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Lips of Blood AKA Lèvres de sang (1975)
R0 - Holland - Encore Filmed Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (20th April 2006). |
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The Film
 During the 1970s, French director/co-writer Jean Rollin got strongly involved in the French adult film -scene (with his pseudonyms such as “Michel Gentil” and “Robert Xavier”), when they became legal in France. While he had done a few of them before “Lips of Blood AKA Lèvres de sang (1975)”, he did over 10 X-rated -films after that film in just two years. This was basically his style all the way through to the 1980s; making adult films for the money and entertainment, and then more “serious films” in between for the sake of art and passion. If you ask Rollin, the original script for his film “Lips of Blood” is the best he had written during his career. He authored the script together with actor Jean-Loup Philippe, who wrote most of the dialogue and also ended up playing the lead part. Due to the style of Jean Rollin, “Lips of Blood” also involves vampires and strong visual elements, and of course the familiar locations such as the beach and cemetery. “Lips of Blood” opens, when a mysterious woman and two men are quietly bringing two bodies to the cemetery crypt. When they place one of the bodies in the coffin, it seems that the body is still breathing, bringing several unanswered questions in the air; Who´s the woman, and what are the bodies? Why they are left there, when clearly at least one of them is still conscious? From this eerie opening scene, the story moves to an entirely different location. At a high-class party, Frederic (Jean-Loup Philippe) is enjoying his time in the spotlight with his Parisian friends, when his new perfume is launched. His mood changes suddenly, when he sees the photo on the wall of the old castle, which brings a dream that he had to his memory, in the form of a flashback. In this dream he´s just a boy, going to the castle to find his parents, only meeting the woman (Annie Belle - here as Annie Briand) dressed in white there, trapped in the castle. She looks after the boy through the night, and when the morning comes the dream is also ending, while the boy is running away, promising to come back. After seeing the photo on the wall, Frederic is determined to find out where the castle is, and to find something from his childhood that he doesn´t remember very well, and that has been haunting him ever since. His mother (Nathalie Perrey) is acting strangely, almost like she is trying to stop Frederic searching for the castle. She obviously has some secrets. To find out the location of this castle, Frederic first locates the photographer (Martine Grimaud) who took the picture, and ends up in the middle of a naked photo shoot (clearly done to make the film more erotic). This rather seductive photographer reveals that she is paid to keep her mouth shut about the castle, but she promises to tell the location at midnight in the old aquarium. After that the story is getting more strange and surreal, when Frederic sees the same woman from his dream in the movie theatre (where he goes to kill some time), and while he´s following her from the theatre, Frederic ends up in the cemetery and one of the crypts. In there he sees the coffins, which reveal some squeaking bats inside when he opens one of them. Scared, Frederic runs away, so he doesn´t see that those four bats are turning into female vampires (along with them are the “Castel twins”; Catherine Castel and Marie-Pierre Castel). Outside at the bridge Frederic meets another peculiar woman, who claims to be the woman that he saw as a boy in the castle. When he eventually finds the photographer dead in the aquarium, and when the unknown man in black (Willy Braque) starts to follow him in the night, the intriguing dream of a boy has turned into a confusing nightmare. The script of the film is perhaps a bit more ambitious than some other ones from Rollin, but he´s also the first to admit that the film eventually turned out to be different from the original script. The main reason for this is that they had to drop one week of shooting, when the planned 4-week schedule turned into 3 weeks, due to financial problems, and Rollin had to make some changes to the story, and drop some scenes altogether. This probably hurt the film to some degree, since now some of the scenes felt a bit rushed and even amateurish, and needed more time and coverage. Also the vampires themselves ended up being less interesting this time, when there could´ve been potential to make them more effective and creepy. Death scenes are probably the most amateurish ones, since often you´ll see the victim breathing after the “attack”. Despite some of the problems of the low budget filmmaking, “Lips of Blood” ends up being a solid and interesting movie, with a strong story, very capable leading actors (especially Jean-Loup Philippe, but Annie Belle is good too), and vivid and haunting visual images. Scenes at night are often lit with strong spotlights in selected areas, but otherwise the amount of light is relatively low. This creates beautiful and surreal images, with big shadows and contrasts, and the light seems to be always finding something interesting. In the blue shades, the locations such as the cemetery and the town really support the story, when it goes more surreal during the film. Scenes at the beach are also really memorable, with prime examples how the story and images with music brings something unique to the screen. It was also refreshing to see a Rollin-film which happens also at the town and its streets, rather than in the countryside and the castles. Sure, cemeteries and castles are still there, but now there´s something more too, some more urban feel in certain scenes. The story between Frederic and the woman is also growing when the film progresses, and even though the film has vampires and other horror-elements, the film is ultimately a love story; whilst Frederic is on the search for his childhood, he finds an even more important thing - an eternal love. In the end this was probably the thing that he was actually looking for.
