Two Orphan Vampires (1997)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

French director Jean Rollin worked on the storyline to for this film whilst undergoing lengthy dialysis treatment. The extra time enforced on the project results in one of his most polished work, in my view. We have Louise and Henriette (Alexandra Pic and Isabelle Taboul), two girls (sisters possibly) who are blind by day and fully sighted vampires by night. The reason seems to be that they are Aztec Gods, or descendants thereof, and as such, can never really die.Much is made of their night-time activities. Their blue-tinged journeys are either seen as sinister hunts or the mischievous naughtiness of two young scamps. This balance between schoolgirl killer and playful sinner is achieved very well. The actresses exude an other-worldly charm that makes them strangely appealing, despite their misdeeds.Of course, there is the opportunity to pick out plot holes - why did the girls kill the good Dr Dennery after he provided them with a home, and whom they had just convinced of their good intentions? And why did the passer-by in the cemetery, after noticing they were not really blind, assume them to be demons from hell and threaten to beat them with a stick? – but why bother? It would, as always, be like trying to dissect a dream, a place where the usual rules either don't exist, or simply don't matter.

So many French film makers hide behind the term "surrealism", when what they are making is just garbage. Film is a total art form using motion, sound and text..not just one of the three elements. With Jean Rollins you get nowhere near the full package. What you do get is a very interesting series of photographs, exceptionally lighted, and edited together. Because of the photography-- I will say it is a beautiful film---what makes it even more beautiful, to watch, is the two leading actresses: Alexandra Pic (Louise) and Isabelle Teboul (Henriette). It is obvious that these two actresses are young and inexperienced, they do, nevertheless, a reasonably good job; even if they come across as walking right out of acting class. That is alright, however, since everyone has to start somewhere.The plot is nothing more than an outline and I have to admit that I would be interested in reading the books to see how well the subject matter is covered. The dialogue is overblown and comes off as being an exercise in amateurism, not surrealism; although the actresses do their best. A plus is that the gore is minimal and looks unrealistic and the director also gets points for the absurdness of some of the "supernatural" characters the two orphan girls come across during the course of the action.Jean Rollin passed away last year and we will not be seeing another new film by him. I think he had a wonderful eye for finding a hole in the world. By that I would consider him a true surrealist. This particular film, or any of his films for that matter, are not for everyone. He often said he did not make straight horror films, rather fantasy films. He also said he never wanted all the sex, but that is how the distributors wanted to market it. In this film there is one scene where the two embrace naked. The actresses looked uncomfortable which made me feel the same. It is a shame that a film maker has to market something in such a way that changes his vision...but that's show business; I am sure that there are many fifteen year old boys out there that a glad that it is so.

Two Orphan Vampires (1997) ** (out of 4) Later day Rollin film about two sisters who are blind during the day but at night can see blue as they stalk the streets of Paris looking for blood. This is certainly a very big departure for Rollin especially when compared to his more famous, early 70's vampire films. Whereas his earlier films were full of sex, blood and violence, this one here is pretty darn close to PG-rated, although there are a few shots of bloody lips and one brief scene of a woman's breasts. This is a rather strange film to review because on one hand it's not very good but on the other I somewhat respect what Rollin was going for. I think the best thing about the film is the atmosphere Rollin creates with his small budget. As with many Rollin films, this one here moves too slowly, which is the ultimate death key. The film comes close to 105-minutes, which feels twice as long once you get to the half way point. Another problem is that the dialogue is among the worst I've ever heard and I'd swear that a two-year-old wrote it. Alexandra Pic and Isabelle Teboul turn in fairly good performances as the teenage vampires.

"We are sublime disorder. We're from before their god. They made him say 'Let there be light' to cut our night in half. But, their order is chaos. Our disorder is mad poetry. Our existence awakens and our night is clarity. The two orphan girls roar alone in the night, like flames. And so, no one can touch them. All others are puppets for our game."Louise & Henriette(Alexandra Pic & Isabelle Teboul)are supposedly blind teenage girls living in a Catholic orphanage. In fact, they are female vampires who must feed from the blood of whatever is available, sneaking out at night to find fresh victims(..like an unfortunate dog roaming a nearby cemetery). Their convent mothers love them, believing these two are angelic lambs, sweet innocents when in fact they are cunning blood-drinkers who relish the taste as it enters their bodies, providing the nourishment they need to survive. They often ponder their identities and where they came from, likening themselves to Aztec goddesses, since they found them in a book within their Mother Superior's library. Once they are adopted by a kind eye-specialist, Dr. Dennary(Bernard Charnacé), Louise and Henriette find freedom to pursue interests in Paris, finding suitable victims to drain at night when their guardian is asleep. An ailment that plagues the girls is daytime blindness, but at night they can see well enough. Night to them is shaded in blue(..which is why Rollin's nighttime scenes are colored blueberry)and they thoroughly enjoy the sights they see. Most of the film displays Louise and Henriette's adventures, finding victims to drain, pondering their past and fates, worrying about potential threats that might lie ahead, and tiring of their predicament regarding the blindness they face and the lack of freedom due to their male guardian who likes to keep them from venturing too far from home.Not much of a plot which shouldn't be news to the Rollin faithful. This is different in that the female leads aren't lesbian lovers always fondling each other or walking around naked all the time. Their both 17 years old which removes certain aspects Rollin fans are accustomed to. He does shoot in a vast cemetery and we are introduced to a few "creatures of the night" like a She-wolf who recently escaped an asylum resting within a train station, a "midnight lady" cemetery vampire with giant wings, and a vampire who feasts on cadavers who the girls meet along the way. Like in a lot of vampire films, the feeding habits of the teenage vamps eventually catches up to them. Their facade of innocence is shown as quite a tool for the girls to use when they need to feed from potential victims(..like guest-starring Brigitte Lahaie). The dialogue mostly spoken by the girls seems like verse you'd read from a book of melancholic poetry. Rarely are the girls anything other than theatrical in their speech and point-of-view regarding their existence and life in general. The film offers a possibility that these girls are incarnations of others from past lives, returning to live on earth over and over, but it seems that this could merely be created stories from the girls who often let their imaginations run rampant. I think the rub of Rollin's film is just how much the girls enjoy killing and feeding. They do not look like the sort who'd speak so unemotionally about slitting a throat and draining a victim's blood. A riot of a scene has Louise and Henriette pondering just how to kill Dennary. The nuns are often presented as idiots to scorn, but in this film, they're merely naive as to how the girls really are. They cherish the two blind girls, feeling pity for them. Which makes the private scenes between Louise and Henriette so eye-opening and often funny. But, as always, Rollin brings to the screen images that form in his mind..how to frame his girls using their surroundings as a way to paint a unique canvas. This is such the case when they enter the Paris cemetery or when they flee from their orphanage entering a wilderness path, Rollin visualizes how he desires to shoot his characters in the way they come to his mind as he writes the screenplay. The opening montage using postcards, photos & paintings set to such a moody score really sets up the nature of the film and it's characters. Understanding that the film is from the literary work of two books from Rollin makes sense considering how the girls go through a series of vignettes, meeting various characters before returning to the only real home they've ever known only to succumb to their bloodlust banishing them to eternal unrest knowing that the authorities would be after them for biting other innocent orphans. I thought the leads were lovely and handled the unusual dialogue rather well. They were of course a bit theatrical in their presentation but the words they spoke entitled them to be.