Blood and Roses (1960)

Roger Vadim’s Blood and Roses (Et mourir de plaisir) is an adaptation of one of the greatest (if not the greatest) of all vampire stories, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella Carmilla. It was I think the first Carmilla adaptation. Vadim co-wrote the screenplay. Carmilla would inspire countless 1970s movies about lady vampires.

Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla is often claimed to be the first lesbian vampire tale. While there are such hints in the novella I personally feel that this is a slight over-simplification of a complex story about awakening female sexuality.

Roger Vadim is the most unfairly maligned and misunderstood of all major French film directors. He has also been subjected to a disturbing amount of personal venom. Much of this was undoubtedly inspired by jealousy. He was either married to or lived with a succession of the most beautiful actresses in the world. Vadim really was not just a major director but an extraordinarily interesting one, far more interesting than the New Wave directors on whom critics doted.

Vadim has made major changes to both the plot and the setting. The movie has a contemporary setting.

In the novella Carmilla von Karnstein is an odd young woman who serves as a kind of governess/companion to a young girl named Laura. Laura lives on an isolated estate in Austria with her father.

In the movie Carmilla von Karnstein lives on an estate in Italy with her cousin Leopoldo von Karnstein (Mel Ferrer). They are both von Karnsteins, a family reputed to have a history of vampirism. But that was a long time ago. The vampires in the von Karnstein family were destroyed in the 18th century.

Leopoldo is engaged to marry the charming Georgia Monteverdi (Elsa Martinelli).

Carmilla is just a little obsessed by the von Karnstein family history of vampirism. She seems a bit unwell. The sun bothers her. She seems moody and preoccupied.

There’s a suggestion that when she was a little girl she had a bit of a crush on her cousin Leopoldo.

Carmilla may perhaps be jealous of Georgia.

Then a young housemaid is found dead. An apparent accident. The marks on her neck have no significance. And the gardener sees a strange figure moving through the woods.

Are all the von Karnstein vampires really safely in the past?

A party at the von Karnstein manor climaxes with fireworks, and some additional unexpected explosions. It turns out to be leftover ammunition from the war, which had been hidden in the ruins by the cemetery. Just to be on the safe side the army decides to blow up those ruins. That’s where the von Karnstein vampires were interred.

Le Fanu’s novella has a number of levels of ambiguity. This film has its own levels of ambiguity, which are not necessarily the same as those of the novella. The Carmilla of the film is troubled. She may be troubled by sexual feelings or by her emotions or by her obsession with the past.

Of course she might in fact be a vampire. There does seem to be a vampire active in the present day. You’ll have to watch the movie to find out if the ambiguity of Carmilla’s nature is resolved.

Elsa Martinelli is a fine actress and she’s very good here. Mel Ferrer is excellent as Leopoldo. But this movie belongs to Annette Vadim who plays Carmilla. Cynics might suggest that she landed the role because she was married to Vadim. In fact she’s perfectly cast and she’s superb. The role needed an actress who could look equally convincing and stunning dressed in the mode of the 18th century or in the style of 1960. Carmilla is a woman of the 18th century, an age of elegance, but she is also a child of 1960 - a world of rock’n’roll and sports cars.

Carmilla is also a woman of mystery. We have to believe that she might be an ordinary young woman or a dangerous seductive vampire. Annette Vadim manages all of this with style.

There’s a nice atmosphere of suppressed eroticism, Annette Vadim is magnificent and this is an excellent movie superbly directed by Roger Vadim. This is subtle erotic horror and it’s very highly recommended.

For many years Blood and Roses was only available in English-friendly versions in a savagely cut version. Many of the online reviews you may across appear to be written by people who have only seen the cut version. The cut version of course makes very little sense. That’s what happens when censors butcher a movie. The version I have is the German DVD which is uncut and in the correct aspect ratio and it’s 16:9 enhanced. And it looks terrific. It includes the French-language track with English subtitles.

Incidentally the screencaps used here are not from the German DVD which has much much better image quality.

I’ve reviewed Sheridan le Fanu’s novella Carmilla. Hammer’s excellent 1970 The Vampire Lovers is a more faithful adaptation and it’s fascinating to see two such wildly different approaches to the same material.