Lèvres de sang

Plot synopsis:
Ever since his father died, Frederic [Jean-Loup Philippe] has been unable to remember
anything about his childhood, even though his mother has told him all
about it. One night, while at a party, Frederic notices a photograph of
some castle ruins near a beach. They look familiar to him, and he recalls
an incident that happened 20 years ago, when he was 12. He was lost. It
was getting dark, and he went to the castle where he was invited in by a
young girl [Annie Briand] dressed all in white. He spent the night there and became
infatuated with her. To thank her for her kindness, Frederic placed a toy
on her steps before he left to go home.When Frederic tells his mother [Natalie Perrey] about the memory, she denies that it
ever happened, so Frederic pays a visit to the photographer to find out
where the photo was taken. The photographer tells him that she's been paid
not to reveal the location but later relents and tells him to meet her at
midnight at the aquarium and she will tell him then. To kill time,
Frederic goes to the cinema. As he watches the movie, he notices the girl
in white standing in the doorway. He follows her outside. She leads him
into a cemetery and down into a crypt where he finds four coffins. He
opens one of the coffins to find several bats inside.Unknowingly, Frederic has released four vampiresses. Frederic runs
outside where he meets a woman who claims to be the girl he met 20 years
ago in the ruins, even though she looks nothing like her. She leads him to
a room in an old abandoned building. When he asks her to identify the toy
that he left with her 20 years ago, she cannot, confirming Frederic's
suspicion that she is working for the same people that paid the
photographer to keep quiet. For some reason, they do not want him to find
the girl. Suddenly, the woman bolts from the room, locking the door behind
her. While the girl in white watches, two of the vampiresses unlock the
door and release Frederic.It is now midnight, and Frederic goes to the aquarium where he finds
that the photographer has been murdered. A man with a briefcase walks
past, and Frederic follows him into the Metro. When the man pulls a gun on
him, Frederic kicks the gun from his hand, pulls the cord to stop the
train, and runs away. The man follows, cornering Frederic on a balcony.
Meanwhile, the two vampires throw a switch that turns on myriad fountains,
which afford Frederic with cover, and he is able to escape.Frederic tells his mother about seeing the girl in white. She tries
to convince him that he is mad and, while Frederic is changing clothes,
she calls the hospital. When Frederic leaves the house, he is immediately
captured by two ambulance drivers and taken to the hospital where he is
placed in a straitjacket and told that he is going to receive electroshock
therapy. While pacing in his room, Frederic sees the girl in white. He
begs her to speak to him if she truly exists, and she mouths the words "Je
t'aime". Then she disappears. Two nurses come to take Frederic to the
psychiatrist, but they turn out to be the two vampires. Instead, they
attack the psychiatrist, untie the straitjacket, and allow Frederick to
escape.While running down the street, Frederic sees a blind man selling
postcards of the ruins, so he buys one and learns that it is called
Sauveterre Castle. Certain that the girl in white is calling for his help,
Frederic catches the train to Sauveterre. It is just as he remembers it.
He even finds the toy that he left lying on the castle steps. He walks
through the castle looking for the girl. Eventually, he comes upon a room
where he finds books, dolls, toys, candles, a coffin, and a picture album
with his picture in it. Just as Frederic attempts to open the coffin, his
mother appears.She tells him the story of the girl in white. Her name is Jennifer,
and she's a vampire. Jennifer was imprisoned in Sauveterre Castle when she
was 16 in order to prevent the vampire curse from spreading. It was
Jennifer who killed Frederic's father. The corpses of the four vampires
freed by Frederic were moved to the abandoned vault in Paris. While three
men track down and stake the four vampires and build a bonfire to burn
their bodies, Frederic's mother sends him back into the castle with orders
to kill Jennifer and bring her head. But Frederic cannot do it and,
instead, brings the head of a statue which he tosses into the bonfire.After everyone leaves, Frederic returns to the castle and awakens
Jennifer. She tells him how she learned to project her sight and then her
spirit while she lay in her coffin waiting for Frederic to come. He allows
her to turn him into a vampire, and they both get into her coffin and let
the tide carry them out to sea. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Tags: pornographic, gothic, flashback

Review:
Another wonderfully evocative, dream-like film from Jean Rollin..
He specializes in haunting, sensual, visually impressive movies that frequently concern memory, or memory loss, and obsessively feature beautiful naked women, usually vampires.
If you haven't seen any of his work, 'Lips Of Blood' is as good a place to start as any, but frankly I've never seen a bad movie by him yet.
I'm hooked!Jean-Lou Philippe stars (and co-scripts) as a thirty something man who becomes obsessed with a photograph which reminds him of of his almost-forgotten childhood, which is sketchy at best.
He attempts to track down the location in the picture, and this brings back memories of a beautiful and mysterious girl (the lovely Annie Belle/Briand, who also worked with Deodato and D'Amato) he once met.
