Canadian micro-publisher Spectacular Optical announced a new book focused on the career of French fantasy and horror filmmaker Jean Rollin. LOST GIRLS: THE PHANTASMAGORICAL CINEMA OF JEAN ROLLIN is written entirely by women critics, scholars and film historians. The release date is set for this summer.
The book will encompass a collection of essays covering the wide range of Rollin’s career from 1968’s LE VIOL DU VAMPIRE through his 2010 swansong, LE MASQUE DE LA MÉDUSE. It will also touch upon his horror, fantasy, crime and sex films—including many less viewed titles.
The book closely examines Rollin’s core themes. They focus on his 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 much more.
LOST GIRLS is the third book from 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.
The book is curated and edited by Samm Deighan (DIABOLIQUE). Some 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), Gianna D’Emilio (DIABOLIQUE)—and more to be confirmed.
Details on the cover art, full table of contents, and information about the book’s upcoming crowdfunding campaign will be announced in April.
