The latest pick for the Daily Grindhouse should delight fellow site contributor Lisa Marie. I say this because I know of no one else who loves all things Jean Rollin as much as she does. I also picked this particular grindhouse flick because it has the lovely Brigitte Lahaie in it. Those who know need no explanation as to why that coulnts a lot in my pick and for those not in the know will just have to figure it out themselves.
I picked Jean Rollin’s Le Raisins de la Mort (also known as The Grapes of Death) because the title just spoke to me. A zombie (or at least zombie-like) flick with the word “raisins” in the title. What’s not to love and, not to continue repeating myself, it has the lovely Brigitte Lahaie in it even if for just a supporting role. A role that definitely shows her best front, sides and back (I’m a guy so sue me).
If there was ever a reason Jean Rollin has my undying props it’s for always finding a reason to cast Brigitte Lahaie in his films. Now, if Steven Soderbergh can just follow his lead and just keep casting Sasha Grey in all his future films then he’ll have my undying support as well.
This particular grindhouse pick definitely doesn’t make for a good way to promote France’s great wine traditions and their fabulous vintages. What it does promote is France’s own particular take on the zombie genre of the 70’s. Where zombie flicks were always seen as American and Italian provinces of the horror scene other countries had their hand in pushing the genre, but France (with some help from Rollin himself) added their own spin on it by shamelessly (one I applaud and am thankful for) keeping the lovely female performers in them in differing modes of undress.
For that I just have to say one thing: Vive la France!
Through the Shattered Lens 
Since that is pretty much a dialogue-less trailer, one can’t tell – Is this a French-language film? (They do kind of grunt and scream in French.) Is there an English subs print?
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It’s a French film. It got two US DVD releases. in 2002 under Synapse Films and again in 2008 under Redemption Films. And yes, they’re both French-language w/ English-subs.
I don’t even think most grindhouse flicks nowadays outside of the kung fu and samurai grindhouse are released on dvd using English dubs.
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Yep. I found it. 1978. Pesticide-induced zombies and French babes. I’m there, dude.
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This is one of my personal favorite movies from one of my favorite directors. It’s probably also — along with the Living Dead Girl — one of the better films to serve as an introduction to Jean Rollin’s work. It has just enough of his own signature themes while still being accessible to audiences who have never seen any other Rollin films. I love Rollin but it does take a few viewings before one can really get into some of his other films.
The DVD I have is in French and has subtitles but Rollin’s films are always very purposefully dream-like and visually-orientated. The dialogue is secondary to the images. All you need to know is that there are “zombies” prowling the French countryside and you’ll be able to follow the film even if you can’t speak a word of French.
I believe this was Rollin’s attempt to prove that he could make a commercial horror film as opposed to just arty vampire films. He succeeded as this was a huge hit in France. It’s also the 1st French zombie film though as far as Romero comparisons go, it has more in common with the Crazies than with Night of the Living Dead.
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Yeah, The Crazies was where I thought it had something more in common with than the Living Dead series.
I think Rollin shares a lot in terms of thematic style with Fulci. They both like to work with a surrealist eye. The difference between the two being Fulci’s films tend to be more on the nightmarish-side of the surreal while Rollin’s more on the slightly more benign. I also like to think the two share the penchant to stick with one particular beautiful actress in some of their best work. Fulci stuck by Catriona MacColl while Rollin stuck with Brigitte Lahaie.
Now, those two in the same film would be like a female grindhouse version of The Expendables. 🙂
Again, to use Fulci as a reference point, Rollin’s films could be seen with just the soundtrack and ambient sounds. It’s where Fulci and Rollin are more like past silent film traditionalists than modern filmmakers. Makes one wonder how the two would’ve fit in with the German Expressionists like Murnau, Mayer. Pabst and Lang.
Of the two I will admit that I enjoy Fulci’s work more even though they don’t have Ms. Lahaie in them. Fulci’s work just speaks more to my nihilistic and apocalyptic tendencies. I’m sure Rollin’s work speaks to you in ways that I definitely would approve of. 🙂
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It just occurred to me, if I remember correctly, that the film “Let Sleeping Corpses Lie” had a similar premise – the zombies were created by pesticides. This was a fairly early zombie flick – ’74 or so. I think it was British – I recall an Alpha Romeo-ish car and bobbies. Well, they did have guns, so I guess they weren’t bobbies. And Alfa Romeos are Italian. I don’t know what I am talking about. European film, at least. It looked like English countryside. Whatever the case, an unremarkable but decent effort.
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It’s definitely English though the director is from Spain. Most zombie grindhouse flicks tend to be rehashed over and over in terms of ideas and premise.
Filmmakers of that era tried to do their zombie flicks using locations and plots that differs from Romero’s first two films. For films which owe a lot to Romero and their filmmakers would say the same they strayed very far away from the “siege” plot device that’s the foundation of all Romero zombie films.
American filmmakers would copy Romero’s siege premise all the time while European and Mexican horror filmmakers always tried to stay away from it until the very end. This is why at times these Italina, French and Mexican zombie grindhouse films tend to not make sense.
