Fascination

Marc (Jean-Marie Lemaire) is a thief who double-crosses his gang and takes refuge in a castle.  Inside, he discovers two lovely young aristocratic ladies (Brigitte Lahaie and Franca Maï).  They pretend to be servants, they act scared, then coy, then aggressive… toying with him, and warning/enticing him with the promise of “friends” arriving that night.  Marc is intrigued and amused, but when you’re told that “Death” is on his way, you shouldn’t take that lightly….

This is my first experience with Jean Rollin, but I’m familiar with him by reputation as a purveyor of this sort of dreamy, gothic erotica.  There’s a lot here to titillate the softcore enthusiast, with naked lesbian makeout sessions and lots of women wearing “costumes” that are nothing more than the thinnest of gauzy robes that conveniently blow away at the slightest breeze.  As horror I didn’t find it particularly effective.  Nothing here is very surprising or unsettling or disturbing.

But it is a fairly nice mood piece.  With music and pacing and some artful arrangement of images, Rollins sets a tone of creepy mystery and maintains it well… even it never really pays off.  Lemaire is kind of terrible, but perhaps his smug, smirky demeanor just makes you more eager to see him get what’s coming to him (although it makes Maï’s infatuation with him difficult to swallow).  Lahaie is the most interesting of the three central performances, playful and relatively unpredictable.  I also liked Fanny Magier as the leader of their little coven.

Not really sure at this point if I want to go any further with Rollin.  I would like to see what he could do with either a more developed plot, or a more surreal construction.  This occupies a middle ground that isn’t too exciting for me, but there is a hint of poetry and craftsmanship to it.  Rating: Fair (62)

IMDb