He finds himself uncovering a family secret and his life goes in a direction he could never have anticipated.'Lips Of Blood' is yet another wonderfully evocative, dream-like film from Jean Rollin.
The films of Jean Rollin will be an enigma to many who have not experiencing his work, yet for those who allow themselves to be taken elsewhere by his cinema it can prove a highly rewarding experience.
Lips of Blood) is a beautifully lyrical, slow burner that has the uncanny ability to take the viewer into an ethereal, dream like world, where the erotic and the neurotic are intertwined.The story of a photographer, upon seeing a poster, is reminded of his childhood where a mysterious female vampire.
Lips of Blood (1975) (Lèvres de sang)- Jean Rollin directed this slower story a man seeking to reconnect to his childhood and the vampire he is destined to be reunited to.
When he finally finds the vampire from the past, Jennifer (Annie Belle); his mother comes to him and says that she has been protecting him from the Vamps and he must help her put an end to them.
He photographs and lights things very well too and Lips of Blood doesn't betray its ultra low-budget origins as much as most of his other films.The storyline, however, is as basic as usual.
Lips of Blood is arguably Rollin's best film, it's certainly one of his most well made.
If your one who enjoys the recent surge in European horror films, by all means watch this delirious, non-sensical, erotic gem courtesy of director Jean Rollin.From nude vampire women roaming the streets of Paris, to spooky castles and graveyards.
LIPS OF BLOOD is the second Jean Rollin film I've seen and I have to say that I enjoyed it more than LIVING DEAD GIRL.
LIPS OF BLOOD hasn't turned me off from wanting to see more Jean Rollin films..
"Lips of Blood" is actually one of my favourite films made by Jean Rollin.The film was shot in just three weeks and basically it's a love story filled with lesbian vampires and a lot of female nudity.The film is relatively slow-paced,but offers plenty of wonderful Gothic atmosphere and a tiny bit of gore.The four lesbian vampires are incredibly hot.The story may be boring for some,but I still think that this film is better than most of the crap being put out today.Unfortunately "Lips of Blood" failed to generate much interest at the box office,so Rollin moved toward hard core pornography.Anyway,if you like Jean Rollin's erotic vampire movies give this one a look.Recommended!.
The renowned French filmmaker Jean Rollin visits themes of childhood, nostalgia, undying love, and the vampire mythos in this typically enigmatic, striking work.
He's aided in his quest by four sexy female vampires.Rollin films are most assuredly not for every horror fan.
Almost from start to finish, Rollin gives "Lips of Blood" a true surreal nature, and the dialogue is often appealingly literate.Our leading man isn't the most charismatic one will ever see, but he's not unlikable.
His various female co-stars fare extremely well, though, especially the radiant young Belle, whom one might recognize from the far more trashy "House on the Edge of the Park"."Lips of Blood" is wonderfully shot, and definitely romantic in its own way.
Bit more story to this one, which actually slows it down a little but this is an interesting enough tale, the girls are of course enchanting and menacing at the same time and Rollin knows well enough how to make the very most of a simple Gothic location..
I read somewhere that director Jean Rollin was especially proud of this movie because it actually has a plot (kind of).
The subsequent murder of the photographer doesn't deter him from going there where he meets the strange woman and the plot begins to unravel (in more ways than one).Without giving it away, the pay-off to this mystery is unbelievably stupid and even requires the protagonist's mother to show up at one point and deliver a long, awkward exposition.
At one point, for instance, the main character is fleeing half a dozen naked female vampires in the seaside castle and then in the very next scene he's fending off a mugger on the Paris subway.
This scene would be no problem in the typical non-sensical Rollin's film, but in a movie that is otherwise trying to be logical it's a little jarring.
The movie also lacks a lot of Rollin's interesting trademark visuals (i.e. vampires emerging from grandfather clocks, virgins in miniskirts lying face down on coffins).
Directors who deal in this kind of fetishistic material are usually at least somewhat interested in the subject-matter, but judging by this film Rollin could care less about vampires.
We have the usual Rollin ingredients on hand, nocturnal settings, catocombs, coffins and semi nude vampires lurking the night.
While at a party, Frédéric (Jean-Loup Philippe) notices a photograph of a ruined castle that triggers childhood memories of a mysterious, attractive young women.
Intrigued, the young man sets out to find the castle and the woman who resides there, his quest aided by four female vampires.When a director's work is referred to as 'dream-like', I usually take that to mean 'pretentious' and 'confusing'.
Jean Rollin's Lips of Blood is, at times, both of these things, and yet I still found myself liking the film to some extent.
