The Rape of the Vampire

The unbeatable.

The rape of the vampire.

Lord.

I'm really interested to see that one.

But, yeah, she's just so enraptured by blood.

This...

Whereas I think near the end of Roland's fascination with vampires, he did a bunch of vampire movies afterwards, but his prime time of vampire movies, like I could have chosen Shivers of the Vampire, The Nude Vampire, Rape of the Vampire, Requiem for a Vampire.

I think he also did Dracula's Fiance.

Followed by another short film.

But it wasn't until 1968 that he directed his first feature, The Rape of the Vampire.

So we just want to talk about this really quickly.

There is a content trigger warning, and this film does involve sexual assault and violence.

Yeah, and the relationship between the art and its times, sort of similar to the separation between the art and the artist sometimes, is never simple.

It's nuanced, it's messy, and sometimes we have to just say, hey, we don't revere everything this guy did or everything about this guy, but there is a lot to appreciate about his work within the context of film history and history itself.

So that said, The Rape of the Vampire really set a precedent for Jean Roland's work, both thematically and tonally.

It follows four sisters living in an old chateau.

In 1938, Roland carved out an unmistakable niche in cult cinema.

He gained prominence with The Rape of the Vampire in 1968, and we'll come to that, Hugh, introducing audiences to signature blend of eroticism, gothic surrealism, and tragic romance.

Across a career spanning four decades, including landmark films such as The Living Dead Girl and Fascination, he remained stubbornly indifferent to mainstream cinematic trends, preferring to build atmospheric, melancholic worlds inhabited by immortal vampires and lonely phantoms.

His cinema was defined less by narrative logic than by visual atmosphere, desolate Normandy beaches, decaying chateau, clockwork props, and haunting, lingering photography.

like an oasis in the desert, isn't he? For us here.

Thank God for Jean Rolland.

we've got some good french films to watch yeah i'm interested to see that especially i've actually heard about the rape of the vampire because the obviously the title is very bracing when you hear that

yeah very provocative yeah

So the w- the original Wizard of Gore.

Uh, you've also got, um, The Rape of the Vampire, which is a, um, a Jean Rollin Cinema Fantastique film from the '60s.

So these are...

I guess these are pos- This is- That's an example of some of the stuff that's sort of inspired by this theater of the Grand Guignol.

Wait, what?

It has his first film, which is Rape of the Vampire.

Oh.

Under the title Vampire Women.