The Worst Film Ever

An unexpected masterpiece

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Are all French women bisexual? I know from watching Italian vampire films that getting bitten also gives the ladies a fondness for comfortable shoes and listening to that Horse McDonald guy, but French women just seem to be into everything, without exception. This is what gets Carmilla into so much trouble in this film, Blood and Roses aka Carmilla, The Grumpy French Vampire.Like George Romero's later vampire film Martin, you're never quite sure if Carmilla has just gone insane due to her uncontrollable jealousy or if the actual spirit of her vampire ancestor has returned to take over her body. You see, Carmilla seems to be both in love with her friend George and her cousin Leopoldo (a young Mel Ferrer), who are engaged to be married. This cause Carmilla to have a bit of a French hissy fit and stomp off into the graveyard of her ancestors, where fireworks set off a cache of hidden WW2 explosives, revealing the grave of her ancestor. Carmilla then of course starts dressing like her ancestor and generally putting the moves on Georgia, putting the bite on the locals and scaring the crap out of everyone else. The question is whether or not she is a genuine vampire or it's just that time of the month. That was subtle.The whole thing was filmed at the Roman ruin of Hadrian's Villa and every frame of the film looks like it was personally painted by Michaelangelo. The Emperor Hadrian was like a Roman Elton John and would often retreat to his villa when he was in some sort of huff about something. It's not far from Rome but it is not, as I thought, located in the town of Tivoli, but rather confusingly situated just outside of a town called Villa Adriano. When we went there I suspect that the bus driver told us to get off early as my son wouldn't stop screaming. It's worth a visit though - a huge estate of Roman ruins. It was November when we visited and we practically had the place to ourselves. I don't have much to say about this film.It's not the most action-packed but looks amazing, even drifting into black and white for a surreal dream sequence near the end. If you're a fan of vampire films this one will stand out a bit. Bof!

Interesting story, but needed more work. Good cinematography, acting and music. Very Atmospheric I saw this in French with English subtitles. So the I'm sure the story was lost during translation or I missed some things. The best part of the movie is the atmosphere. It has good acting and music. Cinematography was good. Best scene was when Millarca was stalking the victim girl. The ending was a bit of a mess, with the black and white, operating table. That needed more work.My initial rating was 6 stars, because the story needed more work. I still believe that. While watching the movie my thoughts were that Carmilla was not supernaturally possessed by Millarca but was psychologically possessed, thinking in her own mind that she was possessed. This is a much more interesting story.Rating is a B-/B, it needed more work. 7 stars.

....Et Mourir De Plaisir.The first of the two fantasy and horror movies Roger Vadim made and without any doubt ,his best ;actually,it's arguably his very best movie ever,probably his best screenplay,a story which does not fall apart after the second reel;inspired by André Gide's diary in which the writer wondered why a vampire was always ugly :why couldn't it take the shape of a beautiful woman?The title may have been taken from Camille's lines in Corneille 's Horace (1640)after her lover's death caused by her brother (after all,the heroine is called Carmilla and the action takes place in Italy).Claude Renoir's cinematography is a feast for the eye ;it 's really a work of art ,when he depicts the splendid Roman landscapes or when he lovingly films the two actresses ,with subtle lesbian overtones.Till the end ,the director succeeds in sustaining ambiguity -we will never know whether there's a vampire curse or whether it all happens in Carmilla's troubled mind.At a time when unexpected ends often come at the most awkward moment,when they are almost De Rigueur,the last picture is a model of the genre ,a stroke of inspiration which should make today's directors drool.Although set in modern times,the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe wanders in these mysterious settings .One can wonder why Vadim totally failed when he adapted the American writer's "Metzengernstein" in his "spirits of the dead " (aka "Histoires Extraordinaires" ) segment.If you should see only one Vadim movie ,it is definitely the one to choose .

When one thinks of an influential vampire story, obviously it will always be Bram Stoker's Dracula that springs to mind; but much less well known is Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella 'Carmilla', which was published in 1872 and has influenced a whole host of films - everything in the 'lesbian vampire' sub-genre owes itself to this story. Aside from rubbish such as most of the films made by French director Jean Rollin, there are some very notable lesbian vampire movies; Daughters of Darkness, The Blood-Splattered Bride and Vampyres being the best among them. Blood and Roses is apparently the first 'faithful' film to be based on the novel. The plot focuses on the Karnstein family, who live in a big castle. We find out pretty early that there is a history of vampirism in the family. The main character is the beautiful young Carmilla; who is attracted to her cousin Leopold. However, Leopold is engaged to be married, leaving Carmilla bitter and jealous. Her jealousy leads her to an old tomb; apparently the resting place of her vampire relative, and soon the young girl is possessed by the vampire.Before seeing this film, I was surprised that there aren't more films based directly on this classic book; but after seeing it, I'm actually not all that surprised. I haven't read the original source material, but I know that the story is not very long and as such there is not much to it. The result of that is a film that feels like it could have been more. I don't doubt that director Roger Vadim could have added more had he wanted to; there is certainly scope for a vaster story and the gap left by the fact that there isn't a lot of blood and lesbian activity is a real shame. The film does have its positive elements, however. The director succeeds in giving the film a surreal dreamlike atmosphere that compliments the story very well indeed. The acting is good enough, although the film does feature far too much talking. Annette Vadim (wife of the director) is striking in the lead role. Overall, this is an obscure film and while hardcore lesbian vampire fans may want to track it down for completion purposes; I really wouldn't recommend that anyone goes too far out of their way to get it as there are a lot of better films that are similar to this one.