Requiem pour un vampire

Plot synopsis:
Two pubescent, pig-tailed, virgin schoolgirls, Michelle [Mirielle d'Argent] and Marie [Marie Pierre Castel], run away from their
school and find themselves lost in a cemetery which leads to a chateau
inhabited by vampires and naked women in chains. The girls try to escape,
but they are bitten by the vampires' aging Master. The Master decides to
initiate the girls in order to make them perpetrators of the vampire race
(which is about to die out). Eventually, of course, the girls will have to
be deflowered because 'you cannot be both virgin and vampire.' For now,
however, their job will be to hunt by day and lure victims back to the
chateau for the vampires to feed upon. Michelle brings back a victim, but
Marie takes pity on hers (Frédéric [Philippe Gasté]), begs him to be the one to deflower
her, and then sets him free.Tonight is to be the grand initiation. First goes Michelle. Then it's
Marie's turn. When the Master discovers that Marie is no longer a virgin,
the vampires set out to search the chateau for her defiler. Frederick
takes refuge in the Master's mausoleum. Then the Master takes Marie for a
walk and tells her a secret. He is the last vampire, and there will be no
more. Only Erica [Dominique Toussaint] has the chance to complete the change. The others will
change slightly over time, but they will never be full vampires. He then
sets Marie free and returns to his mausoleum.The next morning, Michelle confronts Marie and tells her that she
must reveal where Frédéric is hiding or they will both be killed. Marie
refuses, so Michelle chains her and spends the day whipping her, kissing
her, and apologizing for hurting her. But Marie refuses to talk. When
Erica threatens to poke out Marie's eye, Michelle helps Marie to escape.
Of course, Marie leads everyone directly to the mausoleum where Frédéric
is hiding. A gunfight ensues. All the vampires are killed except for the Master,
Erica, and Louise. The Master tells Louise to seal him and Erica in the
tomb and never let them out again. After their deaths, there will be no
more vampires. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Tags: pornographic, psychedelic, murder, gothic

Review:
This is not Jean Rollin's best film, but it might be his most essential one for fans because it combines the moody visuals of films like "Fascination" and "Two Orphan Vampires" with the perverse softcore sex of films like "Bacchanales Sexuales".
Two teenage virgins run away from a school party (which in the strange Rollin universe somehow involves dressing as clowns, having a shoot-out with police, and disposing of the body of their dead male accomplice in a burning car).
After a bizarre accident while walking through a graveyard that almost results in one girl being buried alive, they arrive at a deserted castle and do what any two virgins would do in a 70's Eurohorror/sex movie--strip off all their clothes for some hot lesbian action.
Any non-virgins are chained to the wall while the monstrous man-servants have their way with them in gratuitous sex scenes before the female vampire suck their blood from their breasts and the male vampire changes into a bat to commit an act of bestiality that no pervert in the world would find erotic (you have admire the sheer audacity of Rollin if nothing else).The conflict happens when one girl decides to lose her virginity while the other decides to preserve hers and join the ranks of the living dead.
This movie addresses some real themes of coming-of-age and friendship (albeit in a fantastical and at times ridiculous milieu), but no one will confuse it with "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer".
If you're looking for sex,on the other hand, you certainly won't be disappointed, but unlike all the erotic vampire movies they churn out these days, this is a vampire film with a lot of sex, not a sex film with vampiric trappings.
Dark, young beauty Mireille Dargent stumbles into an open grave and ends up covered in opened dirt as nearby Marie-Pierre Castle watches, too scared to speak.
Dargent and Castle, prototypical Rollin girls, appeared in several other of his films..
Specifically, this one has two hot teenage girls running away from school and ending up in a castle inhabited by sex-obsessed vampires.
By sex-obsessed, I mean that there's a scene where the vampires torture some prisoners, and much of the whole sequence consists of shots of women's naked bodies.So, since I haven't seen any of Rollin's other movies, I'll have to assume that his movies consist of this...and I LIKE IT!
After escaping an auto shootout, two sexy female clowns (yeah) stumble upon a mysterious old castle full of classy vampires and some giant viking-type men.
