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Blood Rose (1970)
By lngway2go | October 14, 2008
(aka La Rose écorchée, Devil’s Maniac, Ravaged, The Burnt Rose, The Flayed Rose)
Director: Claude Mulot
Starring: Philippe Lemaire, Anny Deuperey, Elizabeth Teisser, Howard Vernon
One the of most important horror films of all time is the French film, Les Yeux San Visage (Eyes Without A Face, 1960), a film that is visually more stimulating than the far more famous Psycho, released later that same year. Les Yeux Sans Visage deals the plight of a beautiful young woman who is horribly disfigured in an accident, so her father makes attempts to have a skilled surgeon conduct a facial transplant. They obviously need a face, a beautiful face, from which to transplant and there’s not many ways to get the willing donor. This plot device has been duplicated many times over the years, Jess Franco alone has made several versions, and even Les Yeux isn’t totally unique, even though it is a stunning film in its own right.
Les Yeux’s origins can be traced back to The Hands of Orlac (1924), which was adapted from Maurice Renard’s book of the same name. Both films deal with vanity and loss of beauty, but in the case of the Hands of Orlac it’s more about the inability to give beauty, in the form of music. Orlac is an amazing pianist who losses the ability to play when his hands are damaged in a train accident. There is still a certain amount of personal vanity involved, especially when Orlac despises his hands and their inability to give him personal worth and thus the adoration of millions of fans. Blood Rose takes its cues from Les Yeux San Visage, and focuses it attention purely on the vanity aspect. Blood Rose clearly shows us just how the loss of beauty can destroy a personality in an age where beauty is king, or queen.
Frederic Lansac (Philippe Lemaire), a famous painter recently married, is grief stricken when his beautiful new bride Anne (Anny Duperey) is hideously disfigure after falling onto a bonfire. Frederic is obsessed with beauty, and is equally obsessed with Anne and her beauty. Before her accident she was an inspiration to his work and the subject of many of his nude portraits. After her accident Frederic is distraught and unable to perform with his brush. Anne herself is actually lucky to be alive, although this seems to be far from most peoples minds because her face is a stark contrast to her previous beauty, she’s hideous! Anne is also unable to walk, and her eyesight is impaired. She has chosen to hide from public view and barely leaves the house, not wanting to be seen as she now looks.
The majority of this early part of Blood Rose is played in flash back, and there are three distinct parts to the film. The past, present, and finally, the future. In the present section, we see the lives of the once happy couple, and just what a dramatic effect Anne’s accident has had on their relationship. Anne is very bitter and treats those who are looking after her cruelly, especially her attractive nurse, obviously jealous of what she no longer has. She drives her nurse to tears and sends her off as she rages against the poor woman. Her jealousy peaks when she sees her husband fooling around with the nurse after he made attempts to console her, and Anne’s fears are confirmed.
One of the more important aspect of Blood Rose, in it’s effectiveness, is the fact that very little of Anne’s face is revealed. We are provided with small glimpses of her hideous features, but the whole is not revealed until much later, which obviously leaves a lot to the imagination. When Anne appears on camera, generally we see through her eyes, with hazy camera shots representing her poor vision.
Frederic is into plants, and Professeur Römer (Howard Vernon) is experimenting and creating new plants for him. Frederic for some unknown reason brings a deadly poisonous plant into the house, and it’s not long before Anne is tricking the nurse into touching the plant. When the plant pricks her with its poisonous spikes she falls to the floor dead. Anne has no problems telling Frederic that she killed her because the woman was getting between them.
Frederic and his small of stature servants bury the body of the nurse, but things are not quite that simple. The nurse’s sister begins to get suspicious when she receives a letter saying her sister left to tend for another patient. She decides to travel to the chateau to find out what really happened to her sister, and why she left so suddenly.
It seems that Professor Romer has been doing some work on the side, some surgical work using Frederic’s building as a front, Romer confesses that he was a brilliant surgeon but something happened and he now is staying undercover. Frederick bribes him to help them restore Anne’s beauty. Romer doesn’t think it’s possible because the only way to fix Anne’s face is to remove the face of a living donor, which is just not possible. Obviously this is not the case, and the search for a victim and donor of a new face begins. But is it too late for Anne? Has her internal ugliness destroyed those around her, and is there any chance of reclaiming the beauty she once had.
Blood Rose is reminiscent of a Gothic horrors of the 60s for the majority of its running time, although with a continental European feel. This helps gives the film a fresh modern feel that was so lacking from the majority of such films, and which ultimately led to the demise of many of the studios producing the Gothic horrors. There are also moments of modest surrealism, which along with scenes of French architecture and ruined buildings, recall the work of another Frenchman, Jean Rollin. Perhaps this is unique to French cinema, but it certainly adds a visual element that is very appealing.
The moments of violence in Blood Rose are a stark contrast to much of the film, as they are in Rollin’s work. Much of Blood Rose flows effortlessly and this backdrop of simplicity manages to create some truly disturbing moments when the violence does erupt. Scenes where the first potential face transplant victim is captured, and then later raped and killed by Frederic’s assistants is fairly graphic for its time, and pretty disturbing when placed in the context of the rest of the film.
Perhaps it’s the subject matter, that core Maurice Renard story, that helps Blood Rose achieve the heights that is does, but it’s one cracking film and it’s not surprising Mondo Macabro snapped this one up.
Specifications: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.66:1; French or English language track.
Extras: Interviews, Still and poster gallery, Mondo Macabro Previews
Topics: French Horror, Gothic Horror |