Fascination (1979 film)

In April 1905, a group of fashionable Parisian women arrive at an abattoir to drink the blood of an ox as a way to cure anemia, and find the result successful.

Nearby a man named Marc, a thief, escapes from four other thieves. He is planning on heading to London with a bag of gold coins, but must take refuge from his pursuers. He discovers a château isolated in the mountains looked after by two chambermaids, Elizabeth and Eva, who are awaiting the arrival of the Marchioness and her servants. The women, who appear to be bisexual and in a romantic relationship, are not scared that Marc is possibly taking them hostage; rather, they find it, and him, attractive.

Eva sleeps with Marc, spurring jealousy from Elizabeth. The group of thieves discover where Marc is hiding, and begin shooting at the château. Eva goes outside to hand over the gold, but while two of them count it, the wife of one of the thieves takes Eva's dress. Eva seeks revenge by seducing her husband inside the stables before stabbing him to death; she also kills the woman and the two other men with a scythe.

The Marchioness later arrives with her servants, and they hold a party in which Marc is the only male, so he gets all the attention. When midnight comes, it is revealed that the women habitually lure people into the castle and drink their blood. Elizabeth helps Marc escape, so they hide out in the stables. Eva discovers them and Elizabeth shoots her out of jealousy. Elizabeth and Marc flee and Eva stumbles back to the château where the servants drain her blood. Marc confesses that he loves Elizabeth, whereas she admits that she never loved him and kills him. Elizabeth and the Marchioness go into the sunrise together.

{{Cast list|

• Franca Maï as Elizabeth (credited as Franka Mai)
• Brigitte Lahaie as Eva
• Jean-Marie Lemaire as Marc
• Fanny Magier as Hélène
• Muriel Montosse as Anita
• Sophie Noël as Sylvie (credited as Sophie Noel)
• Evelyne Thomas as Dominique
• Agnès Bert as herself (credited as Agnes Bert)
• Cyril Val as Un Apache (credited as Alain Plumey)
• Myriam Watteau as La Femme Apache
• Joe De Palmer as Un Apache (credited as Joe De Lara)
• Jacquel Sansoul

}}

Fascination was released theatrically in France by the Consortium Européen Cinématographique on 2 January 1980.

Reviewing the film on Blu-ray, Charlie Hobbs of Twitch Film wrote, "Upon my first viewing of this film, I found myself struggling a little bit to remain engaged at first, however, around the halfway point, the film picks up significantly and the third act is a thing of beauty".{{cite web|url=http://twitchfilm.com/2012/01/jean-rollin-on-blu-ray-fascination-review.html|title=Jean Rollin on Blu-ray: FASCINATION Review|last=Hobbs|first=Charlie|work=Twitch Film|date=23 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518090540/http://twitchfilm.com/2012/01/jean-rollin-on-blu-ray-fascination-review.html|archive-date=18 May 2015|url-status=dead}} Budd Wilkins of Slant Magazine, who reviewed the film as part of the five-disc set, wrote, "In Fascination, more than any other film in the set, the sexuality is staged in a manner befitting French erotica".{{cite web|url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/flesh-and-blood-the-cinema-of-jean-rollin|title=Flesh and Blood: The Cinema of Jean Rollin|last=Wilkins|first=Budd|work=Slant Magazine|date=27 January 2012}}

Steven Jay Schneider, writing in the British Film Institute's Screen Classics book 100 European Horror Films (2019), likens Fascination to the silent films of Louis Feuillade, citing is sparing use of dialogue, adding: "The movie has a delirious dreamlike aura that is hard to shake off afterwards."{{sfn|Schneider|2019|p=85}}

Image Entertainment released Fascination on DVD in the US in 1999.{{cite web|url=http://business.highbeam.com/137462/article-1G1-56259883/disc-alert|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518093741/http://business.highbeam.com/137462/article-1G1-56259883/disc-alert|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 May 2015|title=DISC ALERT.(video recording news includes seven boxed 'Nightmare on Elm Street' films)(Brief Article)|last=Fagan|first=Gregory P.|work=Playboy|date=1 November 1999|access-date=25 June 2023|url-access=}}