There, they bear witness to the vampyric rituals and are forced to remain as vampires, but they must lose their virginity first to become a real vampire.Like many Jean Rollin films, Requiem pour un Vampire is a very erotic, dreamlike film that utilizes limited dialogue and unlimited sexy French women.
They soon run into the lord of the manor, an aged vampire looking to use their luscious, virgin (yeah, right!) bodies as vessels for his progeny.
A lot of flesh, a bit of bondage and a touch of lesbianism punctuate another erotic horror masterpiece from French filmmaker Jean Rollin.It's somewhat hard to recommend a Rollin film to the uninitiated.
Marie and Michelle are two girls dressed as clowns and on the run from someone with a grudge, this is at least where the film begins with a shoot 'em up car chase through the french countryside.
There male companion gets killed in the crossfire and the girls decide to hide out in a seemingly deserted Château where they indulge themselves in some Lesbian sex before they discover they are not alone .The last surviving Vampire and his followers want to enrol the two girls in to the realms of the living dead, but not before they get the girls to lure some fresh blood to the château with the promise of sex.Rollin's imagery is superb,two wonderfully colourful clowns wandering through barley is quite an exquisite scene,in this often ponderously slow film, the vampires look cool except for some dodgy fangs, there isn't too much of a plot really and I can readily see why some would hate Rollin's work.
My main problem with the film is that it was cut to bits, The DVD sleeve said 88mins where in actuality it was a paltry 76mins,IMDB says 95mins so I'm not too sure what I've missed and how badly the continuity was hampered by this, a lot I would guess.Not my last Rollin film,I'll certainly watch some more.
So its another pretentious art / exploitation film from Jean Rollin.I still found lots to enjoy.
As soon as Rollin has made his point with these poor critters, he then sticks fake vampire bats to the chicks' necks.
There's a truly repellent and utterly gratuitous rape scene that's neither logical nor titillating; it just made me want to wash my eyes out and ask for the 5 minutes it took of my life, back.Look: I like a trashy film as much as the next guy.
'Requiem For A Vampire' is the first disappointing Jean Rollin movie I've watched.
I love horror films ans even love bad acting b- movies but this is dumb idiotic trash and waste of time..
Marie (Marie-Pierre Castel), a blonde, and Michelle (Mireille Dargent), a brunette, are two sexy young girls fleeing the cops (in an atypically action-packed opening for filmmaker Jean Rollin).
Fundamental differences develop between our protagonists as the vampire and his flock seek to induct the girls into their fold.Rollin wrote this himself, in apparently just one night, and it's clear that what he wanted to do was create some pure cinema.
The story is thin and only deepens as the film progresses; also, Rollin refrains from use of dialogue for quite a while, until it's necessary for characters to give us some exposition."Requiem for a Vampire" exists in an offbeat universe where the girls are dressed in clown costumes at the outset.
Rollin, as usual, doesn't concern himself with trying to make the horror particularly "scary"; note how phoney the vampire fangs look.The performances are generally effective.
Delesalle delivers the best performance of the piece as a rather mild-mannered, distinguished vampire who's determined to meet his destiny with some dignity.Due to its balance of art and exploitation, "Requiem for a Vampire" will likely remain a pivotal film for Euro-horror lovers who admire Rollins' works.Seven out of 10..
they dress like clowns (again literally), aren't affected by sunlight, don't have super strength, are afraid of bats, corpses and other vampires, but they do have the ability to spontaneously change attire and spawn pistols.
The film starts with a nice little shootout and car chase but that must have blown a good chunk of budget because they spend a long time just walking around after that.
But one girl meets a handsome young man and decides that lesbo stuff is for squares and now she doesn't want to be a vampire.
A vampire lures beautiful young women dressed as clowns to his castle in Europe.How many movies have both clowns and vampires?
All that happens is vampires raping women, who seem to be enjoying it, this goes on for ten minutes straight, they don't hide anything.
