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Released by: Encore Entertainment
Released on: 12/2/2005
Director: Jean Rollin
Cast: Francoise Blanchard, Marina Pierro, Mike Marhsall, Carina Barone, Fanny Maiger, Patricia Besnard-Rousseau, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou
Year: 1982
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The Movie:
One of the more commercial and accessible of Jean Rollin's films, La Morte Vivante (better known outside of France as The Living Dead Girl) is as close to a straight horror film as anything Rollin has made, the zombie opus Grapes Of Death not withstanding. It actually begins in a way that isn't too far removed from the way that Return Of The Living Dead starts off - a group of men are trying to get rid of some toxic waste. Rather than dispose of it properly and pay the accompanying disposal fees, they instead opt to dump it into an old tomb where they assume that no one will ever find it. While the men are done in the catacombs, they figure why not make the most of it and see if the corpses have got anything of value they can swipe. Well, that proves to be a very bad idea indeed as the chemicals that have been dumped down there some how manage to reanimate the corpse of a beautiful blonde girl named Catherine (Francois Blanchard) recently deceased. The resurrected woman gouges out the eyes of one of the men and gorges herself on the neck of the other, while the third man is laid to waste by the noxious chemicals in the room.
From here, things become more languid in terms of pacing and more dreamlike in terms of atmosphere as Catherine, more or less a really pretty zombie at this point, wanders the area clad in her white burial gown looking for her home. She finds the old mansion she once lived in up for sale and, after chowing down on the real estate agent who is using the facility for a romantic rendezvous with her boyfriend, we find out that when she was younger she swore a mutual oath to her best friend, Helene (Marina Pierro) that she would never leave her no matter what. It would seem that the chemicals that spilled into Catherine's tomb have given her the chance to live up to that promise, albeit in a slightly more sinister tone than it was probably meant in those childhood years.
One thing leads to another and before long, Helene returns to the house herself, knowing that something is amiss. She finds Catherine there in her current state and soon wises up to the fact that in order to remain animated, she must feed on the blood of the living. Helene cares enough about her childhood friend to willingly appease her sinister urge, but will it be enough and how will she get away with it?
While all of this is going on, a pair of engaged American tourists named Barbara (Carine Barone) and Greg (Mike Marshall) are running around photographing the area when they two become aware of Catherine's existence. Barbara becomes obsessed with her subject and, through a little sleuthing, sets out to uncover her identity and her story.
Argueably Rollin's goriest picture, The Living Dead Girl doesn't skimp on the poetic cinematography and strange, surreal air of sadness that permeates much of the man's horror filmography (not surprisingly, those qualities are often times absent from his XXX output, which he mainly took on to pay the bills anyway). Catherine is a tragic character in the truest sense of the word, she's unable to fully understand how she got where she is and why she needs to feed the way she does, she only knows that Helene left her and now she's in pain. Francoise Blanchard does a remarkable job with a character who really doesn't have much in the way of dialogue or spoken lines and in turn delivers a truly remarkable and almost purely physical performance. She's just as good walking slowly through the French countryside in her long white gown as she is tearing open the necks of her prey, and the fact that Rollin continually reminds us of her human past with little moments like when we see her playing the piano really drive home the sadness of her dilemma similar to the way we feel sorry for the monster in James Whale's Frankenstein.
As good a movie as Living Dead Girl is, it does have a couple of obvious weak spots. The inclusion of the subplot involving the American photographers might sound like an alright idea on the surface but the poorly rendered English dubbing slapped over top of these characters is sloppy and unrealistic. Rollin's films don't really have a lot of tight dialogue and the fact that these characters are as chatty as they are demonstrate why he plays to his strengths in terms of mood and visuals more often than not. Likewise, the low budget really hinders some of the effects work that Benoit Lestang conjurs up for the film, the most obvious example being the eye gouge effect in the opening scene. It doesn't look realistic now, and I find it hard to believe that it ever did, even when the movie was brand new back in 1982.
Even with those problems, Living Dead Girl stands as a near masterpiece of gothic horror filmmaking. It combines just the right amount of horror, sexuality and sensuality, and social commentary overtop of a few bookends that tie everything into a sense of childhood naivety which does manage to get under your skin and into your head at the same time. Some of the images in the film, such as the real estate agents death scene or Blanchard at the piano, are as instantly identifiable as anything in Rollin's filmography and it's no wonder at all that this film is as popular among his fans and horror fans in general as it is.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Living Dead Girl looks excellent on this DVD despite some mild print damage in the form of the odd spec or two here and there. The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen image, transferred from the original negative, boasts great color reproduction and a very clean, colorful picture with a nice amount of both foreground and background detail present throughout. You'll probably pick up on some softness here and there but transfer on this release bests the Image/Redemption release that came out a few years ago in pretty much every way possible. Skin tones look nice and natural, black levels are strong and deep, and there aren't any serious problems with edge enhancement or heavy aliasing present during playback. Putting the disc onto a dual layered disc probably helped eliminate some of the compression artifacts that were present on the first wave of releases like Les Demoniaques.
For a film more than three decades old that was low budget to begin with, the French language Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track sounds pretty solid on this release. There is some mild background hiss in a few scenes and if you listen for them you'll pick out the occasional pop here and there but for the most past, things sound all right. Dialogue is fairly clean and pretty consistent even if sometimes the levels fluctuate just a little bit. It's not a perfect track, but it's pretty decent none-the-less and it suits the film just fine. The extensive selection of optional subtitles for the film includes choices in English, Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Polish. A German language Dolby Digital 2.0 dubbed track is also provided for the feature.
The extras are spread across each of the three discs in this set.
