CommentsXp Best movie ever!

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Woodyanders Rebellious spitfire Michelle (a lively performance by the fetching Laurence Dubas) and the painfully shy and forlorn Marie (beautifully played with aching vulnerability by the lovely Christiane Coppe) are a pair of troubled young women who manage to escape from a sanitarium. The pair do their best to avoid detection from the authorities by joining up with a traveling band of exotic dancers.Director Jean Rollin, who also co-wrote the odd and thoughtful script with Jacques Ralf, presents an unusual, affecting, and interesting cinematic meditation on the basic youthful human need to live a free and spontaneous independent existence that unfolds at a gradual pace, vividly captures stunning moments of raw beauty and wrenching poignancy (Marie's solo figure skating set piece at an empty ice rink in particular is simply breathtaking), does his customary ace job of crafting an enchanting dreamlike atmosphere, and astutely nails both the danger and excitement of throwing caution to the wind through living a rootless peripatetic lifestyle. Dubas and Coppe do sterling work and display an appealing unforced natural chemistry in the leads; they receive sturdy support from Marianne Valiot as scrappy thief Sophie, Louise Dhour as compassionate nightclub owner Madame Louise, Patrick Perrott as the sensitive Pierrot, and Brigitte Lahaie as a snooty rich bitch. The downbeat ending packs a devastating punch. Claude Becognee's sumptuous cinematography and Philippe D'Aram's spare melancholy score are both up to speed. Offbeat and worth a look.

morrison-dylan-fan After telling my dad last year that I had enjoyed watching the horror film Fascination from auteur director Jean Rollin,I was happily caught by surprise,when my dad recently revealed that he had picked up a Rollin film,which led to me going on the run with the escapees.The plot:Seeing their lives slip away inside an insane asylum, Michelle & Maire decide to escape to freedom.Breaking out of the asylum,Marie and Michelle run away into the wilderness,and end up at a circus being held on a concrete wasteland.As they start to become friends with some of the circus performers,Maire and Michelle set their sights on finally gaining true freedom.View on the film:Starting the film in an insane asylum,co-writer/(along with Jacques Ralf) director Jean Rollin drains the movie of any colour by subtly locking the girls in the asylum by surrounding them in dried up red, green and blues.Along with the brittle colours,Rollin and cinematographer Claude Bécognée also use swift hand held camera moves to give the circus a rolling in the chaos mood.Pulled out to a 102 (not the 95 mins that IMDb list) minute running time,the screenplay by Ralf and Rollin struggles to develop any sense of rhythm,as Maire and Michelle's attempt to be freed of the asylum lack any sense of urgency or a deepening in the relationship between Maire and Michelle.Failing to take advantage of the elegant charm from Laurence Dubas and Christiane Coppé's performances as Michelle & Marie,Rollin's takes a mad dash in the titles final moments to strike a doomed romance Film Noir final note,which whilst impressive,is unable to make up for the previously plodding 95 minutes having been chained down.

Red-Barracuda The Escapees is one of Jean Rollin's most obscure films. As I watched it I couldn't help but wonder just who this movie exactly was aimed at. It's a wilfully uncommercial film, even by Rollin's standards. And while I am for the most part a fan of the director's oeuvre I can't say I enjoyed this one very much at all. The main problem is it's so mundane and lacking in the otherworldly feel that is typical of the director's best work and is grounded too much in reality. While the basic idea of a couple of young melancholic girls on the run encountering a series of unusual events is textbook Rollin, the movie has none of the fantastique element to feed off. I've heard that this was a result of producers trying to impose certain restrictions on Rollin, and ensuring he did not make another of his idiosyncratic vampire movies. They wanted a more sell-able product but ironically ended up with an even less commercial film than the director would normally turn out. It's really not difficult to see why this became a lost film and effectively sank without a trace.There are occasional moments that have the director's fingerprints all over them. Such as the scene in the ice rink at night. This memorable moment incorporates the poetic and slightly surreal imagery that Rollin is most loved for. Unfortunately, The Escapees rarely has any other sequences that approach this. Its fairly plot-less story just meanders from one low key scene to another with very little over all purpose. It doesn't feel like the director's heart is in this project and it isn't ultimately a lot of fun.

Lars Jacobsson Although there is no horror and only a bit little sleaze and violence (courtesy of Brigitte Lahie no less) this is an unmistakable Jean Rollin film - nobody else could, or even wants to make films his way. Two girls, one rebellious and the other one almost catatonic, run away from a borstal-like psychiatric clinic, meets a butch pickpocket-girl, some black strippers and a bunch of sailors and ends up in various adventures. This almost plot less, commercially doomed movie, equally pretentious as it is naive, was bound to make 95% of its audience either laugh or leave their seats, but for a Rollin fan there are some beautiful shots to be found. The figure skating scene was incredible and so was some of the shots at the junkyard. I also liked the sad ending. Not among his best but an interesting footnote in his filmography... for a Rollin fan that is, all others beware! The most shocking thing about this film for me is that there is no...*gulp*... beach scene! What happened, Jean? A few years back you couldn't even shoot a cheap porno without a trip to the beach?