Product Description
Canadian micro-publisher Spectacular Optical is pleased to announce a new book focused on the career of French fantasy and horror filmmaker Jean Rollin, LOST GIRLS: THE PHANTASMAGORICAL CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN, penned by all women critics, scholars and film historians. Set to be released in the summer of 2017, this collection of essays covers the wide range of Rollin’s career from 1968’s LE VIOL DU VAMPIRE through his 2010 swansong, LE MASQUE DE LA MÉDUSE, touching upon his horror, fantasy, crime and sex films—including many lesser seen titles. The book closely examines Rollin’s core themes: his focus on overwhelmingly female protagonists, his use of horror genre and exploitation tropes, his reinterpretations of the fairy tale and fantastique, the influence of crime serials, Gothic literature and the occult, as well as much more.
LOST GIRLS is the third book in Spectacular Optical’s ongoing series of limited run film and pop culture books, which includes KID POWER! (2014) and SATANIC PANIC: POP CULTURAL PARANOIA IN THE 1980s (2015) and will precede the previously announced YULETIDE TERROR: CHRISTMAS HORROR IN FILM AND TELEVISION, which will be released in fall of 2017.
Curated and edited by Samm Deighan (DIABOLIQUE), contributors to LOST GIRLS include some of the most important critical voices to emerge over the last decade of genre journalism: Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (SENSES OF CINEMA), Kat Ellinger (DIABOLIQUE), Virginie Selavy (ELECTRIC SHEEP), Alison Nastasi (SATANIC PANIC: POP-CULTURAL PARANOIA IN THE 1980s), Marcelline Block (ART DECADES), Rebecca Booth (DIABOLIQUE), Michelle Alexander (CINEMADROME), Lisa Cunningham (THE LAUGHING DEAD: THE HORROR-COMEDY FILM FROM BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN TO ZOMBIELAND), Heather Drain (DANGEROUS MINDS), Erin Miskell (THAT’S NOT CURRENT), Kier-La Janisse (HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN), Gianna D’Emilio (DIABOLIQUE) and veteran genre critic Marcelle Perks (SHIVERS, EYEBALL). The book will also feature a foreword by Françoise Pascal, the star of Rollin’s beloved La rose de fer.
FULL LIST OF CONTENTS:
Le viol du vampire and the Last Surrealist Riot
By Gianna D’Emilio
Cults of Decadence, Cults of Rebellion: La vampire nue and Fascination
By Kat Ellinger
(Please note there was a layout error in this chapter and some text was accidentally cut. See HERE for the ERRATUM.)
Les paumées du petit matin: A View of Female Violence
By Lisa Cunningham
Blood Sisters: Female Intimacy in Jean Rollin’s Conte de fée
By Samm Deighan
Poète maudit and cinéaste paria: Tristan Corbière as Inspiration for Jean Rollin’s films Les Amours jaunes and La Rose de fer
By Marcelline Block
Disgracing the Family Name: Vampirism as Societal Rebellion in Le frisson des vampires
By Heather Drain
‘Castles of Subversion’ Continued: From the roman noir and surrealism to Jean Rollin
By Virginie Selavy
Les démoniaques: Politics, Poetry, and the Supernatural Rape-Revenge Film
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Manifestations In The Physical Plane: Rollin, Rape, and the Effects of Sexual Assault
By Erin Miskell
Phantasmes: Jean Rollin’s Hardcore Reveries and Work for Hire
By Samm Deighan
“Final Girl” Strategies in Les raisins de la mort, La nuit des traquées, and Les paumées du petit matin
By Marcelle Perks
The Zombie-Gore-Disaster Film…Jean Rollin Style
By Michelle Alexander
Love Among the Iron Roses: The Cemetery as a Romantic Nexus in the Films of Jean Rollin
By Alison Nastasi
Les trottoirs de Bangkok and Killing Car: Serials in Soulless Cities
By Gianna D’Emilio
Ostension, Orality, and the Ogress: The (Material) Feminist Fairy Tales of La fiancée de Dracula, La nuit des horloges, and Le masque de la Méduse
By Rebecca Booth
Afterword
By Kier-La Janisse
Here is a short video of FX Artist Dan Martin sculpting one of the weapons pieces for the Jean Rollin Mystery Boardgame we made as a limited edition tie-in to the book:
Press on LOST GIRLS:
