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Lips
Of Blood
AKA Lèvres De Sang
Directed By Jean Rollin
Released: 1975
Starring: Jean-Loup Philippe, Annie Belle, Nathalie Perrey, Catherine
Castel, and Marie-Pierre Castel
Running Time: 87 minutes
DVD Released By Encore Films
Region Encoding: Region 0 PAL
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At a party one evening, Frederic (Jean-Loup Philippe) notices a magazine
advertisement featuring a photo of a castle by the sea. The image causes
Frederic to uncover a memory from his childhood involving a beautiful girl
named Jennifer (Annie Belle). Determined to discover the location of the
castle, he contacts the photographer who agrees to meet with him at an
aquarium. On his way there, Frederic sees the image of the beautiful girl
and follows her to an underground crypt where he inadvertently frees four
vampires from their slumber. At the aquarium, he finds that the
photographer has been murdered. Believing that a conspiracy to keep him
from his past, Frederic vows to let nothing stop him from getting back to
the castle and the girl whose image haunts him.
Jean Rollin’s
Lips Of Blood is easily one of the director’s
best films. It is both a deliriously sensual gothic love story and a corny
vampire flick. With beautiful cinematography, layers of atmosphere, and a
creepy jazz score, it’s difficult not to be hypnotized by this one. What
the film lacks are decent makeup and gore effects. Vampire bites are
little more than fake blood poured on someone’s neck and vampire fangs are
as awkward looking as they were in previous Rollin vampiric efforts.
The cast of
Lips Of Blood puts forth an incredible effort to
bring their characters to life. Jean-Loup Philippe is great as Frederic, a
man whose life has never been quite complete and will pursue the key to
his past at any cost. The stunning Annie Belle (House On The Edge Of
The Park,
Rosso Sangue) is perfectly dreamy as
Jennifer. Rollin regular, Nathalie Perrey (Night Of The Hunted),
is also quite good as Frederic’s misguided mother. Of course, the film’s
most memorable image of twin vampire nurses would have been impossible
without the bewitching Catherine Castel and and Marie-Pierre Castel
While I prefer Rollin’s gorier excursions such as
Living Dead Girl
and Grapes Of
Death, I couldn’t help but be drawn by the haunting aura
evoked by
Lips Of Blood. This film is the apex of Rollin’s
vampire films and vastly superior to the pretentious
Rape Of The
Vampire, the monotonous
Shiver Of The Vampire, and
the almost entertaining
Requiem For A Vampire. What
separates
Lips Of Blood from the rest is its great cast and
quick pace. While the visually appealing locations, the sounds of thunder
and wind, and superb lighting (you can never have too much blue!) provide
great gothic atmosphere, the almost constant nudity certainly didn’t hurt
my sensibilities any. Jean Rollin aficionados owe it to themselves to
check out
Lips Of Blood as soon as possible.
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DVD Stuff:
Encore Films rules! Okay, people? Here’s why. The remastered audio on
their Lèvres De Sang Collector’s Edition is great and the
print (while slightly damaged) has vibrant and eye-catching colors. Blues
are very deep and shadows are dark. Very nice.
As usual the 3 disc set is packed with extras. There is an introduction to
the film provided by Jean Rollin, a slideshow, one of Rollin’s short
films, and trailers for other Encore releases. But wait, there’s more!
There’s also audio commentary by Rollin and interviews with actors:
Jean-Loup Philippe, Nathalie Perrey, Catherine Castel, and Serge Rollin.
Fans of Rollin absolutely must own this incredible 3 disc set.
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Links:
Get this DVD from
Xploited Cinema.
Check out
Encore Films for more info.
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