IronRose

The Iron Rose

A Girl and a Boy meet at a wedding. And no I’m not being lazy. They are both in their 20s but the story only ever refers to them as girl and boy. We never get their names. Anyway they decide that they like each other and make plans on meeting to go on a bike ride and eat a picnic lunch. Their ride takes them to a cemetery where they eat and then sneak down into a crypt to get to know each other better. When they come up from the crypt it is dark and they can’t find their way out. They both get scared with the boy getting violent and the girl going a bit crazy.

This is my 1st time watching a Jean Rollin movie and I have to say that I’m impressed. This is a really interesting character study that shows us a very subtle breakdown of one person’s sanity. If you have ever read any of my reviews you know that I don’t go in for the “artsy” kind of filmmaking most of the time. Here I totally enjoyed it. The setting of the cemetery is a perfect place for these characters to discuss life and death. It is also an amazing place to watch the girl go slowly lose her mind. Though one might wonder if she was already damaged in some way. I mean she goes off with a boy that she just met to a cemetery and does what they do in the crypt on what is their 1st date… Something isn’t right there.

In addition to the superior script the actors manage to carry a movie that is basically just the two of them. Françoise Pascal is the girl and Hugues Quester is the boy. They have chemistry together on screen and also both manage to create characters on the screen that seen appropriate for the story. There is something surreal both about them and the events taking place.

The last thing that I wanted to talk about is the cinematography. This is a very pretty movie. The scenes are mostly at night and darkly light. But the setting of the cemetery is captured so beautifully. This just reinforces the atmosphere of the Iron Rose and plays along perfectly with the story and cast to make the experience memorable.

For this review I watched the new Blu-Ray from Redemption. The disc has all kinds of special features on it including an interview with Pascal and one with Natalie Perrey. Also included with the disc is a nifty 20-page booklet/essay from film historian Tim Lucas. It is a great read.

The best thing about this hobby of watching and reviewing movies is that I constantly get the chance to discover new movies and directors. As I’ve already said this is the 1st movie from Rollin that I’ve watched, though it won’t be the last. And that isn’t only because the fine folks over at Redemption have sent me a stack of his movies to review. If I had just stumbled on The Iron Rose I would have immediately sought out more of his work. I can’t wait to check them out and recommend that you get yourself a copy of this Blu-Ray for your collection. It is well worth your time.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer