steve h
Okay, I'll buck the trend here and say that I love this movie. Granted, it's not the best or most cutting-edge vampire movie (though I'll stack it against any other of its 1960 era) but it IS the most beautiful of them all. The setting, the cast, the music, all of it just plain gorgeous. And this is another one of those flicks that's suffered numerous releases on video, each with pieces of the movie but none with the whole thing together until the European "Film Club Edition" DVD ("... Und Vor Lust Zu Sterben"). How I wish that Criterion would pick up on this one!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Carmilla has been made so many times — Vampyr, Dracula's Daughter, Crypt of the Vampire, The Vampire Lovers, The Blood Spattered Bride — but the Roger Vadim-directed movie moves the setting to Italy in the 20th century.
Carmilla (Annette Stroyberg, Vadim's wife at the time) is torn apart by the engagement of her friend Georgia (Elsa Martinelli, The Tenth Victim) to her cousin Leopoldo (Mel Ferrer, Nightmare City, The Visitor, both versions of Eaten Alive (with and without the exclamation mark), The Antichrist and dude, Mel Ferrer has been in so many movies I love, even The Norseman) and she has no idea who she loves more. Yet she's also found a dress that belonged to a vampiric forebearer and gone into her grave and nothing good is going to come of that.
And yes, Leopoldo is Count Karnstein, which would make him from the same family as the vampire in Twins of Evil and the rest of Hammer's Karnstein Trilogy (we already mentioned the other two films, the third is Lust for a Vampire). The role was originally intended for Christopher Lee, which makes sense.
This is the artier side of vampire films when so much of this week has been wallowing in the mire and muck. See, sometimes we can be classy when we share a lesbian vampire movie.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Su guión no me termina de convencer del todo, aunque comparte muchas características con cintas coetáneas, especialmente del cine italiano.
Pero por otro lado su realización es muy destacable, especialmente en lo preciosista que es la imagen gracias a esos vibrantes colores. Las actuaciones, melodramáticas sí, pero muy sentidas e inspiradas, son otro gran plus de la cinta.
Y por supuesto la música de Jean Prodromidès es el acompañamiento perfecto al melodrama de la película,
Muy disfrutable.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Loosely based on the LeFanu's Carmilla. In this version it is not clear whether Carmilla is a vampire or mentally disturbed. The film is slow and only just maintains interest until a startling dream sequence near the end. There is one brief, poignant scene within the dream, set in a waiting room, which undermines the faux romanticism and shows the true banality of a vampire. The film is gorgeously filmed by cinematographer Claude Renoir.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This was a very well made film! As far as foreign films go, Et Mourir De Plaisir is very suspenseful, and really frightening! The English translated version is more powerful than the original spoken language, and it really shows! That crypt scene, I mean DAMN!! Scared the crap out of me! Sure, this movie isn't perfect, but it hit me to the core. As terrifying as foreign movies get! 8/10
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A naif movie inspired by Le Fanu's Carmilla. I liked the nightmare scenes and their surrealistic taste.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
Full Review
Read all reviews
>
