Iron Rose – La rosé de fer (1973)

Directed by: Jean Rollin | 85 minutes | horror | Actors: Françoise Pascal, Hugues Quester, Nathalie Perrey, Mireille Dargent

The promising atmosphere in the intro of ‘Iron Rose’ suggests an intelligent film with deeper layers and unexpected turns. As if the poetic images in the first minutes (the woman, the wide beach and the foaming sea) will be the answer to pressing questions that you are presented with in the 80 minutes that follow. But unfortunately. Cinematically, ‘Iron Rose’ is a small masterpiece, and yet the storyline is too thin to drown in. And precisely because there is nothing wrong with the design of ‘Iron Rose’, you as a viewer keep hoping for that exciting and unexpected turn in the story. The disappointment is all the greater when the film ends abruptly after the 85th minute.

When the film was released in 1973, ‘Iron Rose’ could count on little interest from the public. And now it turns out that the film is not a pearl that took the test of time to mature. So time does not heal all wounds. Speaking of wounds, ‘Iron Rose’ has few real horror elements. No blood, no extra-human monsters and apparitions, but only the setting of a bleak graveyard with dubious visitors who do not immediately appeal to the imagination. The characters are portrayed too short for that and they have too minimal elaboration. Writer and director Jean Rollin – known for his erotic horror films – really misses the point with ‘Iron Rose’. Even before the 70s, he is quite prudish in this film. Because as much as you, as a viewer, will miss the horror, the lovemaking of the girl (Françoise Pascal) and the boy (Hugues Quester) -as the basis of the minor suffering in this film- is not portrayed in a passionate or exciting way. They both know how to put their characters down. In an unrestrained and convincing way, they interpret the fear that results from their unplanned nighttime visit to the cemetery. But whether people would react and act in the same way in reality is the question. The panic sets in very quickly and that hinders the build-up of the film. What you have to give director Jean Rollin is his cinematic talent. He knows technically how to visualize a story. But whether the way of filming suits the genre is again the question. The environment in the cemetery is often fully portrayed, so that a moment of shock or unexpected appearance is completely absent. And so is the tension.

Nice detail is the sound in ‘Iron Rose’. Interesting to hear what development it has gone through in films to date. Pay special attention to the dubbed sounds of bones when the boy ends up in a gag pit. But what did Rollin actually mean by this film? Have we missed the message? What did he want to say? Those are the questions that linger for anyone who gives Rollin the benefit of the doubt and for those who immediately refuse to believe that ‘Iron Rose’ just isn’t a great movie.