Having only seen the beautiful poster of "Lèvres de sang" during my teenage years of fanzines, I was curious and a bit eager to finally get the chance to watch it. It has surprised me in two differences that I found regarding previous and later Rollin movies: 1) we get to follow the male protagonist's point of view most of the time, and 2) the first half of the movie is shot in a city or at least a large town, as opposed to the early cult classics of Rollin ("Le frisson des vampires", "Requiem for a vampire" etc.), though towards the ending the plot moves on to the good ol' ruined-castle-inhabited-by- naked-lesbian-vampires and rocky deserted beach kind of settings.As the story develops from the male protagonist's point of view, the movie seems to me more entertaining, it has a faster-moving path than other Rollin movies. In the story, a man becomes obsessed with a picture of a castle in ruins that is somehow connected to vague remembrances of his childhood. He lets go of himself to find some clue that guides him to the place in the picture and in his mind. Some murders take place, and at this point the movie reminds a good deal of an Italian giallo, in the stylish way they happen, but just at this point, as the plot gives the Rollin twist on its closing, which is somehow slower than the rest of the film but again beautiful, in its macabre way.We must remark the elegant soundtrack, with predominant wind instruments and violins.

"Lips of Blood" has a great narrative hook. Frederic vaguely remembers a dreamy encounter he had as a child. While staying at an old castle (Of course), he spent the night sleeping in the arms of a beautiful woman. Upon spying a photograph of the castle, the memory comes rushing back. He becomes obsessed with finding the girl, especially since she starts appearing to him in visions. A trip to an old tomb doesn't yield anything but coffins full of bats… Or so it would appear. Vampire girls, dressed in colorful see-through shawls (Of course!), emerge from the crypt and begin to feed across France. A man attempts to assassinate Frederic. It becomes obvious there's a conspiracy preventing him from finding the old building and reuniting with the girl of his dreams.Narratively, the film is more focused then usual. Pacing-wise, it's still a mess. Scenes drag into each other. The long opening sequence is so soft that the next scene, a fairly explicit nude modeling session, throws you off. Moments of the vampires attacking people seem unrelated to Fredric's quest. A scene of a woman leading him into a room with promises of revealing the castle's location doesn't have much to do with the story. The vamps help him out at least once but we never find out why. I like the mustachioed assassin, even if it's a bit out of place in this horror love story, but that storyline isn't resolved either. Generally speaking, the subplot about the legion of vampire girls never meshes with the main storyline. It seems like a blatant excuse for Rollin to insert his fetishes into the film. I mean, more so then usual.The worst part? There aren't that many memorable visuals. A shadow of a statue of a bull is the only striking pure image I can remember. Some memorable scenes arise. A pair of nurses pulling down their surgical masks to reveal fangs is darkly funny. The vampire girls weigh a victim down in chains before kicking her up a flight of stairs. Hilariously, during a particularly windy night, a purple dress billows up into a girl's face. I doubt that was intentional.When the focus is on the love story and the conspiracy, that's when it works. Jean-Loup Phillippe gives an excellent performance as Frederic, especially in a scene where he pleads with the girl's spectre to prove she's real. Annie Briand is enchantingly beautiful as the strange girl at the story's center. It's easy to see why she would inspire such obsession. Natalie Perrey as Frederic's mother delivers exposition but her performance makes it go down easy. The scene of the arrant vampire girls being exterminated is nicely brutal, such as two girls being impaled on the same stake, but also obviously elegiac. Rollin loves his monsters and hates to see them slaughtered.That monster love shines through in the lengthy epilogue. Following an obvious slight-of-hand, the protagonist is reunited with his love. They frolic on the director's favorite beach (Of course!!) and make love, before she bites him, turning him into a vampire. The nude lovers float off, where they live in vampirey bliss happily ever after. Aww. "Lips of Blood" is a muddled affair even if Rollin's strength for romantic sincerity and some strong actors keep it afloat.

A photograph of a castle, ominously overlooking the ocean, waves crashing onto the rocks beneath brings back long buried memories of first love, and the castle itself, in one rather dull man's childhood.Compelled to find the castle, and a girl from the same time of his youth who protected him. The nude girls at the photographer's might have been tossed in at the last minute just to add more nudity and pad out the run time, but it has a bit of a surreal, trashy, "Where the hell did that come from?" feel to it. As do the bats in coffins in underground chambers beneath a Gothic cemetery.Vampire girls, wearing flowing, nearly transparent wraps, almost sleepwalking through the cemetery late at night is another surreal touch; the tall blonde in purple (who is this actress?) is remarkably beautiful.Here is another film, like Rollin's Le viol du vampire, in which is almost best to not concern oneself with the plot or acting in this erotic Euro horror, but just sit back and enjoy the visually striking, colour-saturated photography in cemeteries and fountains, and nearly nude girls slowly walking through the cliff-side castle.

Lips of Blood (1974)*** (out of 4)A different take on the vampire legacy has a young man (Jean-Loup Philippe) seeing a photo of a castle, which gives him a flashback to when he was a child. He remembers as a child going to a strange castle where he spoke with a young woman who protected him against something. In the current times, he tries to figure out exactly where this castle is and who the woman is but his mother seemed determined to keep him away. Director Jean Rollin made a wide range of vampire films in his career and it's probably safe to say that this one here was his strangest. I think the film works best if you go into it expecting some sort of twisted and surreal fairy tale involving the living dead. As usual, the director takes his sweet time telling the story, although thankfully the pacing here is much better than in a lot of his films. The pacing actually works well with the film and it especially helps set up our lead character and makes this journey worth taking. The pacing of the film allows one to really get into the mystery of the events going on but it also allows Rollin time to build up some atmosphere. This atmosphere, like many of the director's best work, is the strong point and you can't help but feel the cool breeze of the night and the dampness of the tombs once the vampires do start to come. Philippe does a very good job in the lead role as you have no problem believing him in the part. Annie Belle is very seductive as the woman who befriended our lead character. As you'd expect from a Rollin film, the nudity is quite high as our lovely vampires don't mind walking around naked. We even get some pretty silly and gratuitous scenes like one where our lead goes to a photographers place and then gets treated to a couple nude women. There are still several problems in this film including so many logic issues that you could drive a semi through. You have to question the "story" told by the mother towards the end of the film and once everything is said and done you can't help but think there must have been much easier ways to do things. Still, fans of the genre should enjoy this film even with its flaws.