Film: Repulsion

Director: Roman Polanski
Genre: Horror/Drama
Source: UK (1965)
Rating: Unrated (PG-13 or R?)
Location/Format: Turner Classic Movies
Grade: B+

Some movies are all about atmosphere, and throughout Repulsion director Roman Polanski slowly sucks all the oxygen out of the room until you realize you're suffocating and can't draw a breath. With only one viewing I don't feel like I fully "get" the movie, but the imagery and camera work Polanski uses in fleshing out Carol's psychosis, as well as Catherine Deneuve's no-holds-barred performance, make this one of the most effective takes on mental illness I've seen in a long time.

So much creepiness! It's not hard to connect the dots between this and Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, just a few years later, but in some ways the black-and-white film here makes the film even more claustrophobic and blurs the lines between reality and insanity even more effectively. The walls, of course; the man in the bed; the potatoes; the rabbit. Polanski doesn't have to dwell on them any longer than he does, because each in their own way become the visible representation of Carol's madness. The piece of meat in Carol's bag . . . perhaps one of the most off-putting special effects I've ever seen, if only because you can't quite tell what it is--fleshy but unformed. It is disturbing. It is repulsive.

Add to that the effective sound editing--where we're never quite sure if what we're hearing is actually happening or just Carol's subjective madness, since often what we see doesn't match up with what we're hearing--and you've got a recipe for success. Polanski takes risks in presenting Carol's world in this fashion, but it pays off incredibly well.

Though the film's world is highly effective, it wouldn't work if Carol wasn't believable, but Polanski has a fantastic star in Deneuve. Her haunted gaze and unkempt hair signify in her person just what we're seeing in the rest of the film as well, and yet she often looks so wide-eyed and lost that you're never sure whether to fear her or pity her.

Altogether, this remains a disturbing film nearly fifty years later. I feel like it's another of those films I could show younger audiences who think old movies never did anything original, or that hasn't been done better since. Polanski's twisted look here at sex and psychology is as engaging and disturbing as anything since.

Alternate Film Title: "You'd Think Somebody Would Notice the Smells in Carol's Apartment"