a classic of vampire literature by Alexei Tolstoy adapted with passion

The Animal Kingdom, Acid, The Scourge…fantastic cinema, unusual in French cinema, is gaining more and more ground. The Vourdalak, released Wednesday October 25, contributes to this by returning to the classic, gothic vein of the genre. It adapts The Vourdalak Family, a youthful short story by Alexei Tolstoy, with ambition and respect, despite limited means. A somewhat nostalgic first film, carried out by force of the wrist, not without risks, where the distinguished vampirologists will meet.

Jean Rollin

In the 18th century, a French diplomat lost in Serbia found refuge in an inn where the whole family awaited the return of his father who had gone to drive the Turks out of the country. The man had left, warning them that if he was not back within six days, he would have become a Vourdalak, a bloodthirsty vampire. The deadline has passed and the patriarch has returned, transformed.

The Vourdalak Family has already been the subject of a cinema adaptation, as a sketch of Three faces of fear by Mario Bava, with Boris Karloff, in 1963. Adrien Beau’s version looks more towards Jean Rollin, who directed more than one vampire film in the 70s. We find the dominant exteriors there, here the forest, and stony interiors, a tear of eroticism, and in Adrien Beau very bloody scenes. The reconstruction of the 18th century is presented in careful costumes which are part of the decor, and the staging plays as much on fidelity to the text as on irony.

Atmosphere

Like Rollin, Adrien Beau makes do with the means at hand, but takes care of his staging, faithful to Alexei Tolstoy’s tale, by reconnecting with a classic aesthetic. Today it is more permissive in eroticism and violence, justified by the subject, but which Adrien Beau does not abuse. He plays with ambiances, to create Vourdalak an atmospheric film.

The title means vampire in Slavic (Wurdulac). Alexei Tolstoy began by writing three supernatural short stories, just as Balzac began with fantasy. The genre often offers inspiration to youthful works, and to cinema too. Inexpensive, films can bring in big profits (John Carpenter). The Vourdalak by Adrien Beau is sincere with the makings of a film made with passion.

The sheet

Gender : Fantastic
Director: Adrien Beau
Actors: Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Grégoire Colin, Vassili Schneider
Country : France
Duration : 1h30
Exit : October 25, 2023
Distributer : The Jockers / The Bookmakers

Prohibited for children under 12

Synopsis: “ My children,” said old Gorcha before leaving, “wait for me six days. If at the end of these six days I have not returned, say a prayer in my memory because I will be killed in combat… But if ever, which God forbid, I return after six days have passed, I order you not to do not let me enter, whatever I may say or do, because I would be nothing more than a cursed Vourdalak.” It is in a family prey to anguish, at the end of the sixth day, that the Marquis Jacques finds refuge Antoine Saturnin d’Urfé, noble emissary of the King of France…