Dotbankey A lot of fun.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Woodyanders Rebellious spitfire Michelle (a lively performance by the fetching Laurence Dubas) and the painfully shy and forlorn Marie (beautifully played with aching vulnerability by the lovely Christiane Coppe) are a pair of troubled young women who manage to escape from a sanitarium. The pair do their best to avoid detection from the authorities by joining up with a traveling band of exotic dancers.Director Jean Rollin, who also co-wrote the odd and thoughtful script with Jacques Ralf, presents an unusual, affecting, and interesting cinematic meditation on the basic youthful human need to live a free and spontaneous independent existence that unfolds at a gradual pace, vividly captures stunning moments of raw beauty and wrenching poignancy (Marie's solo figure skating set piece at an empty ice rink in particular is simply breathtaking), does his customary ace job of crafting an enchanting dreamlike atmosphere, and astutely nails both the danger and excitement of throwing caution to the wind through living a rootless peripatetic lifestyle. Dubas and Coppe do sterling work and display an appealing unforced natural chemistry in the leads; they receive sturdy support from Marianne Valiot as scrappy thief Sophie, Louise Dhour as compassionate nightclub owner Madame Louise, Patrick Perrott as the sensitive Pierrot, and Brigitte Lahaie as a snooty rich bitch. The downbeat ending packs a devastating punch. Claude Becognee's sumptuous cinematography and Philippe D'Aram's spare melancholy score are both up to speed. Offbeat and worth a look.

morrison-dylan-fan After telling my dad last year that I had enjoyed watching the horror film Fascination from auteur director Jean Rollin,I was happily caught by surprise,when my dad recently revealed that he had picked up a Rollin film,which led to me going on the run with the escapees.The plot:Seeing their lives slip away inside an insane asylum, Michelle & Maire decide to escape to freedom.Breaking out of the asylum,Marie and Michelle run away into the wilderness,and end up at a circus being held on a concrete wasteland.As they start to become friends with some of the circus performers,Maire and Michelle set their sights on finally gaining true freedom.View on the film:Starting the film in an insane asylum,co-writer/(along with Jacques Ralf) director Jean Rollin drains the movie of any colour by subtly locking the girls in the asylum by surrounding them in dried up red, green and blues.Along with the brittle colours,Rollin and cinematographer Claude Bécognée also use swift hand held camera moves to give the circus a rolling in the chaos mood.Pulled out to a 102 (not the 95 mins that IMDb list) minute running time,the screenplay by Ralf and Rollin struggles to develop any sense of rhythm,as Maire and Michelle's attempt to be freed of the asylum lack any sense of urgency or a deepening in the relationship between Maire and Michelle.Failing to take advantage of the elegant charm from Laurence Dubas and Christiane Coppé's performances as Michelle & Marie,Rollin's takes a mad dash in the titles final moments to strike a doomed romance Film Noir final note,which whilst impressive,is unable to make up for the previously plodding 95 minutes having been chained down.

Michael_Elliott Escapees, The (1981)** (out of 4) Forgotten film from Rollin about two girls who escape from a mental hospital and go on an odyssey. Michelle is the rougher of the two as she knows how to survive. Marie on the other hand has a fear of people yet for some reason she is attached to Michelle and wants to stay close to her on this journey. If you're looking for some sort of plot then you're going to be disappointed because there isn't one here. In the interview on the DVD Rollin talks about the various issues with the production of the film and how when they finally got it filmed, no one wanted it. After being released on video in a few countries, the film was pretty much given away to air on TV before the eventual DVD release. I didn't think the film was as bad as many had made it out to be but it's not too good either and in the end this is certainly for Rollin completest only. Those new to the director would certainly be best to start with one of his vampire films or better known works like THE LIVING DEAD GIRL. This movie actually shares a lot in common with the director's 1980 film NIGHT OF THE HUNTED, which is one I really hated. This one here works if you view it as some sort of strange nightmare or surreal trip to some unknown world. Everything we see is a reality but you might as well look at it as some sort of dream because none of it really makes any sense and in the end you'll probably be asking yourself what the entire point of the film was. I'm not sure what the point was but we do get some classic touches from Rollin. One scene involves a rather beautiful ice-skating sequence that packs a nice little punch. Another scene happens just before it and that's when the girls are standing on some docks letting giant waves hit them. The sexuality in the film is actually quite low as is the nudity up until the very end when Brigitte Lahaie shows up and does a very sexy little number. The two female leads fit their roles just fine and the supporting cast isn't too bad either. The biggest flaw in the film is its 101-minute running time, which is just way too long considering nothing happens and there are several scenes that pretty much just replay things that have happened earlier.

unbrokenmetal Marie and Michelle are escaping from a lunatic asylum. Michelle is a tough girl who knows how to survive on the road, but the extremely shy Marie desperately clings to her until Michelle gives in and promises help. The two get into a lot of trouble which puts their friendship to a test.Rollin's lost movie, and lost for a good reason, as the director told in several interviews (one on the British DVD, for example): it was simply so poor no distributor bought it. The director blames this mostly on the scriptwriter. The producer had hired someone to keep the director from continuing with his usual vampire mystery stuff, and that kind of co-operation against each other couldn't work. However, "The Escapees" has enough magic moments to be worth watching. Especially when people stop talking such as in the ending, or when Marie skates on the ice, imagining she is admired by a crowd, but only Michelle is secretly watching her.