It certainly doesn't hurt that Rollin sees fit to fill Lips of Blood with naked and semi-naked Euro-totty, but I also enjoyed the overall surreal ambience, where nothing is predictable.As far as the nudity is concerned, viewers are treated to a photographer's model (Béatrice Harnois) in nothing but knee high boots, the photographer herself (Martine Grimaud) in the altogether, the four vampire ladies wearing nothing but billowing chiffon (they'd catch their death, if they weren't already dead), and the young woman Frédéric is searching for - actually a vampire called Jennifer (Annie Belle) - stripping off at the end of the film.
Jean-Loup Philippe gets his tackle out to keep things fair.The weirder stuff includes a would-be assassin with a Jason King moustache who tries to kill Frédéric for reasons I still haven't worked out (and who is foiled when a vampire switches on a fountain display), Frédéric's rescue from a mental institution by vampire nurses, Frédéric meeting Jennifer wearing David Bowie-style new wave make-up, a blind peddlar woman selling photos of the ruined castle (don't ask me why...
It has surprised me in two differences that I found regarding previous and later Rollin movies: 1) we get to follow the male protagonist's point of view most of the time, and 2) the first half of the movie is shot in a city or at least a large town, as opposed to the early cult classics of Rollin ("Le frisson des vampires", "Requiem for a vampire" etc.), though towards the ending the plot moves on to the good ol' ruined-castle-inhabited-by- naked-lesbian-vampires and rocky deserted beach kind of settings.As the story develops from the male protagonist's point of view, the movie seems to me more entertaining, it has a faster-moving path than other Rollin movies.
Some murders take place, and at this point the movie reminds a good deal of an Italian giallo, in the stylish way they happen, but just at this point, as the plot gives the Rollin twist on its closing, which is somehow slower than the rest of the film but again beautiful, in its macabre way.We must remark the elegant soundtrack, with predominant wind instruments and violins..
A photograph of a castle, ominously overlooking the ocean, waves crashing onto the rocks beneath brings back long buried memories of first love, and the castle itself, in one rather dull man's childhood.Compelled to find the castle, and a girl from the same time of his youth who protected him.
The nude girls at the photographer's might have been tossed in at the last minute just to add more nudity and pad out the run time, but it has a bit of a surreal, trashy, "Where the hell did that come from?" feel to it.
As do the bats in coffins in underground chambers beneath a Gothic cemetery.Vampire girls, wearing flowing, nearly transparent wraps, almost sleepwalking through the cemetery late at night is another surreal touch; the tall blonde in purple (who is this actress?) is remarkably beautiful.Here is another film, like Rollin's Le viol du vampire, in which is almost best to not concern oneself with the plot or acting in this erotic Euro horror, but just sit back and enjoy the visually striking, colour-saturated photography in cemeteries and fountains, and nearly nude girls slowly walking through the cliff-side castle..
Horror mixed with surrealism is not for everyone, but to those who enjoy the mix, Jean Rollin is a master.
He makes low budget films, but he adds rich color and fascinating aspects that make you forget that.Frédéric (Jean-Loup Philippe) is running through the streets of Paris trying to find s castle seen in a photograph.
Nearly six months later, the mood hit and I plopped Lips of Blood into the Blu-Ray player on a cold Friday night.As the film starts, I was beginning to envision the experience to something more like a Mystery Science Theatre viewing.
There was dry dialogue at a cocktail party and the opening scene where two men bring two covered bodies down to some kind of cellar seemed more laughable than anything worthy of attention.But then Lips of Blood began to grow on me, and by it's conclusion I was thankful for this unique and atmospheric work.Lips of Blood centers on Fredric (Jean-Loup Philippe), a man who is both obsessed and beset by a picture of a landscape that reminds him of his youth.
Frederic can remember the castle in the picture and he begins to have other memories of the location such as a woman for which he will spend most of the film searching.Frederic's obsession leads him to a cemetery where he opens multiple coffins unleashing female vampires onto the streets of Paris.
It also leads him to being taken away by doctors and forced into a straightjacket  that is, until two of the female vampires come to his assistance.Frederic's obsession with female and the photo bring him to the brink of insanity and he finds himself hospitalized and put into a straightjacket for a short period of time until rescued by two female vampires that he unleashed unknowingly the night before Most of Lips of Blood has Frederic running around the streets of Paris tracking down his childhood memory while naked women parade across the big screen biting unsuspecting victims (God Bless you, director Jean Rollin).
This erotic vampire film features a young man on a strange quest after recognizing a castle on a poster.
He seems to remember the castle from his childhood and eventually finds it with the aid of a strange woman dressed in white.Where does Jean Rollin get his locations?
The French cult director often was strong on the visual side and created a dense, dreamlike atmosphere, in this case especially in the dark, deserted city streets, but "Levres de sang" also has a good story to tell about a voyage into the subconscious, a quest for love and death.
