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La rose de fer, a review by Danae Cassandra

La rose de fer (The Iron Rose)
Year of Release: 1973
Directed By: Jean Rollin
Starring: Françoise Pascal, Hugues Quester
Genre: Horror

Overview:
THE IRON ROSE is a haunting experience—a macabre tone poem about youth and age, love and nihilism, nostalgia and superstition, and, above all, life and death. Françoise Pascal (There's a Girl in My Soup) and Hugues Quester (Three Colors: Blue) go on a metaphysical, Orpheus-like journey inside an ancient, all-but-abandoned graveyard but, as night falls, they cannot find their way out. As Quester's nihilism crumbles to impatience and terror, Pascal transfers her disappointed passion for him to the cemetery itself and becomes jubilantly (and dangerously) attuned to its dead. Pascal gives a remarkably intuitive performance, at times so spontaneous in spirit, one cannot imagine how parts of it were ever scripted.

The cemetery itself is analogous to Rollin's love for all things antiquarian, including the old train station and the nearly moribund city of Amiens. If Orson Welles was correct when he estimated that a film could only be considered good to the extent it represented the artist who made it, THE IRON ROSE is Jean Rollin's first authentic masterpiece.

My Thoughts:
This is a beautiful, artistic, poetic film.  It's moody and atmospheric, a sort of mediation on life and death, anger and fear, madness and peace.  The visuals are stunning, from the deep, saturated colors worn by the lovers to the deep black of the night, the gray of the tombstones, the fallen autumn leaves contributing to the aura of decay.  In fact, one might say the cemetery is as much the star of the film as the two actors.  It has its own character and its own demands.  It even lures the young woman away from her human lover.  She finds peace and communion with the cemetery (and in fact most of the film would make a great background story for a D&D necromancer, but I digress).  I was very struck by Françoise Pascal's performance as the girl, and her descent into madness was very well done in my opinion.

I enjoyed this film quite a lot, and am interested in seeing more of Rolin's work.  But I can't give it an unqualified recommendation.  If you're looking for a conventional horror film, I would steer clear - there's no blood, no gore, no monsters, and very little nudity.  Don't be fooled by that - this is definitely a horror film, just not the conventional kind.  If you like art films, and are interested in a macabre piece musing on a theme of death, or simply want to see a visually splendid film, I would recommend this film.

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall:  3.75/5

(From Danae's 2013 Horror Marathon on October 26th, 2013)

Brick, a review by Jon

Brick
4 out of 5



Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 'Mysterious Skin') is a loner at his high school, someone who knows all the angles but has chosen to stay on the outside. When the girl he loves, Emily (Emilie de  Ravin, 'Lost'), turns up dead, he is determined to find out “who” and “why”.

Brick is a fascinating and original film from first-time director Rian Johnson and it is a great debut. I haven't got much to add to Goodguy's review who hit it right on the head. It's an absolutely authentic Film Noir, straight out of the smoky 40s, except there's no smoking because it's set in High School!

It's tough to describe the film accurately. This isn't some ironic gimmick, it's played dead straight, with dialogue, characters and even mannerisms echoing perfectly the original movies. It really shouldn't work! But it is a resounding success thanks to the dedication shown by the young cast, who help pull off the suitably labyrinthine script. Johnson holds true to an atmosphere that feels just like The Long Goodbye. Matthias already mentioned that reference, but I can't think of another so perfectly matched. He's no slouch either, because while he could have got away with basic direction to just frame the actors, there are some really lovely touches especially in editing that give it some extra spark and subtle humour.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the "detective", as hard-boiled and world weary as any. He has a natural intensity I found similar to Heath Ledger and all credit to him that he shoulders almost the full running time. As with any classic Noir, the world revolves around him, much to his disgust. His heart broken by a girl now dead and for whatever reason, he needs to know why, digging into the criminal underworld of... his school. All the other important elements crop up, the Femme Fatale (Nora Zehetner), the thug (Noah Fleiss) and the kingpin (Lukas Haas), plus watch out for the superb scene with the Assistant Vice Principal (Richard Rountree, who else?), who in the real-Noir-world would be the police detective trying to help and double-cross our hero at the same time.

Not for want of effort, but occasionally, the ambition gets the better of them and it briefly feels like kids doing a play. I was reminded of Wes Anderson's Rushmore, but that's being picky, because this is very original and anyone who loves film will get a kick out of it. And I stress, again, it's no gimmick. You'll be drawn into their strange mirror-world without any effort!

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 4th, 2009)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Tom

3.03 I Could'a Been a Defendant (1997-09-28)
Writer: Paul Haggis (Created By), Jeff King (Writer)
Director: Jimmy Kaufman
Cast: Paul Gross (Constable Benton Fraser), Callum Keith Rennie (Stanley "Ray" Kowalski), Beau Starr (Lt. Harding Welsh), Camilla Scott (Inspector Margaret Thatcher), Tony Craig (Detective Jack Huey), Tom Melissis (Detective Dewey), Catherine Bruhier (Elaine), Gordon Pinsent (Fraser Sr.), Brent Carver (Bruce Spender), Ron White (Kevin Spender), David Gardner (Police Commandant), Ramona Milano (Francesca Vecchio), Satori Shakoor (Reporter), Frank Pavolic (Elliot Wells), Paul Wildbaum (Dustin Mahoney), Jason Jazrawy (Michael Johnson)

A good episode. The dynamics between Fraser and new Ray are similar to season 1 Fraser and old Ray.
Starting with this episode Francesca will get a bigger role. She is taking over for Elaine at the police station.

Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on December 19th, 2009)