Video
Dutch company “Encore Filmed Entertainment” presents the film in Anamorphic 1.78:1, and the general look of the film is very nice. There´re a certain amount of film artifacts in the transfer, along with film grain and some softness, but the colours are nicely saturated and black levels relatively deep. The film is encoded as a “single layer”-disc, when a “dual layer” one would´ve been the more obvious choice. While “Disc 1” only includes the film and the “introduction”, they could´ve made the bitrate much higher with a “dual layer”-disc. That been said, I didn´t see any major compression artifacts. However, the most talked about issue on the transfer is the framing. Compared to the earlier US-release by “Image Entertainment”, the image is moved slightly too low, which means that it reveals a bit more at the bottom of the screen, but is sometimes too tight at the top. Now I have to be frank and say that in the end this isn´t a major problem, but there are indeed certain scenes where the heads are somewhat cropped from the top of the screen. Also, for some reason the original opening title and credits are missing. “Encore” is looking at the problem, but getting the original negatives back is not very easy, and probably takes some time. If the new transfer is made, I´ll update this review. Generally this transfer is better than the non-Anamorphic one from “Image”, and I still recommend this (if we forget the minor framing issues) for all the Rollin-fans. Single layer disc is R0, the film runs 83:20 minutes (PAL). It has 8 chapters.
Audio
The film has one audio track, and it´s French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. There´s also a wide list of foreign subtitles, 11 of them: English, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Polish. The track is not perfectly clean, and it has some constant hiss in the background. In the end it still does its job though, presenting the beautiful score by Didier William Lepauw nicely, and keeping the dialogue clear. It´s not one of best Mono-tracks that I have heard, but definitely not the worst either.
Extras
Like the earlier releases by “Encore”, this 3-disc set is packaged in a classy foldout digi-pack, which is placed in a cardboard slipcover. Along with the discs there´s a 64-page book in English. Disc 1 The first disc has the film in Anamorphic 1.78:1. Only extra present is a film introduction by director/co-writer Jean Rollin, running 10:01 minutes (in English, and no subtitles). Rollin gives his general view of the film and also its difficulties, all in his broken English. Disc 2 The second disc includes a series of featurettes, mainly interviews. - The first featurette is called “Cette Plage Qui Me Suit AKA This Beach that Follows Me”, running 24:39 minutes (in French, with optional English subtitles). In here Rollin is personally in one of his most loved locations, at the Pourville beach, where he tells about its importance when it comes to his personal feelings and also movie wise (he shot many scenes of his movies at that beach, including his first short film “Les Amours Jaunes (1958)” and certain scenes from “Lips of Blood”). He tells some anecdotes from his childhood, as well as his films, all connected to the beach. This featurette is also nicely shot, showing the sea and the beach while Rollin tells his stories. He clearly loves the beach, and it makes the viewer feel the same way. - Interview -featurette with actor/co-writer Jean-Loup Philippe (in French, with optional English subtitles) runs 16:01 minutes, and is recorded in Paris, May 2005. Lovable gentleman Philippe tells about his stage background, and how he worked with e.g. director Ingmar Bergman during one of his plays. He seems to be enjoying literature more than films, so he eventually moved from acting to a theatrical director and writer. The love for the literature was also the main reason why he and Rollin met in the first place. Along the production of “Lips of Blood”, Philippe also tells an interesting story about one of the films by Rollin, that was never finished when the money eventually run out, hoping that it would be released in one way or another. Let´s hope that some scenes still exist, and that “Encore” will include them in the extras for their future releases. - Interview -featurette with actress Nathalie Perrey (in French, with optional English subtitles) runs 12:23 minutes, and is recorded in Paris, May 2005. This older lady (she played the mother in the film) has worked with Rollin from 1968 in various professions from script girl to actress, and is clearly an old friend of Rollin. Her answers are often more diplomatic than informative, but she shares a few interesting memories (and loves the British films, along with John Cassavetes). - Interview -featurette with actor Serge Rollin (in French, with optional English subtitles) runs 13:14 minutes, and is recorded in Paris, October 2005. Serge, who played the little boy in the film, is obviously the son of Jean Rollin, and he gives an interesting resemblance to his father from the family point of view. He doesn´t remember that much, being just a boy during the production of “Lips of Blood”, but he tells how kind the cast & crew were to him, and how the atmosphere on the set was very enjoyable. He also tells something about his father´s style as a filmmaker, and points out his talent of creating strong visual