Briefly, a young man rediscovers traces of his forgotten childhood: the familiar ruin of a castle a photographer has taken pictures of, a mysterious woman in white he believes he met many years before...
Needless to say that Rollin always had gorgeous (vampire) women in his films, but here also the male actor Jean-Loup Philippe deserves mentioning.
Its amateurish, strays a bit from vampire mythology and boy were those French girls hairy in the 70s but I actually liked the basic plot.
Lips of Blood (1974)*** (out of 4)A different take on the vampire legacy has a young man (Jean-Loup Philippe) seeing a photo of a castle, which gives him a flashback to when he was a child.
Director Jean Rollin made a wide range of vampire films in his career and it's probably safe to say that this one here was his strangest.
I think the film works best if you go into it expecting some sort of twisted and surreal fairy tale involving the living dead.
As usual, the director takes his sweet time telling the story, although thankfully the pacing here is much better than in a lot of his films.
The pacing actually works well with the film and it especially helps set up our lead character and makes this journey worth taking.
The pacing of the film allows one to really get into the mystery of the events going on but it also allows Rollin time to build up some atmosphere.
This atmosphere, like many of the director's best work, is the strong point and you can't help but feel the cool breeze of the night and the dampness of the tombs once the vampires do start to come.
As you'd expect from a Rollin film, the nudity is quite high as our lovely vampires don't mind walking around naked.
We even get some pretty silly and gratuitous scenes like one where our lead goes to a photographers place and then gets treated to a couple nude women.
You have to question the "story" told by the mother towards the end of the film and once everything is said and done you can't help but think there must have been much easier ways to do things.
From our end as viewers, we need to stay lucid enough to make it work.The story here is about the quest for a subconscious image from childhood; it involves a seaside castle and a young woman, a repressed memory about these.
For most of the film we wander towards it, starting with a scene inside a movie theater where our protagonist gets up and follows the woman through a door.
The vampires, although very effective, backlit in the distance, traces of blood on their lips, lose their effectiveness when close up due to the outsized fangs being a little too large (a common problem in Rollin's films, but not his first, 'Rape of the Vampire', in which the fangs were more subtle and effective) causing the actresses to appear to smile to reveal them.Also, at the end, when two vampires encase themselves in a wooden coffin that goes floating off to sea, it is worth remembering that running water is deadly to such creatures, so the hope is that the coffin is sealed.
And yet I regret criticising that, because – as with all films by Rollin – the whole project is written and directed as a kind of dream-like fairy-tale, not bound by the limitation of rules, even vampire lore.
Indeed, the scene at the end, typically filmed on 'Rollin's beach' is one of his best known, and is poetic and effective even now, fusing perfectly 'the beauty of obscenity'.So too, is the death scene of the Castel twins (featured on much of the accompanying merchandise).
This isn't quite as effective use of them as in the earlier 'The Nude Vampire', but they are still seductive and mesmerising and ethereal and sinister, all at once.The central performance by (co-writer) Jean-Loup Philippe as Frederic is very strong.
Kudos, also, for doing something very rare in vampire films (especially at this time) – actually using real bats.
Agonizingly, to bring it into profit, Rollin re-edited his work, adding scenes of a pornographic nature and renaming it 'Suck me, Vampire.' Yes, truly.
Jean-Loup Philippe bored me to tears as Frederic, the young man on his search.
Jean Rollin's typically outré, dreamy, and deliberately paced film deserves appraisal for attempting a fresh and lyrical spin on the usual bloodsucker premise, but the occasionally too draggy and meandering narrative and a bland central performance by Jean-Loup Philippe as the obsessive Frederic who's determined to figure out his dark family past prevent this movie from completely working.
Moreover, Rollin makes good use of natural locations (the ruins setting in particular is very creepy), does his usual ace job of creating and sustaining a pleasingly surreal and spooky midnight-in-the-graveyard misty atmosphere, and pulls off a strangely poetic and surprising final scene that's both haunting and touching in equal measure.
This being a Jean Rollin film, the expected dodgy acting and plethora of gratuitous nudity is firmly in place but does not distract from the weird and wonderful goings-on.
Jean Rollin enjoys an impressive cult status and his 'hot-vampire-chicks films' in particular are notorious.
It's obvious that Jean Rollin lives is his own private dreamworld and this entirely translates itself in his films.
Hopefully, Jean Rollin films are to be categorized as being 'acquired taste'.
It has all his usual calling cards: vampires wandering around in see-through night gowns, Gothic castles filmed outdoors, "dreamlike" (read: nonsensical and lazy) plotting.
It has none of the striking imagery that he could pull off in movies like The Nude Vampire.One misstep is the guy who plays the main character.
More of a "I don't want to watch this guy anymore" kind of way.You can't even begin to care about whatever's going on in this movie when you have to watch him all the time, but this is Jean Rollin, so it's not like there's much going on anyway.