Redemption Films released it on DVD in the UK on 28 October 2008 in its original aspect ratio, with special features including a trailer and stills gallery,{{cite web|url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/35230/fascination/|title=Fascination|last=Spurlin|first=Thomas|work=DVD Talk|date=28 October 2010|url-status=live|archive-date=26 June 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230626021008/https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/35230/fascination/}} and again in 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/53475/fascination/|title=Fascination|last=Dahlke|first=Kurt|work=DVD Talk|date=15 January 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230626021038/https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/53475/fascination|archive-date=26 June 2023}}

In 2011, Kino Lorber acquired the Redemption Films catalogue,{{cite web|work=Twitch Film|url=http://twitchfilm.com/news/2011/10/kino-lorber-acquires-redemption-films-library-including-jean-rollin-classics.php|date=20 October 2011|last=Hurtado|first=J.|title=Kino Lorber Acquires Redemption Films Library Including Jean Rollin Classics|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809122612/http://twitchfilm.com/news/2011/10/kino-lorber-acquires-redemption-films-library-including-jean-rollin-classics.php|archive-date=9 August 2012}} and released Fascination on Blu-ray in 2012 as part of a five-disc Blu-ray collection, along with La Rose de Fer, La Vampire Nue, Le Frisson des Vampires and Lèvres de Sang.{{cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/post/154262-the-films-of-jean-rollin/|title=The Films of Jean Rollin|last=Barrett|first=Michael|work=PopMatters|date=16 February 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230626021104/https://www.popmatters.com/154262-the-films-of-jean-rollin-2495887373.html|archive-date=26 June 2023|url-status=live}} A standalone Blu-ray and DVD were also released by Kino the same year.{{cite web|url=https://screenanarchy.com/2012/01/jean-rollin-on-blu-ray-fascination-review.html|work=Screen Anarchy|date=23 January 2012|title=Jean Rollin on Blu-ray: FASCINATION Review|last=Hobbs|first=Charlie|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113110426/http://screenanarchy.com/2012/01/jean-rollin-on-blu-ray-fascination-review.html|archive-date=13 November 2016}}{{cite web|url=https://www.kinolorber.com/product/fascination-dvd?gclid=Cj0KCQjwy9-kBhCHARIsAHpBjHhd1hLu51s7iytOCNAWRU_pMyClhM77UfpS50tRluIpqko0c9de9mEaAvi2EALw_wcB|work=Kino Lorber|title=Fascination DVD|url-status=live|archive-date=26 June 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230626021812/https://www.kinolorber.com/product/fascination-dvd?gclid=Cj0KCQjwy9-kBhCHARIsAHpBjHhd1hLu51s7iytOCNAWRU_pMyClhM77UfpS50tRluIpqko0c9de9mEaAvi2EALw_wcB}} Wicked-Vision Media released a limited mediabook Blu-ray edition in Germany with three alternate covers in 2019.{{cite web|title=Fascination Blu-ray Germany (DigiBook / Limitiert auf 500 Stück)|work=Blu-ray.com|url-status=live|url=https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Fascination-Blu-ray/227921/|archive-date=27 June 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230627025215/https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Fascination-Blu-ray/227921/}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Hobbs|first=Simon|year=2018|title=Cultivating Extreme Art Cinema: Text, Paratext and Home Video Culture|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|location=Edinburgh, Scotland|isbn=978-1-474-42739-5}}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Schneider|editor1-first=Steven Jay|year=2019|title=100 European Horror Films|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=London, England|isbn= 978-1-838-71403-1}}

• {{IMDb title|0079135}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|1089753-fascination}}

{{Jean Rollin}}

Category:1979 films

Category:1979 horror films

Category:Erotic horror films

Category:French vampire films

Category:1970s French-language films

Category:Films directed by Jean Rollin

Category:Films set in castles

Category:LGBTQ-related horror films

Category:1979 LGBTQ-related films

Category:1970s French films

Category:French LGBTQ-related films

Category:Lesbian vampire media