Los Angeles Review of Books (Ian MacAllister McDonald) – Interview – Lost Girls: A Conversation About Fantastical Filmmaker Jean Rollin – https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/interviews/lost-girls-conversation-fantastical-filmmaker-jean-rollin/
Birth.Movies.Death. (Meredith Borders) – Exclusive page – Exclusive! See An Excerpt From LOST GIRLS: THE PHANTASMAGORICAL CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN – http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2017/04/25/exclusive-see-an-excerpt-from-lost-girls-the-phantasmagorical-cinema-of-jea
Rue Morgue (Preston Fassel) – Campaign launch – Indiegogo campaign for Spectacular Optical’s LOST GIRLS book gets Rollin – http://www.rue-morgue.com/single-post/2017/04/26/Indiegogo-campaign-for-Spectacular-Optical%E2%80%99s-LOST-GIRLS-book-gets-Rollin
Moon in the Gutter (Jeremy Richey) – Campaign launch – LOST GIRLS: THE CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN (Indiegogo Campaign Now Live) – http://mooninthegutter.blogspot.de/2017/04/lost-girls-cinema-of-jean-rollin.html
Horror Society (Mike) – Campaign launch – Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema of Jean Rollin Offers IndieGoGo Pre-orders and Perks. – https://www.horrorsociety.com/2017/04/25/lost-girls-phantasmagorical-cinema-jean-rollin-offers-indiegogo-pre-orders-perks/
Horreur Quebec (Marc Boisclair) – Campaign launch – Le livre Lost Girls: The Cinema of Jean Rollin de Spectacular Optical lance sa campagne de sociofinancement – http://www.horreur.quebec/le-livre-lost-girls-the-cinema-of-jean-rollin-de-spectacular-optical-lance-sa-campagne-de-sociofinancement/
Screen Anarchy (Charlie Hobbs) – Campaign launch – Pre-Order LOST GIRLS: THE PHANTASMAGORICAL CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN Right Now From Spectacular Optical – http://screenanarchy.com/2017/04/pre-order-lost-girls-the-phantasmagorical-cinema-of-jean-rollin-right-now-from-spectacular-optical.html
Nightmarish Conjurings – Campaign launch – LOST GIRLS: THE PHANTASMAGORICAL CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN LAUNCHES PRE-SALES ON INDIEGOGO – http://www.nightmarishconjurings.com/news/2017/4/25/lost-girls-the-phantasmagorical-cinema-of-jean-rollin-launches-pre-sales-on-indiegogo
Daily Dead (Ben Larned) – Feature (Rollin, mention of book) – Sex & Death: The Strange Gothic Poetry of Jean Rollin – https://dailydead.com/sex-death-the-strange-gothic-poetry-of-jean-rollin/
4:3 Film (Alexandra Heller-Nicholas) – Round table – Lost Girls: A Jean Rollin Roundtable – http://fourthreefilm.com/2017/05/lost-girls-a-jean-rollin-roundtable/
Dread Central (Kieran Fisher) – Campaign launch – Pre-Order Spectacular Optical’s Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema of Jean Rollin Now – https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/225776/pre-order-spectacular-opticals-lost-girls-phantasmagorical-cinema-jean-rollin-now/
Morbidofest.com (Alex Serna) – Campaign launch – Este libro acerca de Jean Rollin hará que vivas en fascinación – http://www.morbidofest.com/archivos/59706
Electric Sheep Magazine – Interview with Jeremy Richey conducted by Marcelline Block – ‘Be True to Yourself’: Jeremy Richey on Jean Rollin – http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2017/05/12/be-true-to-yourself-jeremy-richey-on-jean-rollin/
Rue Morgue – Preston Fassel – Fantasia 2017 Roundtable – LOST GIRLS Authors Talk Jean Rollin (Part 1) http://www.rue-morgue.com/single-post/2017/07/13/Fantasia-%E2%80%9917-Roundtable-LOST-GIRLS-authors-talk-Jean-Rollin-Part-One
VICE Photo tribute to Rollin and the LOST GIRLS book by artists Remy and Kelsey Bennett: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pa3kmn/nightmarish-photos-of-horror-femme-fatales
THE MERRY JANE “Best Pop Culture to get Blazed To”: https://merryjane.com/culture/heady-entertainment-best-pop-culture-to-blaze-to-nov-10
PRESS COPIES: Promotional copies of our books are available to the press for review. To request a press copy of a Spectacular Optical book, please email the book’s publicist Kaila Hier at kaila.s.hier@gmail.com with the name of your media outlet and its web address, your mailing address and an approximate time when we can expect the review to be published. PDFs are also available.