Obsessed with vague memories of a childhood nocturnal encounter with a strange but alluring woman, Philippe happens across some photographs at a get-together that remind him of the castle where the encounter supposedly took place. After forcing a photographer friend to tell him where the place actually is, he manages to arrange a meeting with the mysterious woman but along the way comes across four female vampires. There may also be more to the woman than he initially realised, or remembered. Philippe is on a strange journey to uncover secrets of his past.
The plots of Rollin films are often superfluous to the overall product - his films consist of recurring concepts contained within evocative visuals. His choice of location during the 60s through to early 80s was a notable strength, facilitating the creation of incredible-looking movies on miniscule budgets. He tended to utilise vampires, eroticism and gothic imagery to a great extent and with some often beautiful cinematography he was able to craft dreamlike experiences for the lucky viewers who connected with the material. Many people who watch his work may find it unprofessional (often due to the limited acting skills on display, alongside non-existent special effects budgets) but I’m one of the fortunate few who can escape into the strange universes of Jean Rollin. Lèvres de Sang (or Lips of Blood in translation), released in 1975, provides that opportunity with relish, although is not quite up there with my favourites (Requiem Pour un Vampire, and Frisson des Vampires for example). If you already adore the work of Rollin then you will almost certainly like this; if you’re unfamiliar then this remains a good place to start. Prepare yourself, if you are willing, to be carried away to a unique world of collision between fairy tale, mystery, and horror.
Once released on DVD both in the US and UK by Redemption, the disc contained a nicely presented non-anamorphic 1.66:1 image of Lips…, the colours being strong for the time with plenty of visual information to treat the viewer’s eyes to. The French soundtrack was good and subtitles perfectly legible. There were some cursory extras included though the release was later superseded to an extent by the Encore 3 disc edition (available from the continent), which came as an anamorphically enhanced (albeit incorrectly framed at 1.78:1) SE, this time arriving with a mountain of extras.
Redemption later teamed up with Kino Lorber to put Lips of Blood out on Blu-ray, and at the very least it revealed how good the previous DVDs actually were! Detail was marginally improved, while colour and brightness levels were more balanced, plus it is accurately framed. Language track again was in French (with optional and very clear English subtitles), which was suitably clear and technically uncompressed. Trailers for various Rollin films are present on that Blu-ray, along with an introduction by the now deceased director, and an interesting interview with Rollin regular, Natalie Perrey, who revealed that the shoot for the film wasn't entirely comfortable.
Indicator finally acquired US and UK rights to embellish the film with a 4K transfer, released on both Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray in a beautiful limited edition that conceals the disc in a digipack style case, this accompanied by a gorgeously presented book(let) within a hard outer case. The transfer is improved once again, levelling out a consistent and fine grain-field in particular. The extras package is significantly superior to the previous discs also, plentiful interviews (including a nice piece with Rollin’s son, who played the boy in the memories of Philippe). The booklet is of very high quality, weighty and attractive paper. Aside from some essential material about the project at hand by Rollin himself, there is also an essay from Maitland McDonagh - with trepidation I gave this a chance and on a positive note there is a lot of interesting commentary on the film itself and its fantastical, poetic beauty, however, she can't quite help herself with a descent into feminist-tinged griping by the final paragraph (masculine vampires apparently having hogged the limelight with the likes of Dracula, et al... sigh). It's a shame that many boutique labels are resorting to digging up film critics who apply their contemporary obsessions with race and (here) gender to more or less everything that comes across their path. It's a form of unnecessary and poisonous reductionism utilised to pollute the minds of others with a victimhood whining that has significantly less base in reality than is presented, and is really a means of acquiring more for oneself via the easiest means possible. Sadly, omitting the first and particularly final paragraphs of this essay would have resulted in a much more useful addition to the booklet in my mind, but as it stands it feels as though it's once again a surreptitious means to an end in transmitting a distorted feminist ideology on to any person gullible enough to suck it up (and there are plenty - witness the success of Barbie for example).
Aside from this gripe, there is much to saviour about this release. Delivered in its now definitive edition from Indicator, Lips of Blood is an enjoyable portrait of an individual's lost childhood manifesting its faded memories to an adult who is now ready to make a step into another dimension. Or more simplistically perhaps, a fairly surreal erotic vampire film, whichever way you want to look at it.
