Jean Rollin
Jean Michel Rollin Roth Le Gentil (3 November 193815 December 2010) was a French film director, actor, and novelist best known for his work in the fantastique genre.
Jean Rollin
Having risen to success during his early vampire era, Rollin embarked on a different approach to filmmaking. Rollin financed his 1973 film "La Rose de Fer" ("The Iron Rose") himself and was convinced that it would become a failure, leading to financial ruin. Prior to production, he engaged in a deal with Impex films to direct a number of hardcore porn films in the near future in order to produce "La rose de fer" and ensure that it would not fail. The story follows two young lovers (Françoise Pascal and Hugues Quester) who meet at a wedding reception and agree to go on a date, for which they decide to take a walk in an enormous cemetery. As they make love in an underground tomb, strange and bizarre occurrences take place above ground. As night falls, they frantically try to escape from the cemetery, and with no luck, end up where they started. They are slowly overcome with hysteria and paranoia which brings about their mortality. The film was shot in the city of Amiens over a four-week period and premiered at the 2nd Annual Convention of the Fantastique in Paris in April 1973 and was initially met with a negative reception and as a result, Rollin was unable to find anyone to back his future personal projects.