Jean Rollin tapped into a special and idiosyncratic world with his realization of The Iron Rose. It plays out as moving poetry in the form of existential dread. The film is drowning in gothic imagery and an overall morose atmosphere.
Everything begins on the beach. A woman inspects a crystal flower that washes ashore as the tide continues to flow. She gently runs her fingers along the contours of the flower before throwing it back into the sea. Francoise Pascal plays this woman who is seen in virtually every scene of the film. She leaves the beach and walks in a field. We see her embracing a man, both figures standing on a train in a deserted and fog covered landscape. Fragmented melodies overlap in an eerie manner, finding the pulse of this singular horror film.
The premise of the film could not be more simplistic. Francoise Pascal's character has a chance meeting with a man at a weird gathering of sorts. He grabs her attention by reciting to the entire crowd, a morbid and beautiful poem. They eventually speak to one another outside of the party and agree to meet the following day. When that day arrives, they run around an abandoned and desolate train station. The mist filled air gives everything a hallucinatory feel. Later in the day, the two individuals decide at random to visit a deteriorated graveyard. After the intended diversion comes to a natural end, they find themselves trapped in the graveyard, unable to find a pathway out. The illogical set up adds to the magic of the film, reminding me in ways of a more grim and poetic take on Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel.
Later in the film, once they have realized that everyone else has left and they are stuck with no chance of leaving, madness ensues little by little. Pascal gives a tremendously exciting performance which is both playful and alarming in equal measure. As The Iron Rose progresses, her character seems to gradually shift more towards the possessed sphere. She speaks to the dead, dances joyfully beside graves and delivers extremely vivid poetry. Surrounded by human skulls and bones, she is in tune with the spirit world.
Rollin builds up this visual poem in a way that ebbs and flows naturally. It is a quiet film for the most part, though periodic shrieks from Pascal followed by the frustrated male figure work in the ways they should. The bizarre and wonderful music by Pierre Raph is used sparingly which only makes the scenes with music more intense and disorienting. In one scene, Pascal looks down at the male who has fallen into a grave full of skulls. Rollin circles the camera around and around while Raph's demented and effected chanting further advance the state of derangement.
In the midst of Pascal communicating with the dead through poetry, she imagines herself naked on the beach. Large crosses protrude out of the ground, around the rocks on the beach. She knocks the crosses down, one by one. This is all taking place in her mind's eye as she is still stuck in the graveyard. Though at this point, she has embraced her situation entirely and even welcomes it. The Iron Rose finds Jean Rollin immersing himself in an atmosphere that would impact the rest of his following work to varying degrees. It is a an expertly made film that fully captures the spirit lined within the entire film world of Jean Rollin.
The Iron Rose has several additional features. There is a very brief Rollin introduction in which he states that the film is connected with Requiem for a Vampire in his mind, due to the simplicity of both films. The actress Francoise Pascal is interviewed and shares a number of interesting anecdotes along with high praise for Rollin. She admits that Rollin was not interested in casting her originally and that she got the part due to the insistence of producer Sam Selsky. Another feature included is yet another interview with Natalie Perrey who has appeared on other Rollin Blu-Ray releases. Her inclusion on all of the releases she is found on makes perfect sense considering that she was such an integral person in Rollin's film life and wore many hats while they worked together. She states how proud of the film she is, especially when considering that Rollin kept being told to include blood and other typical horror elements. Perrey also explains how when other horror films came out around that time, the strange bits of films were often referred to by the French as, "the Rollin parts." This was a criticism of Rollin though something he didn't mind according to Perrey, who mentions that those same bits were what Rollin liked the most in works by others. Lastly, there is the English opening title sequence which credits Jean Rollin as the producer and Sam Selsky as the director. The Iron Rose receives a thrilling release.
