The Iron Rose

You know what is baffling of Rollin fans? It is that they can't accept that someone who dislikes these movies is not an explosion loving neanderthal. Do they think they are suddenly above the masses because they ignore the obvious flaws of those train wrecks?

Me I am a big Rollin fan. His movies are usually awkward and very funny. This one though, it's a pretentious tedious lazy mess. You will never forget this movie for all the wrong reasons.

La rose de fer is badly acted, badly edited, badly written and badly directed. Sure it has some striking images but it has more to do with the filming location than Rollin's skill. Everything is long, drawn out, tedious and pretentious.

But I hear you Rollin fans telling me how I am a stupid American who never did open a book in my life and how I must love marvel movies for not understanding this unique poetry. Sometimes rambling and randomness is just that. Sometimes an accident is not necessary style. Just like falling down a staircase isn't an avant-gardiste style of walk.

In Director Jean Rollin's THE IRON ROSE, a man and woman (Hughes Quester and Fancoise Pascal) meet at a wedding reception, go for a bike ride, and end up at a cemetery. Deciding to have sex in a crypt (!!), they manage to stay until sundown.

When they try to leave the cemetery, they're unable to find a way out. Increasing panic spirals downward into insanity. Death, the fear thereof, and superstitious dread are explored.

One of Rollin's more subtle efforts, it contains far less nudity and more philosophical discussion than his other horror films. The scene where the young lovers roll around in human bones is unsettling, and what's up with the clown, anyway? Rollin followers will enjoy this, while those expecting a typical horror movie might want to watch something else...

Rose of Iron, as it is known in English has been difficult to find and largely neglected up until this point. Not only has it been subtitled into English, but the video I own includes a brief introduction by the director, Jean Rollin. He claims the film was inspired by a real life incident.

Rollin refers to Rose of Iron as an art film. Why it has garnered the label of horror can only be because Rollin is largely a director of horror movies. This one isn't. Not really.

The plot concerns a young couple who decide to take a stroll through a quiet, seemingly unending cemetery. When night falls, the lovers realize that they cannot find the way out. As time progresses, fear gives way to madness.

There is much to recommend this film. It is beautifully shot, the cinematography almost having a surreal, dreamlike quality. The performances are quite good also for relative unknowns. If you have the patience, give this one a try. That is, if you can find it...

Iron Rose, The (1973)

*** (out of 4)

A man (Hugues Quester) and woman (Francoise Pascal) meet at a wedding reception and sneak off to talk where they agree to meet the next day for a bike ride. The two ride past a cemetery and decide to enter so that they can have sex in an underground tomb but when they come up it is now dark and they soon find themselves lost and unable to get out. This is considered by many to be the best film Rollin ever made and I might not disagree. The film has received a big cult following over the years and the strange thing is that it has been sold as a horror film but there's no horror anywhere in the film. This is certainly an art house film and a departure for Rollin as there are no vampires, zombies, lesbians, gore and even the sex is tame and there's only one sequence of nudity. The film runs 75-minutes and not too much happens in that time. The two just walk around trying to find their way out while their minds start to be filled with paranoia. The film is very slow paced like every other Rollin film but this works in the films favor. The cinematography is terrific and they used a real cemetery to shoot in, which adds great atmosphere. I think the final eight minutes could have been edited down but this is certainly a surreal little gem.

A surreal tale with an almost fairytale like quality to it. Rose of Iron seems very much like a cautionary tale of old as opposed to a straight forward horror film. The films drips with dark atmospheric, from the morbid poet who charms the female lead, to the foggy and creepy aesthetics of locations such as the train yard and the graveyard.

The plot navigates around a young man falling for a pretty girl, they meet at party where his poetry (need I remind you that not all poetry is rose are red) wins him the attention of an attractive girl. In keeping with the surreal they meet in a eerily quiet train yard and soon find their way to a graveyard. Our male lead lacks what you'd call respect for the dead and they're soon making love in a family crypt. When they're done night has fallen, they're locked in. Fear and madness begin to overtake them. But is there more to the graveyard than meets the eye? Perhaps, perhaps not. Rose of Iron is at the very least, a very enigmatic film.

A purely psychological horror, with few actual elements of the supernatural. It could be that they are simply lost in the graveyard, but at times they seem to be going straight but ending up where they began. It plays on conventions and stereotypes as our male lead becomes angry and violence prone. Since it is he who triggers the inciting incident, it is of course him that the obligatory scene at the climax must focus more one. But ultimately it's the female lead and her surreal serenity that leaves us with a climax you won't find in many gore encrusted horror films.