| La
Rose De Fer
DVD released: September 25, 2007.
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| Quick links: [video] [audio] [extras] [overall] |
| The Film |
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La
Rose De Fer, or The
Iron Rose, one of
Jean Rollin’s most obscure films at least in terms of visibility, is
short on plot but high on atmosphere. A young man and a young woman (Francoise
Pascal of The Grapes Of Death) are drawn to each other after
they meet and soon head off on a bicycle ride that leads them to a creepy
old cemetery. They wander in and the man decides that they should head on
down into one of the tombs for a little romance. She’s not too keen on
the idea but decides that rather than be left alone among the gravestones
she’d better oblige him. Once
they’re down there and they’ve done their business they come out of the
tomb to find things have taken a turn for the worse. As they try and
find their way out of the cemetery, things spiral out of control and soon
they both find themselves going quite insane. As
much an art film as it is a horror film, if not more so, La Rose De
Fer is a very nice looking movie that has a lot of Rollin’s
trademark touches on very obvious display - the obligatory beach scene, a random clown
(Rollin’s favorite cinematic clown, Mireille Dargent of Requiem
For A Vampire, Demoniacs and Lips Of Blood), plenty of gothic architecture and even a guy who may or may not be a
vampire running around amongst the tombstones at one point. The more the
young couple explore the burial grounds, hoping to find their way home and
back to safety, the more complex their travels become and it seems that
the land itself is conspiring against them to keep them inside its gates. Plenty
of long, lingering shots of the cemetery provide an eerie setting for the
events to transpire inside of, and Rollin’s camera work does a great job
of capturing how intimidating a large burial ground can be at night.
Trapped in among the dead, the two characters slowly but surely lose
themselves much like the viewer will lose him or herself in the film not
through intense dialogue (there’s actually not a lot said in the film,
really) but through the ambience and the atmosphere that the director
creates with his nightmarish mood. La Rose De Fer is a poetic film that functions less on the linearism of its plot and story and more on the claustrophobia that its characters experience as the movie builds. While it doesn’t all happen at a break neck pace and there aren’t any horrific set pieces or over the top moments of sex or gore, the film doesn’t need them and as a semi-surrealist, and at times almost minimalist, take on what is, at the literal core of its plot, simply a night out gone wrong, it works very nicely. |
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| Video | 2.5/5 | |
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| Audio | 3/5 | |
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The Iron Rose is presented in its original French language in Dolby Digital Mono formats with optional subtitles provided in English only. There aren't any problems with hiss or distortion and the dialogue is clean and reasonably clear. The white subtitles are easy to read and free or any obvious typographical or grammatical errors. |
| Extras | 2.5/5 | |
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The
main supplement on this disc is the inclusion of one of Rollin's early
short films. Les
Pays Loins runs just under sixteen-minutes in length and was
directed by Rollin way back when in 1965. It’s presented here in a black
and white 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer (though like the feature,
it's not flagged for progressive scan playback) and it tells the story of
a man and a woman who find themselves in an alternate world. No one speaks
their language, and they’re obviously scared, wondering how they got
here and how to get away. It isn’t difficult to pick out some of the
‘Rollin touches’ in the movie such as the decaying architecture, the
gothic churches, and the strange sexual inferences, as you definitely get
that sense of emptiness and that other worldly look that has made his work
so fascinating for so many of us. Watch for a truly odd scene with a
band of black musicians about half way through - it seems out of place but
then again, maybe it's supposed to. The film is presented in its original
French language with burned in English subtitles.
The short was included on the Encore release of Les Demoniaques but appears in NTSC format for the first time on this DVD. Unfortunately, for some reason at the 14:02 mark, just after the 'You're soaked - We'll dry our clothes here' dialogue, the film freezes. The audio continues to play out properly but the last two minutes of the movie don't appear - the video hangs on the frozen frame. This is quite frustrating as the film plays out fine on the Encore release. Also found here is a still gallery for Les Pays Loins (seven black and white images), and a 'teaser' for the upcoming release of the book Blood & Honor, a lavish collection of photography documenting 'Satanic Sluts.' This is basically four stills taken from the book and it has nothing to do whatsoever with Rollin or The Iron Rose. Rounding out the extra features are a still gallery of half a dozen color photos from the movie, the original English theatrical trailer (3:33) for the feature (re-titled as The Crystal Rose Or Night At The Cemetery, non-anamorphic widescreen), and trailers for a few other Redemption DVD releases: Hurt (2:30) and Black Mass (0:38). |
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| Overall | 3/5 | |
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Well, Redemption's transfer leaves something to be desired and there's obviously a problem with the ending of the short film. As far as the film itself is concerned, it isn't Rollin's best but it's definitely a very good entry in the early part of his filmography and as a preface to what would later emerge from the director, The Iron Rose is quite fascinating. |
| Film Rating | DVD Rating | |||
| Director: | Jean Rollin |
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| Writer: | Jean Rollin |
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| Released: | 1973 |
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| Cast: | Mireille Dargent, Francoise Pascal |
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