Since a new year can often determine the outcome of that which preceded it, it is impossible for me to ignore the death of French writer-director Jean Rollin, occurred December 15 last. With this disappearance, an entire world is going, and I can not think without nostalgia. Over a long career, Jean Rollin has distinguished himself by his world fantastic staff and very unique. If approached also other genres (comedy, thriller, erotica, drama), his preference was to dreamlike and strange stories. 
His literary work is unfortunately less known than his films, but it is one of the major gateways into his world. Jean Rollin has indeed written several novels, short stories, essays and prefaces, in addition to signing the scenario of BD (Xam Saga) and write recently, his memoirs. Lesser known fact, he was also a literary tenacious leader, who led no less four collections ("Black Light", "Terror," "Pocket Revolver Fantastic" and, last, my favorite: "The Angels of the Odd," Spells for the publisher, in which he republished the sulfur George Maxwell and Max Russell, along with unprecedented quality, like a surprising story of Anne Duguël: My soul is a pigsty ). His work as director of collection also allowed him to reveal talented writers like Pascal Francaix. 
We have corresponded since 1994, when I wrote him to express enthusiasm had given me his novel The Two Orphan Vampires . Subsequently, I had the opportunity to meet John a few times, including at the Paris premiere of her film Bride of Dracula in a room filled with colleagues and comedians. It was an amazing experience that attend the screening of the feature film along with colorful wildlife sitting in a modest room. We suddenly had the feeling of being immersed in another world, out of which, a little stunned by this immersion in a fantasy world, I accompanied Christophe Bier in a pub to share a "half" in discussing unusual film. Subsequently, John participated in the 2007 Fantasia Festival, where he presented Night clocks, moving biopic of a great lucidity, already announcing the death of its creator ahead. Because of health problems he suffered since the 90s, Jean Rollin was very aware of the limited time available, and this finding emerged from his latest work. This edition of Fantasia allowed us to my friend Patrick and me to conduct a lengthy interview during which we tried to ask questions that had not thought journalists who had previously met. John speaks with enthusiasm of the editor Eric Losfeld, black French novels of the post-war, the Surrealists and many other subjects, before disappearing suddenly in his hotel room to return soon, bearer of gifts he had brought with him.
My friend Simon Laperriere, who was one of the major contributors to the arrival of Jean Rollin in Montreal in 2007, wrote a text here emotional about it. For my part, during his lifetime, I had occasion to pay tribute to him twice. First, in 1998, in a recent issue of the journal imagine ... Quebec, where a file was dedicated, together with a new and a 1996 interview. In 2001, Pierre Charles (the late founder of Cine-Zine -Zone ) also contacted me to ask about the texts of Jean Rollin. They appeared in Issue 134 of the said publication. In the "open letter to Jean Rollin" that contains this number, I wrote among others:
"Your works detonate when compared to too many movies or fantasy novels today, yet ultimately more mundane and down-to-earth as the most realistic novels, because the fantasy is still regarded as an intruder that must be exterminated, as an undesirable element that one fights before returning to the quiet bourgeois existence of a reassuring and Cartesian.
Instead, you open the dykes of the imagination a reality you build a hundred times more shimmer than the other, the "reality" conventional. When you read your novels, you never know what will happen, because anything can happen. Already in the 60s This sets the fantastic: anything can happen anytime. Our friend Mario Mercier has written: "All that man can imagine already exists in the dream of creating the universal spirit." The orphan vampires exist, of course, like all others, their friends Fantômas, Phantom of the Opera, "Valerie in Wonderland" or the two young girls But Do not Deliver Us evil, this beautiful film that constantly reminds Joel Seria your work.
I can not summarize in a few sentences because it is primarily an adventure, an experiment in which it becomes difficult to judge as it is internalized. Movies and books contain many unforgettable moments with characters who spoke to me as too rarely in my life.
Thank you, John, keep writing and film ... "
Finally, the Quebec magazine Contamination (unfortunately she also lost) was to hold another meeting, scheduled for a number that never appeared. These unpublished interviews will probably be published one day, preserving the memory and the voice of John. Then we can talk with him one last Once, during a dream that we will walk in the company of strange women, vampires, small ogresses, fairground timeless and all those who never refuse to see even in daylight, the wings of the Angel of the Odd cast their long shadow on the certainty that we thought immutable. 
*** Happy New Year to all. It is rich in surprises and full of creativity ...
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