Page 179 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

SELF-REFLEXIVE STAGING AND THE ROLE OF THE MASK
Rollin often employs the use of a stage within his narratives, reflecting the theatrical quality of his
work. The nature of the theatre is such that each scene is played out in one static location and Rollins
actors move through his film space in the same manner as they would on a stage. Most of the vampire
rituals that take place are staged for diegetically dramatic effect - the Great Blood Wedding of Le
viol du vampire, for example. Linked to this is the idea that things cannot be taken at face value,
and ate not necessarily as they appear. Part of the fetishistic allure of Rollins work is his emphasis
on masking, of things beneath the surface being contradictory to our expectations. This also serves
to emphasise the attifice in his films and distances the viewer from emotional attachment (with the
possible exception of La morte vivante). Masks have numerous uses - either to disguise identity, as
part of ceremony, to intimidate or to represent change. In Requiem pour un vampire the fitst shot
comprises Marie and Michele firing guns from the back of a car window in order to escape their
pursuers. Both are dressed as clowns (we later find out that they were responsible for killing a man at
a fancy dress party). When they remove their make-up in a river (causing the water to burst in blooms
of red and white) and change into their normal clothes they return to theit innocence. By detaching
the viewer through essentially non-narrative form and denying our expectations through his use of
visual representation, Rollin allows us the privilege to view his works on an objective (inasmuch as it
can be) Kantian aesthetic level. The use of masks, theatre and artificiality bring home the unteality of
the events and allow us to view them without pteconceptions.
The opening of Fascination (1979) enforces the literary and artistic precedents of the visual aspects
of Rollins work - a painting in the background, candles flickering as a hand caresses the pages of
a book like a lover. Rollin employs static symmetrical tableaux at key points in the film. The shots
are composed like a static painting; full-length and held for several seconds, allowing the viewer to
revel in the richness of it all. In Fascination the first major tableau shot occurs at the abattoir. Eva
and Elisabeth stand with half-raised glasses of ox blood, seemingly oblivious to the offal and gore-
drenched floor. At once we can see theit aristocratic aspirations, their quite literal sang-froid, their
close relationship and an indication of the film's time frame, in this case 1905. In terms of theit attire,
they reflect Magritte's La grande guerre (1964) although one is dressed in white, the other black. This
covers the two girls up but acts like a fetish - Rollin enjoys the idea of playing around with decadence
in a time perhaps more associated with moral fortitude.
Like Magritte's La grande guerre the effect is both anachronistic and erotic. Plot-wise the film
has familiar associations with the pulp novel - a thief with a chest of gold on the run from his gang,
seeks sanctuary in the house of two apparently aristocratic women. As it is pointed out in the film 'it's
all vety melodramatic' but the actual tone and situation is that of the Victorian underground S & M
book. Rollin depicts many familiar vignettes but subverts them as the film follows the flirtatious
but menacing games played between bandit Mark and an ever-increasing group of girls. Mark wins
dominatrix Helene in a game of blind man's bluff and forces her to strip but she is clearly in control
of the situation. He is an outsider to the group's world not because of his gender but because of his
sexual persuasions. The scene plays under the watchful eye of a painting hanging over the fireplace.
The 'painting as voyeur is a visual motif that is used in the film a number of times during sexual

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