Review: Fascination (1979)

Directed by: Jean Rollin
Starring: Franca Maï, Brigitte Lahaie, Jean-Marie Lemaire
Written by: Jean Rollin
Music by: Philippe D’Aram
Country: France
Available on: Blu-ray (Redemption Films/Kino Lorber)
IMDb

Fascination is my first foray into the cinematic world of Jean Rollin, though of course I had been aware of his work for a long time. But I had known that his sensibilities were not going to be my jam until the last eight years or so, when I started really coming around to atmospheric, slow-burn horror driven more by a submersive aesthetic than plot or characters. So yeah, took a while. This is considered by many to be the most exemplary of his approach to filmmaking. The movie follows a thief who stumbles across a castle in his search of refuge from his pursuers, and this castle is home to two women with an inordinate interest in human blood. You can imagine where this is going, though Rollin has no particularly urgent desire to get there. The first half patiently establishes an erotic game of cat and mouse between the ménage à trois, in which each side takes turns toying with the other and occasionally fornicating. This is a beautiful film, and shots establishing the castle among rolling hills under gloomy skies are stunning. Likewise, Rollin often indulges in scenes of exquisite women walking slowly through twilight, wearing only sheer robes; this a film driven by feminine energy and allure and Rollin seems to admire not only their beauty but their power. Jean-Marie Lemaire’s thief Marc (kind of distractingly looking like a cross between Cillian Murphy and Daniel Bruhl) is portrayed with cockiness and a sense of control, but it’s obvious he never has the latter, even at his most confident. The castle’s residents, Eva and Elizabeth, and the ever-growing surrounding cast of females, are continually exploring different dynamics between them, but all feature Marc as unsuspecting prey. All that makes it seem like Fascination invests heavily in its characters, but that’s not accurate. There are no inner lives explored, just immediate sensory indulgence. This film is at its core a feast for the senses, not the mind. Philippe D’Aram’s score, a swirl of theremin, strings, and choir, provides an additional ethereal sheen to this sanguine meditation. This was the right time in my life for me to wade into these cinematic waters, because Fascination really, err, fascinated me. But I think the perfect Rollin film for me is all this but incorporating slightly more horror.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10