imagery. Serge moved to another profession than his father, but seems to be proud of his father´s work. Some film clips from “Lips of Blood” are also included. - Last interview -featurette is with actress Cathy Tricot (better known as “Catherine Castel”), who´s one of the “Castel twins”. This interview runs 14:47 minutes and is recorded in Paris, October 2005 (it´s in French, with optional English subtitles). Along with Jean-Loup Philippe, this is the best interview on the disc, since Tricot (which is actually her family name from her grandmother) is very candid and honest when she talks about her background, her relationship with Rollin and her sister, and also her memories while working in the adult films in the 1970s. Her memories from the films by Rollin are not always pleasant (she was cold and naked many times), but you can see that she has a respect for him as a filmmaker, and she still likes e.g. her debut film “The Nude Vampire AKA La Vampire nue (1969)”. She is also surprisingly frank when she talks about her sister and their, sometimes troubled, relationship. Tricot has also good memories from the early days of the French X-rated cinema, since everyone were friends with each other, and the adult industry was very different from the sleazy world that it can be now, when there are no limits anymore. - Disc rounds up with a Photo gallery, running 4:29 minutes, and plays with music from the film. This section includes 51 photos, mainly stills and behind-the-scenes -photos in color, and a few in B&W. A good collection of photos. Disc 3 Third disc has the audio commentary with director/co-writer Jean Rollin and the moderator, in English (no subtitles). This audio commentary covers selected scenes from the film, running 32:55 minutes. What´s interesting is the fact that now the film is presented in approx. 1.66:1 (non-Anamorphic) aspect ratio, and based on the quick comparison, the framing is better, and some shots that were too tight in “Disc 1” have now more head room. The opening credits are now also intact. When it comes to the audio commentary itself, Rollin tells good anecdotes about the production, such as that it was very difficult to get the permission to shoot on the cemetery, and that they just did the certain shots inside the crypt even when it was forbidden. The fancy apartment during the cocktail party -scene belonged to one of the producers, and one district (Belleville) seen on the film in the background was demolished just a few hours after the production. The old aquarium was also the place where Rollin was playing when he was a boy. This type of information is probably the most informative part of the commentary, since you can really feel that they have shot this film in real locations, which have a real feel of history. Rollin also gives some background of the story where needed, which might be helpful to understand some of the scenes better. - The real treat is left until last. “Les Amours Jaunes - Evocation de Tristan Corbiere AKA These Jaundiced Loves - Impression of Tristan Corbiere (1958)” -short film runs 10:10 minutes, and is the first short film by Jean Rollin, which he shot during a few weekends. This black&white -film is presented in Anamorphic 1.78:1, and is in French (with optional English subtitles). The film tells about a man who´s wandering around the beach (Pourville), sometimes scaring the local kids, and sometimes just staring at the sea. The sea and the beach are strongly present, and the narration, with some drawings in between, makes this short film surreal and lyrical. The print is partly in rough shape with film artifacts and hiss on the audio, but considering its age and purpose, we probably have to be glad that it has survived at all. Great addition to the set, and you can learn more about it by listening to the “Cette Plage Qui Me Suit”-featurette from “Disc 2”. - The disc rounds up with a French theatrical trailer (2:19 min), along with 2 French bonus trailers for “Demoniacs AKA Les Démoniaques” (2:57 min), and “Requiem for a Vampire AKA Requiem pour un vampire” (3:06 min). A 64-page book in English is again included, which includes color and b&w photos, along with essays about “Lèvres de sang “ and “Les Amours Jaunes - Evocation de Tristan Corbiere” (along with complete narration) by Jean Rollin, from October 2005. Plenty of information from the audio commentary and the extras are included also here, but this is a great way to learn about the vision behind the movie, and the problems during the actual production. There are also some notes and photos from the “X-rated”-version of “Lips of Blood” (which apparently included 2 long sex scenes). It would´ve been nice to see those scenes as “Deleted scenes”, but perhaps Rollin didn´t want to confuse the viewers with hardcore-material, or maybe the scenes were lost.
Overall
We´ll never know if “Lips of Blood AKA Lèvres de sang” would have been a better and more coherent movie with the original screenplay by Rollin and a bit more money, but even for its compromises it´s a very enjoyable film, full of dreamlike atmosphere and of course vampires. The release from “Encore” has some minor framing issues, but other than that it´s another winner by this Dutch company, and includes some unique extras. Recommended. For more info, please visit the homepage of Encore Filmed Entertainment.
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