Night of the Hunted (4 Stars)

Jean Rollin began his career making vampire films. His first four films were made from 1968 to 1971, at a time when vampire films didn't have the popularity that they have today. He had two choices: he could either quit making films altogether or change his style. He chose the second option. In the 1970's pornographic films were popular -- as they still are -- so he began to make hardcore pornography. I know very little about these films, except that they typically had a running time of 55 minutes, and he made them using fake names, such as Michel Gentil and Robert Xavier. I assume that the short running time was a request from the French film theatres.

From 1973 to 1985 Jean Rollin made 32 films, of which 21 were pornographic and the other 11 were real films, as he liked to call them. The real films were art, the pornographic films paid the rent. The real films he made during this time were a mixture of vampire films, zombie films and other horror films. During this time he was slowly gaining popularity as a serious director, so he was eventually able to stop making pornography and concentrate on making real films. I have a strong suspicion that the other films weren't films at all, they were just a series of unrelated sex scenes, but as I said, I know nothing about them. Many of them have disappeared over the course of time, and I'm sure Jean Rollin didn't regret it.

"Night of the Hunted" was made in 1980, in the middle of Rollin's pornography phase. He was frustrated with the non-films he was having to make, so he asked the owner of the studio he was working for if he could be given a small budget to make a real film. The owner said Yes, on condition that there was ample female nudity. No problem. Jean Rollin sat all night at his typewriter and had a script ready the next morning. He rang up actors who lived locally, and as locations he used buildings in the north west business area of Paris. Within 10 days the film was finished.

The film was shown in a few cinemas and failed miserably. The studio owner was unhappy with his loss, so he said he wanted to add a few sex scenes and try again. Jean Rollin filmed two softcore sex scenes, but that wasn't good enough. The studio boss said he would ask another director to film hardcore sex scenes. Rollin agreed, as long as his name was completely removed from the film.

The film I watched today is as Jean Rollin intended it. The softcore sex scenes are added to the Blu-ray as deleted scenes, although that's actually a misrepresentation, because they were never supposed to be included in the film at all. The hardcore sex scenes aren't included at all. I suspect they've been lost.

"Night of the Hunted" (original title "La Nuit des Traquées") is a beautiful little story with a simple plot. A man called Robert picks up a girl who he sees running in the road wearing only a nightgown. She has lost her memory. She doesn't know where she came from, she only knows her name is Elisabeth, and she has a friend called Véronique. The man takes her home, but by the time they arrive she's forgotten who he is. She's incapable of retaining any memories. Robert promises to look after her, but the next morning a sinister looking doctor arrives to take her away. He says that she's suffering from a mystery illness and needs protection.

Is that the truth or a lie? Watch the film to find out.

The cinematography is lavish, as in all films made by Jean Rollin. The women who appear in the film are so beautiful that they look other-worldly. This is partly because Brigitte Lahaie has a great beauty in herself, but it's also a matter of lighting and camera angles. There will never be another film maker like Jean Rollin.