The Escapees [Import]

Jean Rollin's films (maybe we should call them experiments/treatises in filmmaking, as few can be truly considered 'films') are captivating to some and heinous crimes comitted against the artform to others, and both camps are probably correct. His work in the late 60's was nothing more than interesting (to some) experiments at creating a feel and vibe of gothic imagery that is primarily devoid of narrative or plot. In the 70's, he started to hit a stride with a growing captive audience as his flicks got even more surreal, pseudo-psychedelic, and bizarre, where he created an obtuse and oblique alternate universe to standard filmmaking, thereby through default, engendering his own unique artform, much to the chagrin of 'serious' film lovers, who viewed his work as too vague and incoherent if not downright sacreligous. By the 80's, his work became incredibly spotty - 'Fascination', 'The Living Dead Girl' and 'Night of the Hunted' being his best output during this era, IMHO, and the remainder trashy and excessively low-budget attempts to reclaim past glories, if you consider his body of work anything glorious. I find something oddly compelling about most of his work, but my wife detests all of it, as do most of my friends who I've subjected to his world.

The only thing of interest he produced in the 90's was 'Dracula's Fiancé'/ 'Fiancé of Dracula' (it was released under both titles), upping the gore and blood quotient and freakishness considerably, with positive results, something he averted in earlier efforts.

'The Escapees' suffers from a lack of cohesiveness, rudimentary and detestable characters, an even more incoherent storyline, a deeper lack of narrative and preposterous actions by its principals than usual - the subtle, dreamlike surrealism that presided over earlier efforts is noticeably absent, the herky-jerky vagabond vaudeville characters seem an odd fit in this mix, and the two female leads are missing the glue to hold one's attention for any length of time. As a fan of most of Rollin's films, I found this one impossible to sit still through, and as soon as I finished it I sold it on Ebay along with 'Killing Car', another Rollin vehicle (no pun intended) that missed the mark completely. Seek out his 70's film's and those 80's flicks referenced above for something more indicative of his better efforts.

French director Jean Rollin has garnered a cult following for his 1970s output of softcore vampire and "living dead" films. Generally shot with the crumbling ruins of European cemeteries and castles as his backdrops, all of his films evoke a wonderful otherworldly feel for an American audience. The frequent focus on lovely lesbians (generally with fangs) doesn't hurt the visual allure of his films either. THE ESCAPEES is one of his later films, and also one of his least seen. Issued in 1981, it differs from much of his catalogue in that it pairs him with a co-writer and eschews any connection to the supernatural, though it does continue his exploration of the macabre.

The film follows two teen girls who escape from an asylum where they were committed for polar reasons. One is afraid of people, the other is looking too hard for sexual adventure. They fall in with a troupe of junkyard burlesque performers, hook up with a pickpocket, and then are lured into the sordid sexual explorations of a yuppie foursome (which includes a brief but powerful appearance by Rollin regular Brigitte Lahaie.) While the settings of this film are largely grey and urban and thus lacking in some of the setting allure of his earlier work, and the vampire element is missing, THE ESCAPEES is still an intriguing film and like so many of Rollin's movies, a bittersweet examination of his two heroines. Its "underground" bar and burlesque scenes evoke some of the same offbeat feel of his earlier film THE DEMONIACS. Overall it is a bit uneven, and certainly not his strongest work, to be sure, but Rollin fans won't want to miss it.

I'm a European from France, and I'm inclined to view myself as sharing most of the sensibilities that typically come along with that. I'm generally a careful reviewer, intent upon not being unduely discouraging, but I've got to say here . . . crap is crap!!!! This is like a D+ (or at the very best and most generous, a C-# film school term project. It cuts incoherently from here to there-- totally lacking edited continuity-- and it ends with cops who had just engaged in an extensive gun fight with the two central girl characters #both sides wildly using machine guns, no less#, standing mouth-opened and paralyzed as one of the girls carries the body of the other out the gate #the cop in a suit, hence presumably in charge, merely yelled "They're kids" just before all the gendarmes went limp and immobile as she walked past them#. Next thing we know, the film cuts away to the same girl carrying the same body of her friend by a lakeside in the park-- suggesting that the cops had just let her leave the scene of five murders and an assault-weaponed gunfight. Give me a break. These are the kinds of cutaways that bespeak a general absence of skill in movie-making. Who is this director guy, other than a Frenchman. What entitles him to be considered a film-maker to be talk abouted other than the English subtitles. To be French and to lack movie making skill is not automatically to be "interesting" and "arresting." The movie felt sophomoric in both content and execution. From the other reviews, I got the sense that that's about the level of movie-making skill this guy had plateaued at throughout the course of his career. I can just imagine him at a café with other wanna bes complaining #as only a Frenchman speaking French can which seemed the only truly French thing about him# about all the Philistines too stupid to grasp the high artistic essence of his stuff. I get this impression because it dores not seem he ever got any better throughout the course ofv a thirty years or so career. Perhaps going to film school and learning to use film as a means of focusing on the audience rather than himself might help. One reviewer #who only gave him two stars# tried heroically to give meaning to this "effort" by talking about its "gothic" character. But it opens up with a version of psychiatric hospital practice that would be deemed patient abuse in most any advanced society-- of which I'm politely inclined to count France as one. But, as I said, the worst sin of all are the cut-aways and their lack of linkages. This was a horrible experience, like being hit by waves that are not connected by any underlying ocean. A complete lack of "flow."