Requiem for a Vampire (1973) *** (out of 4) Erotic-horror from French master Jean Rollin about two fugitive girls (Marie-Pierre Castel, Mireille Dargent) who are on the run from the law and end up in a creepy castle where many young women are chained in the basement.
The girl's learn that vampires run the castle and they want the two ladies to join the undead since they are virgins.
With countless horror and porn titles under his belt, to me this is the best that Rollin has to offer as his art-house style perfectly blends in with the erotic nature of the subject matter and best of all is that the film never once feels too long nor does the pacing have any issues.
I thought the opening fifteen or twenty-minutes is where the director really works his magic because we see the girls on the run, going through the county side and eventually arriving at this castle.
I thought Rollin did a very good job at building up this atmosphere and things just turn downright crazy once the vampire enter the picture.
The highlight of the film is a rather long sequence where several of the male vampires go into the basement and attack the women that are chained up.
Those unfamiliar with the work of Rollin will probably find this one of the easiest of his films to get into and those just wanting to see some nudity and erotic stuff will find plenty here..
Initially, this incredibly simplistic film may look like a step backwards for Rollin after the highly experimental Rape of the Vampire and the highly strange The Nude Vampire but it could also be argued that it is, in fact a precursor to the dream-like The Iron Rose.
It looks like it was shot over a long weekend and, indeed, would perhaps have worked better as a short film.
Aside form the odd diversion (one of the girls meets a man in a graveyard and offers him his virginity so as to remain free of the vampire's curse) that's about it.Upon first viewing the film, there is very little to get out of it aside from the odd bit of S+M imagery (chained up naked girls attacked by bats, a kinky lesbian whipping scene) but ones whole perspective changes when one discovers that Rollin wrote it in ONE NIGHT.
Rollin's work is all about repressed sexual desire; his films are essentially adolescent fantasies, which is why many of them feel like fairy tales; they disguise their true meaning through the circumstances under which the images are presented.
The story starts out with two girls and a guy fleeing in their car after a murder and being chased but suddenly the male is shot and the car is steered off the road where it is hidden.
They come across a cemetery and behind it they discover what appears to be an old castle so they enter it and discover that it is not uninhabited.*****SPOILER ALERT*****They run into some female vampires and their male servants so the girls try and outrun them but they keep getting caught.
Marie meets a man and decides to lose her virginity to him and later she asks him to help her get out.This was directed by Jean Rollin who made a career out of making erotic vampire/supernatural films and while this is extremely low budget and highly exploitive this film still creates an effective mood that enhances the story.
I watched this film waiting to hear the names of the two girls and only once in a scene did I hear D'Argent call her friend Marie.
"You cannot be both virgin & Vampire." Arty crap from Rollin..
Vierges et Vampires,or Requiem for a Vampire as it's more commonly known to English speaking audiences, starts with a 'high' speed car chase through the French countryside which ends in the death of one guy & two young women dressed as clowns, Marie (Marie-Pierre Castel) & Michelle (Mireille Dargent) escaping on foot.
Eventually they end up at a run down Château where they discover a Vampire & his group of followers, Marie & Michelle are initiated into the world of Vampirism as the head Vampire dude plans on turning them into the blood drinking undead...This French production was produced, written & directed by Jean Rollin & personally I didn't think too much of it.
The plot is virtually none existent as you would expect from Rollin who could never be accused of wasting good running time on small unnecessary things like a coherent storyline.
The character's are as one dimensional as could possibly be, it's dull, boring & doesn't make a whole load of sense & quite frankly I didn't get much, if any, enjoyment or entertainment from it.Director Rollin again puts the visuals way before the story which in my opinion is a bad move all day long.
There isn't much gore, just dead rotten corpse although there is some nudity & sex.Technically Vierges et Vampires is good & it's well made, no one was ever questioning Rollins ability to make a film just his ability to write a script for one that makes any sort of sense!
Since the dialogue is so sparse & it's in French I couldn't really tell you how good the acting was although some of the faces these people pull are worth a few laughs on their own.Vierges et Vampires is just a collection of loosely connected imagery as usual with Rollin.
