Daughters of Darkness

In The Shining (1980) Stanley Kubrick makes a small visual homage to Last Year at Marienbad (1961) when he references the garden maze that Jack is about to go into in search of his son. It's fitting that Kubrick should be thinking of Last Year at Marienbad, since that classic film by Alain Resnais deals with ghostly memories trapped in a large, luxury hotel. Belgian director Harry Kumel actually does Kubrick's homage one better in his acclaimed art-house, lesbian-vampire film Daughters of Darkness (1971) - he actually got Marienbad's lead, Delphine Seyrig, to once again play a major role that competes for attention with an enigmatic and cavernous hotel. It's a heck of a battle because Seyrig puts on a mesmerizing show that has often been compared to an over-the-top Marlene Dietrich impersonation, and the imposing hotel locations include the Grand Hotel des Thermes in Ostend and the Hotel Astoria in Brussels. The story concerns a newly married couple that spend time in a deserted, off-season hotel at a Belgian seaside where the husband, Stefan Chilton (played by John Karlen of Dark Shadows fame) is continuously resistant to the pleas by his Swiss wife (actually the French actress Danielle Ouimet) to return to England to inform his mother of the recent nuptials. This solitude within their grand and desolate accommodations is interrupted by the arrival of two guests, the Countess Elizabeth Bathory (Seyrig) and her lovely accomplice, Ilona (German actress Andrea Rau). That the desk clerk should insist he remembers the Countess from 40 years ago and that she has not aged a bit is the first sign of trouble. The second sign of trouble should have been the fact that Elizabeth Bathory is a historical figure, born in 1560, who was rumored to bathe in blood and take part in all kinds of cruel and bizarre behavior for which she was put on trial by 1610, convicted, and locked up until her death in 1614. But, far from the usual vampiric shenanigans, Daughters of Darkness deals with all kinds of issues such as psycho-sexual tensions, voyeurism, gender roles, and, of course, dominance and submission - and does so with an aesthetic aplomb that is both unique (a scene where Stefan tries to look at a dead body amidst a crowd of other onlookers is unsettling in surprising ways) and classic (with eye-catching compositions that use locations as visual punctuation marks). A tip of the hat should be given here to cinematographer Edward Van Der Enden, as well as to Harry Kumel's background as an academic and film historian, something that certainly informs the ambitious scope of his compositions, atmosphere, and the general psychology of the film. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that he was also a friend to Josef Von Sternberg (to whom he dedicated one of his first films), as well as a friend to Orson Welles (who starred in his film Malpertuis). Blue Underground's widescreen dvd release of Daughters of Darkness includes a variety of supplemental material including an audio commentary with director Harry Kumel that is moderated by David Gregory, a second commentary (carried over from the Anchor Bay release) featuring actor John Karlen and moderated by journalist David Del Valle, an eight-minute interview with Andrea Rau, a Poster and Still Gallery, a theatrical trailer, radio spot, and an insert card that features the artwork from an Italian one-sheet of the film. Anyone interested in further reading is encouraged to consult Andy Black's Necronomicon (Book One), where Carol Jenks devotes an entire chapter to an analysis of the film. For more information about Daughters of Darkness, visit Blue Underground. To order Daughters of Darkness, go to TCM Shopping. by Pablo Kjolseth