Rosemary’s Baby

Tags

1960's, Horror, John Cassavetes, Maurice Evans, Mia Farrow, Psychological Horror, Ralph Bellamy, Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer

Film Title

Rosemary’s Baby

Director

Roman Polanski

Starring

• Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse
• John Cassavetes as Guy Woodhouse
• Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet
• Sidney Blackmer as Roman Castevet
• Maurice Evans as Hutch
• Ralph Bellamy as Dr. Sapirstein

Unraveling at a deliberate pace and bristling with macabre intent, Rosemary’s Baby is a psychological horror, that under the talented hands of Roman Polanski really gets your mind working and leaves a haunting impact with ambience, excellent work from the cast and creepy atmosphere.

Rosemary Woodhouse, a sweet-faced young woman and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford apartment in New York. Though they are warned that the place has a very sinister history by good friend Hutch, they ignore it with Rosemary stating “Awful things happen in every apartment house” and move into the old building. The young couple intends on starting a family and set about settling into their new home. Soon enough, Minnie and Roman Castevet; two elderly neighbours who are very inquisitive and eccentric, introduce themselves into the lives of Rosemary and Guy. Guy finds the couple endearing and harmless, but Rosemary feels uneasy around them as they become increasingly nosy and overtly friendly. It’s around this point that strange events begin to occur to the innocent Rosemary. Guy becomes strangely distant when he acquires a plum role in a prestigious play after the lead actor who originally had the part goes blind. Rosemary begins to hear weird chanting from her neighbour’s apartment. Guy begins to spend an unusual amount of time with the Castevets. And finally, Rosemary discovers she is pregnant. Though happy about the news of her pregnancy, she is plagued by a recollection of a very vivid dream she experienced after eating something prepared by the oddball Minnie. In the harrowing dream, she was raped by a demonic presence. Rosemary soon becomes very isolated, frightened and convinced something is wrong as her symptoms of pregnancy don’t add up( she starts to look gaunt, has deeply severe pains in her abdomen, her new doctor prescribes bizarre remedies and she seems to be losing weight rather than gaining it) and her neighbours become more and more ingrained into her life. And with the unusual nature of her conception at the forefront of her mind, she begins to feel as though there is a dark, sinister plot against her and her child of the supernatural kind and that Guy knows something about it. Are Rosemary’s fearful behaviour and concerns for herself and her unborn child for a good reason? Or are they simply the alarming delusions of a naive mind?

Roman Polanski wonderfully writes and directs this creepy psychological horror that knows the meaning of slow burning terror. He builds paranoid tension by utilizing the setting of the apartment to craft a sense of isolation as Rosemary becomes more convinced that sinister designs are planned for her baby. Polanski knows exactly how to exploit audience fears by cranking up the ambiguity of the piece. Is Rosemary imagining it all? Or are her beliefs that something supernatural is a foot real? Polanski just brings so many possibilities to the piece but despite the overtones of something not of this world, he makes it all very realistic because of the seemingly normal setting. There’s little gore in Rosemary’s Baby, but this is the kind of horror film that is all about sinister suggestion and is all the more effective for not resorting to blood-soaked carnage. The camerawork is predatory in its movement, creating tension and unnerving suspense as it continues to follow the slowly terrified Rosemary. A devilishly crafted and often deceptive score of unwinding menace provides many chilling pieces of music, most prominently a lilting lullaby that repeats in creepy fashion, sung by star Mia Farrow.

Heading the impressive cast is Mia Farrow in a hugely convincing and harrowing performance. As Rosemary, Farrow imbues her with such a waifish innocence that it is hard not to sympathise with her and twinned with her elfin appearance of large, haunted eyes and iconic pixie cut, she is a character who you genuinely want to shield as the morbid plot unravels. And as the story goes on, Farrow essays the sheer amount of escalating panic and fraught emotion with deft skill, as we witness the tortured Rosemary slowly becoming more paranoid of events around her. I think it’s fair to say this is Mia Farrow’s best performance of her career. John Cassavetes has just the right amount of slimy arrogance to keep you guessing whether Guy is in on the plot that Rosemary believes is meant for her. In a well deserved Oscar-winning role, Ruth Gordon perfectly plays the dotty Minnie, who starts off as a nosy neighbour dressed in garish clothing and then evolves into something more devilishly sinister thanks to her morbid humour and kooky peculiarities. Sidney Blackmer excellently compliments Gordon as Minnie’s husband Roman, who for all his eccentricity, can be very creepy indeed. Maurice Evans in the supporting cast is great as Rosemary’s friend who becomes very concerned for her well-being, while Ralph Bellamy is unusual as the doctor who prescribes strange remedies for her and may know more than he is letting on.

Slow burning terror and psychological games make Rosemary’s Baby a masterpiece of mood and atmosphere that insidiously gets under your skin.

Carnage

Tags

2010's, Carnage, Christoph Waltz, Comedy, Drama, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Roman Polanski

Film Title

Carnage

Director

Roman Polanski

Starring

• Jodie Foster as Penelope Longstreet
• Kate Winslet as Nancy Cowen
• Christoph Waltz as Alan Cowen
• John C. Reilly as Michael Longstreet

Based on the acclaimed play, Carnage is a darkly funny examination of a meeting between two middle class couples to smooth over a skirmish between their sons that turns into something quite different. As directed under Roman Polanski’s acute eye for body language and the power of words, Carnage is sharp, funny and dramatic viewing.