When the girls try to flee, bats hanging from tree branches "hypnotise" them enabling Erica to capture them as she plans for Michelle and Marie to meet her master, the last full male vampire whose powers have weakened over the ages.
Michelle and Marie are introduced to the last male vampire as he bites them from behind.
Will the last male vampire's legacy live on through his blood daughters?If you are familiar with Rollin, this film carries his various signatures..beautiful french countryside, atmospheric cemetery, Gothic greystoned ruins of a castle where rows of steps are endless and halls echo, skulls make their mark throughout showing up near tombstones, places marking the vampires' lair, etc., limited dialogue and back story, fluid camera-work capturing the entire landscape squeezing every bit of ambiance available, an abundance of nudity and sex, and a jazzy organ score in the background.
The version I watched had gratuitous extended scenes of sexual molestation as Erica's barbaric servants rape and abuse various enslaved nubile females, chained within a pit, as she takes a few bites for good measure.
I think Erica just looks incredible and Dominique just runs with it, easily overshadowing the weary last male vampire who is in the film mere minutes and looks as if his powers were weakened.
I don't even think we see the first vampire until thirty minutes into the film and the sexual sequences in the bondage chamber go on forever it seems..
Marie-Pierre Castel, whose blond hair and big eyes make her hard to miss, appears in both films.
Honestly, I was kind of hoping this movie would explain how the servant girls in "Shivers" came to stay at the castle.
Story-wise, the movies are unrelated.The film opens with an odd-ball, wholly Rollin-esque image: A girl, dressed as a clown, shooting a gun through the shattered window of a getaway car, the police in hot pursuit.
There's some stuff about the girls seducing men and one of those guys factors into the story later but, mostly, there's not a lot of narrative.Rollin does create several bizarrely memorable tableaux throughout, the clown shootout only being the first.
Two ogre-like vampires try to force themselves on our protagonists and, when that doesn't work, instead ravage a series of girls chained up in the dungeon.
The fondling and humping goes on for a long time and ends in an odd scene of a woman, with unshaven armpits, having a vampire bat land on her pubes.
Typically, the film is nearly dialogue free until the 44 minute mark.There's a lot of talk about the vampire bloodline ending.
Like many of the director's films, the movie feels like a dream put to celluloid.
At times it's not that easy to give a film the appropriate rating, and so this was the case with Requiem pour un vampire.
In the opening scene we can see a car chase, in which two very young girls and their male friend are getting away and trying to shoot someone.
At this point I was almost sure that these girls were the vampires from the title, but to my absolute surprise they were not!
If this movie is a good example of Mr. Rolin's work, I'll not be watching another of his films!.
This early horror film from French director Jean Rollin is an example of the kind of moody, dialogue-free movies he would make for his whole life: one of his best known is FASCINATION, made in 1979.
Unfortunately, REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE lacks the genuine horror of that film, and the best this one can do is summon up a few little chills here and there in some spooky moments.
One of the best occurs near the start of the movie, in which one of the two heroines is nearly buried alive in a scene that recalls Poe.Elsewhere, Jean Rollin shows little scope for reality, preferring instead to shoot his film as a series of increasingly bizarre visual images.
Things kick off with a car chase through the French countryside, as the heroines, dressed as clowns (!) for no particular reason, shoot revolvers at their pursuers and end up burning the body of a male accomplice (his acting isn't very good – when he's supposedly dead and has petrol poured over his face, you can see him visibly recoil).
From there on in, we watch as the girls wander around a seemingly deserted and ruined castle, only to find some bloodthirsty vampires and their human servants living in the basement.
What happens next is fairly predictable, considering the fact that the director spent much of the '70s shooting hardcore pornography: the girls are stripped, whipped and bitten, while lots of padded sex scenes take up the rest of the running time.Rollin's films are an acquired taste, for sure; they're not like the usual Euro-horror offerings from Italy, which have plots and dialogue; this film has hardly any of either.
It's best viewed as a series of images, many of which make good use of the isolated French countryside and the ruined castle.
Instead, much of the film focuses on nudity and sex scenes, which might be good if you're interested in skinny French models; can't say I am.