Film Fan: The Iron Rose (5 Stars)

Friday 22 January 2021

The Iron Rose (5 Stars)

Here's the next film in my top 100 countdown. I'll give you a spoiler. It's the only French film in my top 100, which means I rate it the best French film ever made. If you want to yell at me, that's what the comment box below this post is for. However, I'm wondering if I should have put it higher in the list. I know I say that every time, but this time I really mean it. Looking at my list, I've been giving a higher rating to action films than to other genres, like comedies and psychological thrillers. The latter two genres are represented, but most of them are low in the list. Just wait until the end of this year. I'll rip up my list and start again. Or maybe I'll publish a Top 100 of the films that should have been in the list. This is getting ridiculous.

As is the case in all of Jean Rollin's films, the atmosphere is more important than the plot. The film ends with unsolved mysteries, but it doesn't matter.

There's one strange thing about the film. I'm not sure how often I've watched it, at least three times, but every time I watch it I notice things that I didn't see before. I don't mean that I'm picking up subtleties that I missed first time round; that happens with all good films. What I mean is that there are scenes that I didn't remember being in the film. For instance, I'd totally forgotten that Karine and her lover were kissing on a train in the opening credits. How could I have missed that?

I've written about the film before, but I'll say a little about the plot. In the pre-credits scene Karine finds an iron rose on the beach. After examining it carefully she throws it into the sea. The next day she meets her lover and goes for a walk in a cemetery. The man isn't named. Why should he be? He's only a man. The woman is in contact with the stars, the Gods and the dead. The man is stupid and just wants sex.

They climb into a crypt to make love. I'm not saying that Karine doesn't enjoy it. She wants it just as much as her unnamed lover. The difference is that she's tuned in to the universe. The man is lost in the cemetery and stumbles around in the dark, while she's fully aware of her surroundings and doesn't want to leave.

When they leave the crypt Karine finds the iron rose lying in the bushes. It doesn't surprise her. She holds it tightly while the man tries to find his way out of the cemetery. Death is waiting for both of them, but only Karine accepts her fate.

I should pay more attention to the extra features on my discs. I first bought "Iron Rose" on DVD about 15 years ago. I'm sure I watched the extra features at the time. I rebought it on Blu-ray five years ago. I didn't notice that the Blu-ray has a new interview with Francoise Pascal, the actress who played Karine. There's no date on the interview, but she mentions Jean Rollin's death, so it must have been between 2011 and 2013, when the Blu-ray was released. Let's say 2012. Despite the passing of time, almost 40 years, she seemed to have a very good memory of the film. She gave me more information than Jean Rollin ever gave in his interviews. For instance, she said that the beach scene was filmed in Calais. This same beach is used in several of his films, and I always wanted to know where it is!