Jean Rollin
Poetry Becomes Surrealism: The Cinema of Jean Rollin
The citizens of Paris were in a bad mood in May of 1968. Student protests lead to a general strike that almost caused the collapse of the government. The City of Light was paralyzed by the most violent protest seen in Europe in over 100 years. It was in this atmosphere that Jean Rollin’s first film opened in Paris. It was only one of two new films to open that week and audiences flocked to the cin...[Read More]
Bela Lugosi’s Not Really Dead: A Vampire Movie Primer
Vampires are so commonplace in entertainment these days that I cannot fathom how anyone could find them mysterious, otherworldly, or especially frightening. In our narcissistic age, people romanticize vampires because the idea of staying young forever trumps any of the existential sadness of such a proposition. Furthermore, the horror aspect of the undead has been entirely co-opted and taken to ex...[Read More]