Fascination
There is apparently little honour among thieves; their leader Marc saying he will arrange passage to London and they will regroup in a month to divide the share gold, his associates are unconvinced, forcing him to flee. Taking shelter at a château in the forest surrounded by a moat, it is empty save for two servants, Elizabeth and Eva, who in the absence of their mistress treat the mansion as though it were their own.
Tracked by the vagabonds, a gunfight ensues, but while Marc is concerned about the threat from outside the walls the more subtle danger is within, the lady in waiting and the companion to the absent Marchioness Hélène tittering like schoolgirls as they await her return with her guests for a party at which Marc will play a central role.
Written and directed by Jean Rollin and set very specifically in April 1905, established in the prelude which sees the as-yet unintroduced Elizabeth and Eva (Franca Maï and Brigitte Lahaie) attending an abattoir to drink the blood of a slaughtered ox as a treatment for anaemia, Fascination was originally released in 1979, a drifting dream which becomes a nightmare.
Jean-Pierre Lemaire is the lecherous dandy gangster in over his head, Marc dressed in red and black stripes as he plays the games of dominance and control with Elizabeth and Eva, believing that he has the power and unable to conceive that he does not, realising too late that he is the trapped mouse rather than the cat.
Sluggishly paced with the sparse dialogue promising some significant event in the near future, Fascination continues the established obsessions of Rollin, the ensemble cast more for their willingness to disrobe frequently rather than talent as they move about lavishly appointed boudoirs and lounges under the gaze of the portrait of Countess Elizabeth Báthory.
Fascination more an example of the erotic art cinema of the time than a cinematic achievement which holds interest four decades later, elegantly staged and shot but empty, Elizabeth expresses the ennui of her lonely vampiric existence as “the universe of madness and death,” an accurate but not encouraging assessment of her circumstances.
Fascination is streaming on Arrow now
