In short: Lost in New York (1989)

Original title: Perdues sans New York

An old woman tells of her childhood when she and a friend, reading a book of adventure tales, were dreaming themselves to be transformed into older bodies (Adeline and Funny Abitbol) by the Moon Goddess and transported to New York City. There, they find themselves separated, stepping through various places and times as well as moments from the sort of pulp and serial culture apparently beloved by all French people (and me). Irma Vep is suggested, and there’s of course a white (see-through) clad vampire too, as well as roses and graveyards.

For this is indeed a Jean Rollin movie, pretty much his final relevant film before his re-emergence at the end of the 90s. As will be typical of the late period movies, this isn’t really baby’s first Rollin movie, presenting as it does all of Rollin’s favourite moments and symbols in a way unvarnished even by the little plot he typically had use for. As such, this often feels a bit like an essay, or keeping with the film’s language as well as the obsessions of its filmmaker, a dream, about what a Rollin movie is, more than the thing itself. It is using a language quite a fewer viewers – especially those not already as madly in love with Rollin’s films as ideas and in practice as some of us are – are bound to find pretentious. I wouldn’t blame anyone for that. To me, however, it’s not pretentious if it is true and genuine, and there’s little I find truer than this distillation of Rollin’s main themes, obsessions and visual interests.

There are some new-ish elements on display here too, particularly the way Rollin shoots what should be an ultra-realistic slice of life of an actual city, but somehow still manages to give it the haze of a dream, treating the audience to a view on a thing that’s ultra-real yet still feels dream-like and peculiar.

All of this is obviously not for everyone, and if you’re planning on dipping a toe into Rollin’s ocean (neighbouring a dramatic coast with a castle ruin), you’ll probably want to do that with a different film first and return to this dream of New York, childhood wonders and aging, later.