Blood and Roses

This article is about the film. For other uses, see Blood and Roses (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Bread and Roses.

Blood and Roses
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roger Vadim
Screenplay by	Claude Brulé Claude Martin Roger Vadim
Based on	Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Produced by	Raymond Eger
Starring	Mel Ferrer Elsa Martinelli Annette Vadim Alberto Bonucci Gaby Farinon R. J. Chauffard Serge Marquand Edith Arlene Peters Marc Allégret
Cinematography	Claude Renoir
Edited by	Victoria Mercanton
Music by	Jean Prodromides
Production companies	Films EGE Documento Film
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	14 September 1960 (1960-09-14) (France) January 1961 (1961-01) (Rome)
Running time	87 minutes
Countries	France Italy
Box office	1,205,106 admissions (France)

Blood and Roses (French: ...Et mourir de plaisir (Le sang et la rose), lit. '...And die of pleasure (The blood and the rose)') is a 1960 erotic horror film directed by Roger Vadim. It is based on the novella Carmilla (1872) by Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu, shifting the book's setting in 19th-century Styria to the film's 20th-century Italy.

Plot

Set in the modern day at a European estate, Carmilla is torn emotionally by the engagement of her friend Georgia to her cousin Leopoldo. It is hard to tell for whom she has the strongest unrequited emotions. During the masquerade ball celebrating the upcoming marriage, a fireworks display accidentally explodes some munitions lost at the site in World War II, disturbing an ancestral catacomb. Carmilla wearing the dress of her legendary vampire ancestor wanders into the ruins, where the tomb of the ancestor opens slowly. Carmilla returns to Leopoldo's estate as the last guests depart. Over the next few days she proceeds to act as though possessed by the spirit of the vampire and a series of vampiric killings terrorize the estate.

Cast

• Mel Ferrer as Leopoldo De Karnstein
• Elsa Martinelli as Georgia Monteverdi
• Annette Vadim as Carmilla
• René-Jean Chauffard as Dr. Verari
• Marc Allégret as Judge Monteverdi
• Alberto Bonucci as Carlo Ruggieri
• Serge Marquand as Giuseppe
• Gabriella Farinon as Lisa
• Renato Speziali as Guido Naldi
• Edith Peters as The Cook
• Giovanni Di Benedetto as Police Marshal
• Carmilla Stroyberg as Martha
• Nathalie LeForet as Marie

Production

Blood and Roses was filmed at Hadrian's Villa in Italy.

Release

Blood and Roses was released in France on 14 September 1960. It was released in Rome in January 1961 under the title Il sangue e la rosa. It was also released in the United States in September 1961.

Thus far the only DVD of Blood and Roses is a German one with German language and French with English subtitles options.

Reception

In a contemporary review Monthly Film Bulletin noted that "despite the elegance and beauty of the backgrounds in and about Hadrian's Villa" and "Claude Renoir's Tehnicolor-Technicrama photography, this expensive attempt at an art horror film is nothing short of a travesty-both of the genre and LeFanu's marvellous short story." The review noted that the film was "awkward and pedantic" and that the "vampire story is ruined by leaden dialogue, stridently dubbed, and by the sometimes bathetic acting" and that the "film suffers badly from comparison with Dreyer's much freer adaptation of the story, Vampyr."

The March 1962 issue of the pro-gay magazine ONE noted that "We hear the latest fad for some gay girls after seeing the spook vampire movie with a lesbian lilt, Blood & Roses, is to tattoo two little marks above the jugular. Wanta neck?"

See also

• List of French films of 1960
• List of horror films of 1960
• Lesbian vampire
• Vampire film

External links

• Blood and Roses at IMDb
• Blood and Roses at Rotten Tomatoes