Last year I discovered a filmmaker whose erotic-fantasy-horror cinema had a profound influence on me. For a long time, Jean Rollin was written off as a pornographer due to his considerable body of work in the hardcore industry. However watching every personal film by Rollin felt like going through an elaborate, somnambulistic ritual. I discovered a peculiar kind of cinematographic language that solely communicated through dreamy images. Rollin's hauntingly poetic creations portrayed a view of human sexuality that was veiled in transparent orange gauze, blood and sprawling old cemeteries...It was the vision of Beauty Triumphant whose touch turns all base metals into the golden effulgence of every healing sun angel.
Let us view this edition specifically dedicated to adult poems as a series of nesting dreams. Be they shockingly raw or achingly beautiful, let us remember an exceedingly powerful force that ensouls these children of our imagination. The instinct cannot bring things into existence without the intellect: the rose of Venus needs the caduceus of Mercury to bring us closer to both action and inspiration. The cult of Aphrodite went far beyond the sphere of common sexuality in ancient mysteries. The force of flow and return, stimulus and response, passion and sharp wit always finds an echo in the human soul. And it is the martial wilderness of Nature where we can contact this powerful energy in its essential form represented by the splendour of our all-conquering Venus.
Omnia vincit amor.
Diana Thoresen, Palm Cove, Australia.
24/10/2020