DISC ONE:
The first disc starts off with a quick half-minute video introduction in French (with removable English subtitles) by Francoise Blanchard (who still looks fantastic), who has a few nice things to say about the movie before the credits roll. Aside from that, the original theatrical trailer has also been included and it's presented here in fairly nice shape though it does contain some mild spoilers.
DISC TWO:
The second disc unveils a thirteen-minute English language video introduction from director Jean Rollin who explains his nervousness in dealing with professional actresses in contrast to the 'found talent' he'd used on prior projects. He openly admits that this was a more commercial endeavor than many of the films that came before it, and he also manages to cover how some of the effects work was handled for the film. Rollin is in good spirits here, and is quite jovial as he talks about what is arguably his most famous movie.
Francoise Blanchard returns for a scene specific audio commentary that covers roughly twenty-seven minutes of ten scenes from the film when it's all said and done. These scenes are presented on this disc solo though the commentary really could have been added to the first disc in the set - it would have made more sense. At any rate, Blanchard covers the ten scenes here in a fair bit of detail, giving up the gossip on how she got along with some of her co-stars both male and female as well as how she and Jean Rollin got along on set. She refers to an alternate ending shot for North American release that isn't included in this set for some reason and also dishes out some interesting trivia and a few amusing anecdotes. She has a pretty sharp memory when it comes to this movie and it's quite enjoyable to listen to her reminisce about this particular role.
A trio of interviews is next on the plate. Again, Francoice Blancard gets in front of the camera and talks for about twenty-two minutes in French with optional English subtitles about her work on the movie. She showed up in a few Eurocine productions and covers not only her work with Rollin on this film and Sidewalks of Bangkok, but also her work with Jess Franco on films like Revenge In The House Of Usher. She's a completely charming woman and it's refreshing to see her look back on the glory days of her career in European horror and exploitation movie making with such fondness.
Rollin regular Jean-Pierre Bouyxou, who starred in not only Living Dead Girl but also Sidewalks of Bangkok, Killing Car, and The Grapes Of Death is next on the list of interviewees. Speaking for just over half an hour in length in French with optional English subtitles, he talks about his work and his collaborations with Jean Rollin on some of the aforementioned movies as well as the time he spent working with Jess Franco (he played Dr. Orloff in the excellent Lina Romay vehicle, Female Vampire). He doesn't shy away from covering some of the more exploitative films that he's had a hand in bringing to fruition and refers to Rollin with no shortage of admiration and friendly concern. He seems to have really enjoyed the time he spent making these films and even if sometimes he goes unrealistically highbrow in the way he ascertains a few of the notable entries in his filmography, he makes for an interesting subject and the fact that he's able to speak about his body of work for as long as he does here is a real treat for fans of European cult cinema.
The third and final interview on this disc is with Philippe d'Aram, the man responsible for composing the music that plays such a large role in the atmosphere that Rollin is able to create in this particular film. For just over fifteen minutes he tells us of his background in music and how he came to collaborate with Jean Rollin on Living Dead Girl as well as on the earlier Fascination. Like Morricone, d'Aram mentions that he was able to come up with bits and pieces for the movie based simply on Rollin's script without having ever seen a single frame of the finished movie, and he spends a fair amount of time talking about how much he enjoyed working with him in various aspects. All in all, another interesting and complimentary interview.
After the interviews is a selection of three deleted scenes, totaling just over three minutes in combined running time. The first scene shows the American photographers having a talk at a local festival in the village, the second shows the real estate agent having a brief phone conversation and the final scene begins in black and white with the photographers checking out the house before it ends by switching back to full color. None of these scenes would have impacted the final version of the film much at all had they been reinstated into it, but it's still nice to see them here.
Rounding out the extra features on this second disc is a decent sized still gallery set to music from the film's score running just over four minutes in length. As it plays out, we get a chance to check out a nice selection of promotional photographs, artwork, and behind the scenes photographs.
DISC THREE:
The third disc in the set this time around is actually a full on soundtrack CD. While the combined running time of the songs used in the score from Philippe d'Aram only totals sixteen minutes or so, it's pretty keen to be able to have the music supplied here without the dialogue or sound effects over top. The track listing on the audio CD is as follows:
1 - La Morte Vivante (3:18)
2 - La Découverte Des Caveaux (2:53)
3 - La Boite í Musique (1:28)
4 - Frottements (1:31)
5 - Dans La Crypte (1:19)
6 - Le Bal - Slow (3:24)
7 - Le Suicide (1:45)
Again, the running time is brief but some of the music takes on a whole new life when it's heard on its own without the context of the film, and as such, it makes for a unique listening experience in and of itself.
Rounding out the extra features is a full color sixty-four-page booklet that presents an essay from Rollin that details the origins of the film as well as his thoughts on the movie and on the people he found himself working with during its production. It's quite a lavish book, printed on heavy, glossy paper stock, and the text is all in English and although it covers some of the same information that the commentary track does, it's still quite a nice presentation and the pictures are very, very cool.
On a side note, it would have been nice to see more involvement from Jean Rollin in the extra features. As it stands now we've got an exemplary selection of pertinent and interesting extra material here to delve into, but a second commentary from the director and an interview with him would have been the icing on an already pretty much perfect cake. Regardless, Encore have once again done a fantastic job with a film that I don't think any of us ever thought would see a release of this caliber and this quality.
The Final Word:
One of Jean Rollin's more popular (and accessible) films, La Morte Vivante/The Living Dead Girl gets the deluxe treatment from Encore. While some of the effects might have aged, the movie still manages to work amazingly well, combining the erotic with the grotesque in that beautiful Rollin-esque way that has earned him a legion of devoted fans around the world.