The Iron Rose

 

The Iron Rose Dir by Jean Rollin. starring Francois Pascal (1973).

Jean Rollin is a director I tend to favor over his mutant Spaniard twin Jess Franco! Lately I’ve been digging the latter. Not that they’re related but as as avid watcher of Euro-sleaze with psychedelic music I see them as rivals or on opposing teams. I highly doubt they were even in competition. As if they’re Bela Lugosi vs Karloff or Argento vs Fulci! Ha--what nerd drivel, take that shit over to reddit!! Iron Rose is a rare Jean Rollin in that there’s no vampires present. Let’s not get too far ahead in our travels through the dilapidated French countryside just yet. I rented this and another title that escaped me, called funnily enough The Escapees (1982). 

This film begins at a family gathering where our two characters form a close bond ignited by some poetry. I’m such a champion of JR that I convinced the dept. that Rollin needs his own title card at the record store I work at. Sure--why not have a Bozo the clown looking person walk through the graves?!! OK movie what else you got?

This Dystopia album cover makes me horny

The two lovers strip and fondle under the tomb. This is all morphing into some kind of sick joke. I’m along for this ride so far. Now it’s dark and the couple is trapped and they start to panic. I’m hoping that clown might show up to devour them, its jaws dangling with meat and cocaine. 

Point me to the primo beef and booger sugar

Karine, the main woman wears all these fashionable checkered shirts, she has very sharp cheekbones almost like the queen of cheekbones herself Janet Agren. Francoise Pascal was also in Burke and Hare(1972).The big eared dopey boyfriend played by Hugues Quester manhandles her into submission and I’m pretty sure this relationship is over. 

It's over when I say it's over Crank!

They play screamey power games with each other in the dark graveyard. And yes, not much is going on but I am still awake and for sure want to see where it leads to. Oops---I was wrong because the rough stuff was their foreplay for sex among skulls and bones in a pit of jagged rocks. Some of this reminds of Nekromantik (1988) territory. 

I like when Karine says "Don’t worry the dead are our friends"! It didn’t take long for this girl to lose her mind! She looks amazing naked on the beach stepping on more jagged rocks—-Ouch! She recites poetry this time by the waves. Have you noticed how much poetry is involved in the storyline, it's only because we're sunken into the dream weaves of the French Vampire auteur. I won’t spoil what happens to her boyfriend (who’s character name is never spoken), but to me he gets what’s coming to him. This in my opinion is Rollin’s most Bergman-esque film. The spookiness by the crashing waves and the hypnotic nature remind me of a scene with Liv Ullman looking at the screen and mournfully speaking about insanity. Kino Lorber has a Blu-ray available and I've seen other Jean Rollin titles streaming on Tubi and Hoopla. This one is hard to find streaming however and I think it's worth a watch even if there weren't any vampires.