EP576 - The Summer of ROLLIN Ep.3 - Girls without Shame (1972) & The Iron Rose (1973)

Welcome to episode 576 of The Podcast Under the Stairs.

The Summer of Rollin continues...but this time, Jean takes a detour.

In Episode 576, we move away from vampires and into two of the most fascinatingly different films of Rollin's early career: Schoolgirl Hitchhikers (1972) and The Iron Rose (1973).

One is a bizarre, softcore comedy filled with nudity, slapstick, sexual liberation and some decidedly uncomfortable attitudes towards women. The other is, in my humble opinion, one of Jean Rollin's greatest achievements… a haunting, beautiful and beguiling descent into dream logic, death and romantic nightmare.

First up is Schoolgirl Hitchhikers, a curious sidestep released under the pseudonym Michel Gentil. Trading gothic castles and vampires for an isolated rural house, Rollin dives headfirst into softcore cinema with the story of two young women whose journey quickly becomes a bizarre mix of nudity, slapstick and increasingly uncomfortable sexual politics.

It is perhaps the most difficult film in this series to reconcile with the poetic filmmaker seen elsewhere in Rollin's work. There is still freedom, sexuality and liberation in the air, but the comedy often sits awkwardly beside sexual violence, questionable agency and moments of outright misogyny.

And yet, even in this misstep, traces of Rollin remain. The isolation. A decaying location. Characters cut adrift from the outside world. The strange collision of sex, fantasy and absurdity.

Then comes The Iron Rose. And everything changes.

Returning under his own name, Rollin strips cinema back to its barest essentials: two characters, minimal dialogue and a journey into a cemetery that slowly transforms into an impossible labyrinth.

What begins as a gothic romance becomes something far stranger. A night of passion gives way to fear, mistrust and disorientation as the young couple find themselves unable to escape the cemetery's endless paths and towering tombs.

Is the cemetery changing? Are they losing their minds? Or were they ever supposed to escape at all?

The Iron Rose is Rollin at his most confident and perhaps his most hypnotic. It is a film powered less by plot than by atmosphere, emotion and the unnerving logic of a dream. Reality quietly dissolves while the cemetery becomes its own world… beautiful, terrifying and utterly inescapable.

We'll also explore the extraordinary intensity of Françoise Pascal, the sensuality and unease of the central relationship, the recurring connection between sex and death, the symbolism of the iron rose and Rollin's use of the beach as a final threshold between worlds.

Along the way we'll discuss:

  • Rollin's strange sidestep into softcore cinema as Michel Gentil.

  • Schoolgirl Hitchhikers' bizarre slapstick and uncomfortable misogyny.

  • Sexual liberation, nudity and the question of female agency.

  • Why Rollin's signature obsessions remain even when the vampires disappear.

  • The beauty and isolation of The Iron Rose.

  • Dream logic, minimal dialogue and a cemetery that becomes a nightmare labyrinth.

  • Françoise Pascal's remarkable performance.

  • Gothic romance, sex, death and the terrifying impossibility of escape.

  • Rollin's visual poetry, cinematography and the haunting music of Pierre Raph.

  • Why The Iron Rose may well be the gold standard for dream logic and nightmares in cinema.

This episode takes us from one of Rollin's most awkward diversions to one of his most perfectly realised visions.

Because Schoolgirl Hitchhikers may show a filmmaker temporarily chasing another market, The Iron Rose reminds us exactly why Jean Rollin matters.

By 1973, he isn't simply experimenting with style. He has mastered his own. Beautiful. Isolated. Erotic. Melancholic. Dreamlike. And utterly impossible to escape.

So step inside the cemetery, follow the paths, and whatever you do... Try not to get lost.

The Summer of Rollin continues...

Timecode For Episode 576:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:03:51 - Girls without Shame

00:23:15 - The Iron Rose

00:38:43 - The Indicator 4KUHD's

00:43:22 - Closing the Show

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tputs episode, the summer of rollinDuncan McLeishtputs, tputscast, podcast under the stairs, the summer of rollin, schoolgirl hitchhikers, girls without shame, the iron rose