#483: POLANSKI, Roman: Repulsion (1965)

POLANSKI, Roman (United Kingdom)

Repulsion [1965]

Spine #483
Blu-ray

Roman Polanski followed up his international breakthrough Knife in the Water with this controversial, chilling tale of psychosis. Catherine Deneuve is Carol, a fragile, frigid young beauty cracking up in her London flat when left alone by her vacationing sister. She is soon haunted by specters real and imagined, and her insanity grows to a violent, hysterical pitch. Thanks to its disturbing detail and Polanski's adeptness at turning claustrophobic space into an emotional minefield, Repulsion is a surreal, mind-bending odyssey into personal horror, and it remains one of cinema's most shocking psychological thrillers.

105 minutes
Black & White

Monaural

1:66:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2009

Director/Writers

Original screenplay by Roman Polanski and Gérard Brach.

Polanski was 32 when he directed Repulsion.

Other Polanski films in the Collection:

#215: Knife In The Water (1962)
#577: Cul-De-Sac (1966)
#630: Rosemary's Baby (1968)
#726: Macbeth (1971)
#697: Tess (1979)

The Film

Repulsion — Polanski’s second feature film, after Knife in the Water (1962) {Spine #215}, and his first English-language film — lacks the visual clarity of Knife, but then again is an entirely different type of cinema.

Catherine Deneuve — fresh off her starring role in Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) {Spine #716} — is unnervingly subtle as the deranged Carol, an 18-year-old French girl, living in London with her sister (Yvonne Furneaux), whose semi-permanent overnight guest is Michael (Ian Hendry), who the virginal Carol may or may not be jealous of …

The opening shot is an ECU of her open, unblinking eye, as Maurice Bender’s (uncredited) credits roll by slightly off-center, until Polanski’s director’s credit seems to slice right through the eye. (Polanski denies any intentional connection with Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou [1929] — but there it is …)

Carol does manicures and when she wields a cuticle cutter on an unsuspecting customer, the blood oozing from the old woman’s finger portends a frightening future …

John Fraser is excellent as Colin, the would-be boyfriend, and all the other minor characters are lovingly detailed by Polanski and Brach; none are too lightly sketched.

Chico Hamilton’s score fits perfectly with Polanski’s vision — jazzy when it needs to be, and frightening when it has to …

Polanski would soon be playing with big Hollywood budgets (Rosemary’s Baby [1968] {Spine #630}), but here he displays his extraordinary talents with just a handful of British pounds.

Film Rating (0-60):

53

The Extras

The Booklet

Sixteen-page booklet with an essay by film scholar and curator Bill Horrigan.

“Polanski’s brilliant audio design is also essential in our experience of Carol’s decline; the overriding acoustic effect is one of invasiveness, of unwelcome sounds overheard … the opening theme of a muffled, steady drumbeat suggests an overture to an execution, and those thumps return, repeatedly and aggressively, as when Carol hastens to wash her face clean from the contagion of an unwanted kiss from a visiting Colin. Bells, too, are classically enlisted to echo the onset of madness — not just those of neighborhood churches but also in such domestic varieties as ringing telephones and doorbells, both alarming indicators of the world outside trying to get in.”

Commentary

Featuring Polanski and Deneuve.

Recorded separately, but merged for this commentary, it is obvious how well the two got along. Deneuve was young, but so was Polanski. But she willingly took his assured direction and the results speak for themselves.

A British Horror Film (2003)

Documentary on the making of Repulsion, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, among others.

Another lovefest, except for hints of unpleasantness between Polanski and producer Tony Tenser, who went uncredited.

Documentary

1964 French television documentary filmed on the set of Repulsion, with rare footage of Polanski and Deneuve at work.

An exquisite look at the cast and crew at work. Deneuve spills the whole plot to the TV cameras (including listing a third murder that was in an early script, but didn’t survive the final cut), and Roman talks with the crew in his fluent French at the saloon bar, which features in the film.

Original Theatrical trailers

The producers tried hard to present the film as an exploitation pic — but just in case, they added glowing reviews from the likes of Bosley Crowther (New York Times) at the end …

Extras Rating (0-40):

34

53 + 34 =

87

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