|
Repulsion is a film made in 1965 directed by Roman Polanski. It is Polanski's first English language film, and was filmed in Britain.
Cast includes Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux, and a cameo appearance by Roman Polanski himself.
Plot summary
The virgin Belgian Carol (a 21 year old Deneuve), repelled by and at the same time attracted to the idea of sex due to her repressed feelings, is a timid and fragile young woman living in London with her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux). When Helen leaves on a holiday to Italy with her married boyfriend, Carol is left alone. Isolated at work too, she shuts herself home, and becomes a slave of her own paranoid fears, unable to tell fantasy from reality, and starts hallucinating. She first violently kills a suitor using a candlestick, and later the landlord who makes a pass at her. When her sister returns home, she finds Carol crouched at a corner, catatonic, just a shell of her former self. The camera receives a family portrait that probably hides a clue of the true origin of her "repulsion": to whom is the young Carol staring?
The weird shadows and dark corners of Carol's house are reflected at the spectator from unusual angles. The current state of the house is strange and alien to both Carol and us. Hands protruding from walls, everyday objects transmogrified into objects of horror are everyone's nightmare.
Cultural impact
Repulsion would be as horrid and disturbing, and considered a classic even if it were completely silent. One of the most impressive films of Polanski's "apartment trilogy" (the other two being Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant), dubbed "paranoia horrors", the stylish Repulsion is a psychological thriller masterpiece, thanks in part to the stirring performance of Catherine Deneuve who dominates the screen during most of the running time. The film in a way tries to justify that the most terrible horrors lie within us. With Rosemary's Baby following, Polanski seems to underline this point of view.
External links
- BFI page (http://www.bfi.org.uk/gallery/polanski/repulsion.html)
- Images from the movie (http://www.phinnweb.org/links/cinema/directors/polanski/repulsion/)
|
