a posse of bourgeois females in the middle of the night for some sort of ritualistic meeting. Unable to leave due to the gun-toting bandits outside and now unwilling to leave anyway due to a notable degree of sexual enticement from Eva, Marc is destined to be swept up in the strange activities that are about to take place in the castle... The most suitable approach to Rollin's work is to forget about cinematic convention, remove expectation of complete verisimilitude, and sit back to witness the strange events of a place that surely can't exist. Fascination is actually a better starting point than many of his other films and one of his best all round.Following a history of releases on VHS and DVD by Redemption, reasonable at the time but not particularly holding up nowadays in the hi-def era, Stateside company Kino have teamed with Redemption to thankfully remaster this (along with several other of the director's movies) in high definition - image quality jumps significantly on the Blu-ray, with strengthened colour schemes and wonderfully naturalistic detail without being excessively sharp; indeed, on occasions there is an authentic haziness during certain sequences. Running at 24 frames per second the accurately framed (1.66:1) full HD picture, often an immersive joy to behold, is accompanied again by original language French (uncompressed two channel mono) with clear English subtitles as an option (no English language audio track is present). Also present are two highly desirable softcore outtakes (with Lahaie) totalling around fifteen minutes and apparently shot if the film was required for export to more liberal territories, plus a twenty five minute documentary about Rollin that I originally saw broadcast on British TV surprisingly. Finishing off this awesome package are the trailers to the five films initially released under Kino's Rollin series and a very attractive booklet (unfortunately the same as the one included with the other discs, but welcome nonetheless). With this Blu-ray Disc, Jean Rollin's work looks and feels better than ever - this is the way this material was meant to be experienced, and is easier to appreciate with the respectful job that Kino have done. If you're a Rollin fan, get this captivating film on Blu-ray immediately; if you're not, consider opening your mind and putting your toe in the inviting waters - you may find yourself jumping in completely!Paul (The Grim Cellar)

Great thanks

This is one of Jean Rollin's more successful erotic Vampire tales. It features the very wonderful Brigitte Lahaie at her most seductive.However I am most disappointed that it is not the full version. Why the 80 second credit sequence with Brigitte & friend dancing to a gramophone record has been removed is beyond me. Particularly as it is there on a much older videotape (also by Redemption) that I have.

If you like Jean Rollin you will love this film. Sex, vampires and beautiful women. What more could you ask for.