As for the Alfa Romeos….well they may be Italian but I’m sure there were more than a few posh Brits who bought them for the English countryside. 🙂
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Also, can we add Anna Falchi to Arleigh’s Horror Wet Dream Team? I guess she isn’t any particular director’s favorite (why the hell not? Haven’t they seen her?!!), but who cares?
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Falchi actually has done just one horror film, but she definitely left a lasting impression with that one and only.
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Yes, she really should have gotten some kind of Academy Award. Perhaps we could create a category just for her performance –
“And the award for hottest model cum actress in a foreign yet English-language existential philosophy horror/comedy goes to…”
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If there such a competition then as much as Ms. Falchi is quite the gorgeous specimen I would have to vote either for Brigitte Lahaie or Catriona MacColl.
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Wow. I am surprised that there could be either any other film that fits that description, or any actress that could compete for the award. Needless to say, I have to check these ladies out.
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I love Let Sleeping Corpses Lie! It was originally retitled, for the U.S., “Don’t Go Near The Window” or something like that. I know that because Egdar Wright has talked about how he referenced this by naming his fake trailer for Grindhouse “Don’t.” (Though the trailer itself was based on a trailer for an Italian giallo called Torso which I’ll review some day in the future.) Another title for Let Sleeping Corpses Lie was The Living Dead At the Manchester Morgue which I just kinda liked becsause it was so like “How can a movie with a title like that be bad?” Plus, it stars Ray Lovelock who has an important supporting role in Autopsy (which is, of course, featured in my last batch of trailers.) And the success of Autopsy inspired Torso — not plotwise but just titlewise. Anyways…
The Fulci and Rollin comparison is really apt because both directors essentially created dreams on film, it’s just the Fulci’s dreams were nightmares and Rollin’s dream are more like dark fairy tales. Also, both Fulci and Rollin found their “success’ by bringing their own sort of nationalism on to the American horror genre. In other words, Fulci’s films — which are so over-the-top and full of dread and secrets — are very much Italian whereas Rollin’s more lyrical, memory-obsessed films could only be French.
It helps, with Rollin, to see every one of his own films as just a part of a bigger film that’s still in process. This is because Rollin — again, like Fulci — tends to return to the same personal themes in every film and as such, his individual films take on an even greater meaning when viewed as parts of a whole. Fulci continually returned to the image of eyes being violently destroyed in his horror films while, in reality, he was struggling with diabetes and slowly going blind himself. (This is why many think that Fulci’s death was actually a suicide because what greater curse could there be for a director than to go blind?) Rollin, on the other hand, always seems to return to the same theme of two young woman — sometimes sisters, sometimes not — who like a pair of Little Red Riding Hoods end up getting lost in the forrest. Rollin — and it should be understood that he’s always been more of a visual poet than a conventional film director — is, like many French directors, obsessed with memory and a nostalgia for a more innocent (perhaps pre-World War II, I’d have to do more research to say for sure) time, a nostalgia for the romantic France that may or may not have once existed. For Rollin, all the vampires and the zombies and all the rest, are represenative of all the things that can lead his “pure” heroines away from the nostalgic fantasy of what France once was and back into the reality of the world. In that way, Rollin is much like Romero who also uses “fantasy” creatures as his symbol of modern man.
That said, the Grapes of Death was Rollin’s attempt to make a more commercial film than he had in the past. So while the film definitely contains all the themes I mentioned, the movie itself is still designed to watchable for viewers who just want to watch a good horror film. Definitely, if you’ve never seen a Rollin film, The Grapes of Death is a good place to start. Other goods one to give a try: The Night of the Hunted and The Living Dead Girl. After you’ve seen those, I’d suggest moving on to his vampire films (he’s done a countless number of them), starting with Fascination and Two Orphan Vampires. And if you need a good laugh, watch Zombie Lake but understand that Rollin was brought in at the last minute to replace Jesse Franco and, as such, it’s not one of his personal projects. It is a lot of fun though, in it’s low budget way, so-bad-its-good-way. 🙂
Of course, I should also add that people seem to either love or hate Jean Rollin’s films. I love them but then again, I’m also one of those arty types who occasionally speaks in French for no reason and who is occasionally known to wear a beret. 🙂
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OK. I watched this film last night. Pretty good. It was more cohesive than I was expecting it to be. Only a couple of “Why did they do that?” scenes.
Elisabeth was a whole lotta no help while Lucy was being decapitated by Lucas, just kneeling there and watching. I thought perhaps she had run out of bullets. But no, the pistol was still a factor in subsequent scenes. And then one of the two guys with the rifle tell Brigitte Lahaie (okay, Arleigh, I see what you mean…) not to throw the torch into the truck because it contains dynamite. Great thinking, dude.
One could quibble with the contrivedness of the scene where Ms. Lahae disrobes to “prove” that she is not infected, but, of course, that was the best scene in the film. You could dismiss it as being just an excuse to have her be nude, but clearly, no excuse is needed.
I liked this film. It played it straightforwardly, with all of the stylistic elements Ms. Bowman described.
As for our new Academy Award category nominees, well, Ms. Lahaie speaks for herself, so to speak. I think I prefer Ms. Falchi. She looks somewhat more “exotic” to me. But Lahaie looks very natural; amazing, really. I suspect Falchi may bit of a product of modern science. Worthy candidates, both.
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You could not be more precise!!!
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