Stained Glass and Wet Sheets - Schoolgirl Hitchhikers

With the passing of Jean Rollin this year (my tribute to him is here) I had to find something unique and interesting to watch from his filmography.  After Vibrations Sexuelles I wanted to look further at the Michel Gentil films, and thanks to the Jezebel DVD release of Schoolgirl Hitchhikers I found a great link between the hardcore penetrations and softcore rubbings of Rollin. No matter what , it is all erotic from the master...

 
Schoolgirl Hitchhikers is a wonderfully simple little romp at it's core.  Starting off with several extended sex sequences, both of which feature the amazingly sensual Joelle Coeur (whose entire body, from her hair to nose to toes is a wonder to me) doing it without getting to gooey if you get my meaning.  However, no matter who she is working with in these sequences, the first a lengthy lesbian undress and release and the second a long three way scene with her as the genital to genital facilitator (sigh..awesome)-she brings a certain verve that exceeds the eyes to the left, lips to the right softer work of her compatriots.  So, sex achieved, I'm just about tired enough to enjoy Rollin switch gears right in to a little crime story.  After the girls wander in to an "abondoned" house and then hook up with a shady character it comes to light that some diamonds that were in his care have gone missing.

 
His lady boss is gonna put the boot to him if he doesn't find them. The girls spend another night in the woods (and Joelle Coeur pulls the old jeans and no top on me...sigh)-and fall in to the clutches of the baddies.  But this IS Jean Rollin, so you can expect some sadistic behavior filmed in freaky colors and wailing tunes that sound like they fell off a shattered record found in his grandfathers attic. It sounds like his grandfather was programming library music for old time detective radio programs to boot! 

The girls are helped by the police who bumble, blunder and bring along a very hot, very oddly attired (Rollin seems to want to put her in clown make-up but just can't) lady assistant.  A Rollin gun battle ensues, leaving me to wonder why it always seems like in his films people are fighting with cap guns.  It is one of the most charming aspects, the "real" violence in Rollin films, because it shows that he worked well with style and strangeness and had little desire to go beyond a nostalgic realism for anything else.

And it ends. I'm exhausted from smiling and loosening my zipper between the fun crime story and the abundance of Joelle Coeur (and whoever plays the lady detective...zowie!).  Willy Braque is fun to see as well, this movie has some of that Demoniacs vibe to it in parts, when Coeur is hiding from the bad guy in the most obvious place it made me smile and think about the pulpy opening sequence of that great film. 

Even working outside the fantasy genre, well...fantasy of a sort, Rollin paints with his actors and found sets with the assured hand of the artist living between periods and places.  Villainous women masturbate to violence behind stained glass, thuggish louts torment with whip and penis, shocking schoolgirls expose desires both light and dark...sheets are rumpled and hyperextended orgasms fill the screen.  This is one film that any Rollin fan would appreciate-and for those that want a fun softcore sex film that isn't afraid to make you smile without trying to make you laugh, this is it! 

The DVD from Jezebel is very nice, I did have a weird stripe running down the right side of my screen throughout the full frame presentation. Not a distraction because I was too busy oogling the sights and tapping my feet to the sounds of this walk with some sexy Schoolgirl Hitchhikers!


'Schoolgirl Hitchhikers' trailer from Salvation Films on Vimeo.