Scott LeBrun The renowned French filmmaker Jean Rollin visits themes of childhood, nostalgia, undying love, and the vampire mythos in this typically enigmatic, striking work. Jean-Loup Philippe, who also wrote the script with the director, stars as Frederic, a maternally dominated young man. One day he chances to see a photo of some old ruins that stir in him a long buried childhood memory, when he got lost, came to those ruins, and was protected through the night by a mysterious but alluring stranger (Annie Belle). He becomes determined to solve the mysteries of his life, like for example why people such as his mother (Natalie Perrey) don't want him to know the truth. He's aided in his quest by four sexy female vampires.Rollin films are most assuredly not for every horror fan. He keeps horror elements fairly limited, with not very much gore or scare set pieces. He does, however, include enough nudity, both female and male, to keep faithful viewers and the curious enticed. He also creates an intoxicating atmosphere here, and a genuinely compelling enigma over which our hero can obsess. One of his most affecting touches here is to develop a sense of desolation. There are never any big crowd scenes, nor are there many in the daytime. A lot of the time, there are precious few characters on screen. Almost from start to finish, Rollin gives "Lips of Blood" a true surreal nature, and the dialogue is often appealingly literate.Our leading man isn't the most charismatic one will ever see, but he's not unlikable. His various female co-stars fare extremely well, though, especially the radiant young Belle, whom one might recognize from the far more trashy "House on the Edge of the Park"."Lips of Blood" is wonderfully shot, and definitely romantic in its own way. It's both artful and exploitative in equal measure, making it well worth seeing.Eight out of 10.

Michael_Elliott Lips of Blood (1974)*** (out of 4)A different take on the vampire legacy has a young man (Jean-Loup Philippe) seeing a photo of a castle, which gives him a flashback to when he was a child. He remembers as a child going to a strange castle where he spoke with a young woman who protected him against something. In the current times, he tries to figure out exactly where this castle is and who the woman is but his mother seemed determined to keep him away. Director Jean Rollin made a wide range of vampire films in his career and it's probably safe to say that this one here was his strangest. I think the film works best if you go into it expecting some sort of twisted and surreal fairy tale involving the living dead. As usual, the director takes his sweet time telling the story, although thankfully the pacing here is much better than in a lot of his films. The pacing actually works well with the film and it especially helps set up our lead character and makes this journey worth taking. The pacing of the film allows one to really get into the mystery of the events going on but it also allows Rollin time to build up some atmosphere. This atmosphere, like many of the director's best work, is the strong point and you can't help but feel the cool breeze of the night and the dampness of the tombs once the vampires do start to come. Philippe does a very good job in the lead role as you have no problem believing him in the part. Annie Belle is very seductive as the woman who befriended our lead character. As you'd expect from a Rollin film, the nudity is quite high as our lovely vampires don't mind walking around naked. We even get some pretty silly and gratuitous scenes like one where our lead goes to a photographers place and then gets treated to a couple nude women. There are still several problems in this film including so many logic issues that you could drive a semi through. You have to question the "story" told by the mother towards the end of the film and once everything is said and done you can't help but think there must have been much easier ways to do things. Still, fans of the genre should enjoy this film even with its flaws.

suspiria56 The films of Jean Rollin will be an enigma to many who have not experiencing his work, yet for those who allow themselves to be taken elsewhere by his cinema it can prove a highly rewarding experience. The viewer is often taken to places that invoke bewilderment, unease, and sexual desire. By no means Rollin's best film, Levres De Sang (aka. Lips of Blood) is a beautifully lyrical, slow burner that has the uncanny ability to take the viewer into an ethereal, dream like world, where the erotic and the neurotic are intertwined.The story of a photographer, upon seeing a poster, is reminded of his childhood where a mysterious female vampire. However, this being Rollin, do not expect a traditional vampire movie (although his vampire films are arguably the most faithful to the Gothic aura and mythology of the vampire). Mostly dialogue free, with the acting catatonic, this only adds a surreal edge to the proceedings. And no vampire films have a greater sense of eroticism; it is easily to succumb to female vampires whenever they are on screen. For the uninitiated, approach with caution. But this is a fine example of the originality and unique approach which is to be found in 1970s European sex and horror cinema. Of which, Jean Rollin was undoubtedly the master.

Woodyanders Jean Rollin's typically outré, dreamy, and deliberately paced film deserves appraisal for attempting a fresh and lyrical spin on the usual bloodsucker premise, but the occasionally too draggy and meandering narrative and a bland central performance by Jean-Loup Philippe as the obsessive Frederic who's determined to figure out his dark family past prevent this movie from completely working. Fortunately, Nathalie Perrey's stand-out portrayal of Frederic's protective mother compensates for Philippe's insipidness in the lead. The beautiful Annie Belle is properly bewitching as Jennifer, the lovely and mysterious lady who haunts Frederic's memories. Comely blonde real life twin sisters Catherine and Marie-Pierre Castel are quite sexy and stunning as a couple of vampires Frederic accidentally unleashes into Paris. Moreover, Rollin makes good use of natural locations (the ruins setting in particular is very creepy), does his usual ace job of creating and sustaining a pleasingly surreal and spooky midnight-in-the-graveyard misty atmosphere, and pulls off a strangely poetic and surprising final scene that's both haunting and touching in equal measure. Jean-Francois Robin's rather plain and grainy cinematography offers a handful of strikingly eerie images. However, the opening third is much too padded and poky and the more trashy explicit elements like gratuitous distaff nudity are jarringly at odds with the overall artiness and offbeat fairytale-like quality of the picture (for example, a sequence with a lady photographer and her nude model is simply tossed in for the sake of cheap titillation and adds nothing to the story). Imperfect, but still a praiseworthy entry in the vampire horror sub-genre.