Penelope and Michael Longstreet invite Nancy and Alan Cowen over to their high-rise New York condo to discuss an altercation between their children. The Cowen’s son struck the Longstreet’s boy with a stick after an altercation, which resulted in a couple of broken teeth and a swollen face. Initially the meeting between the couples is cordial, but it soon begins to take on another form. As the couples begin to take sides on the issue of their kids, verbal assaults are thrown about and the mask of civility melts away into an extended slanging match on the differing viewpoints of class, ideals and morals emerges from this supposedly diplomatic situation. In the end, the meeting is nothing to do with the two boys, but the regression of their parents into anarchy at being in such a claustrophobic setting. Prepare for acerbic one liners, verbal jousting and fine performances from the four members of the cast in Polanski’s comedic chamber drama of niceties being dispensed with and the true self burrowing its way to the top in an argument.

The first thing to notice in Polanski’s movie is the limited but highly effective setting of the Longstreet’s condo. Polanski examines the humorous side to these middle class character’s insular surrounding with a certain amount of tension, which he is more than adept because of his work in Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby. The condo seems to take on a life of its own and becomes almost prison like as we watch the Cowen’s attempt to leave but being halted at every opportunity. Polanski who also co-wrote the screenplay succeeds in bringing the acerbic wit to the screen with comedic and equally dramatic moments popularising this supposedly civil meeting between mature adults that descends into shouting and screaming. Roman Polanski manages to direct at a steady pace as the mask of diplomacy begins to slip and it really is amazing how he keeps us interested with such a short running time.

The biggest asset belonging to Carnage is the four main actors involved who all put in excellent work. Jodie Foster flat-out nails the role of Penelope Longstreet, a prissy woman obsessed with manners whilst being something of a snob. Her highly strung tendencies as a character really add to the comedic side of the film. Kate Winslet lets loose with her role as Nancy, the demure trophy wife whose escalating frustrations combined with too much booze lead her to extreme situations. Christoph Waltz gets some of the best lines as the ruthlessly suave and chauvinistic Alan, a lawyer constantly attached to his phone more than his wife’s pleas to leave. It is Alan who is the only character to see the absurdity of the meeting and the fact that no resolution will come of it. John C. Reilly adds humour but an underlying rage as Michael, who at first tries to calm the situation but later becomes a key instigator in stoking the flames of the already heated situations.

Making effective use of the limited setting, waspish dialogue and four great performances, Polanski’s Carnage in short is a barbed, dramatic and darkly funny account of civilised people descending into chaos.

Repulsion

Tags

1960's, Apartment Trilogy, Catherine Deneuve, Horror, Psychological Thriller, Repulsion, Roman Polanski

Film Title

Repulsion

Director

Roman Polanski

Cast

• Catherine Deneuve as Carol Ledoux
• Yvonne Furneaux as Helen Ledoux
• Ian Hendry as Michael
• John Fraser as Colin
• Patrick Wymark as Landlord

Commonly seen as one of the best examples of psychological horror, Polanski’s Repulsion still remains an unsettling tale of one woman’s descent into mental ruin. Atmospheric and horrific in equal measure, it is a film that leaves a deep impression on the viewer and makes them ask many questions when the film has finished. Polanski has fashioned a film that takes the place where most people feel safe, the home, and turned it into a nightmare of the senses. The use of this is eerily effective and makes the whole film more plausible and supremely chilling.

Carol Ledoux is a young manicurist from France who lives with her sister in a London apartment. Although highly attractive, she is sexually unaware and repulses all men for an unexplained reason. She practically day dreams her way through the day, barely making conversation with anyone and rejecting the gestures of her suitor. When her more confident sister ,Helen mentions she is going away on a trip with her smarmy boyfriend, Carol is filled with panic at the thought of being left alone. Dismissing her sisters worry as her being merely sensitive, Helen leaves Carol by herself. What ensures is a shocking disintegration of Carol’s mind, as her fears become a reality in the squalid apartment and she slowly but surely starts to crumble in a macabre fashion.

A young Catherine Deneuve is heartbreaking and pitch perfect as the repressed, withdrawn and frigid Carol. Her character does not talk much, but her face and body shows every confused and emotional thing she is going through and makes her startling performance both frightening and intense. The whole film is anchored by her portrayal and keeps the viewer glued as she sinks deeper and deeper into a delusional mental state. She is most effective when her face is almost catatonic and her eyes don’t betray what she is feeling, this makes the audience wonder what is really going on in her head. The camerawork should be praised, the way it follows Carol like a stalking predator adds to the paranoia she suffers and the unsettling feeling she feels around men in society. The music used is interesting because of its piercing changes in tempo and sound that give only subtle insights into the troubled and confused mind of Carol; many other uses of sound are used to add to the isolation such as an unanswered phone ringing and the sound of bells from the nunnery behind the apartment taking on a sinister tone before the midnight hour. Everyday objects such as a crack in the wall and the constant ticking of a clock become forms of torture as she continues to crumble into a catatonic state and hallucinate about the thing around her.

A genuinely chilling story of delusion, repression and isolation that slowly builds its way up to a violent climax, Repulsion is psychological filmmaking at its best. If you enjoy this film, then you can’t go wrong with the rest of Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy, consisting of Rosemary’s Baby and The Tenant. These films continue with themes similar to Repulsion and make for nerve shredding viewing.