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REPULSION
One of the most influential horror movies of all time and a key film by Roman Polanski, REPULSION is a justified classic. It’s a shocking and hallucinatory account that explores an unquiet mind better than nearly any other film I can think of.
The Package
REPULSION (1965) was Roman Polanski’s second feature and his first-ever
English language film. Shot in London, where Polanski was living at the time,
it starred the French actress/model Catherine Deneuve. Now she’s a veritable
icon, but at the time Deneuve was an ingénue best known for appearing in the
musical THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. Polanski made no secret of the fact that he
was carrying on an affair with Deneuve while filming REPULSION, making her the
first of a long string of Polanski leading lady sex partners who would come to
include Sharon Tate, Isabelle Adjani, Nastassja Kinski,
Emmanuelle Seigner and
Deneuve’s own sister Francoise Dorleac (killed in an auto accident in 1967,
shortly after appearing in Polanski’s CUL-DE-SAC).
REPULSION was a critical and box office success, not to mention one of the
most influential genre flicks ever: Polanski’s later films ROSEMARY’S BABY,
THE
TENANT and THE PIANIST (in which the director recycles REPULSION’S famous
sprouting potato imagery) owe more than a little something to it, as do quite a
few other films, commercials and music videos, whose directors have ripped off
the unforgettable hands-bursting-out-of-the-walls climax many times over.
One notable aspect of REPULSION is its US copyright...or possible lack
thereof. Initially released by a short-lived porno company, it became a public
domain title due to unresolved rights issues, meaning quite a few VHS versions
appeared over the years from a variety of fly-by-night organizations. Columbia
reportedly secured the US distribution rights in the late nineties, but they
have yet to release the film on DVD; in the meantime REPULSION has again fallen
(illegally?) back into the hands of public domain distributors, the latest being
an outfit called Entertainment Programs, who put out a poorly mastered DVD in
2003.
The Story
Carole is a severely repressed young woman who lives with her sister Yvonne
in a London flat. Carole works as a manicurist, where she’s hit on by men who
disgust her, seeing as how she’s totally repulsed by all things sexual. Yvonne
begins seeing a married man and having sex with him in the room next to
Catherine’s, which causes her mental state to deteriorate. She becomes fixated
by the sight of cracks in a sidewalk and grows increasingly paranoid. One
weekend Yvonne decides to take a trip with her lover and leave Carole alone in
the apartment.
Yvonne’s timing couldn’t be worse, as Carole is rapidly
descending into total schizophrenia; she’s now seeing cracks appear in the walls
of her flat and imagining men breaking in to rape her. At work Carole
unthinkingly (or not) slices the finger of a client. She leaves early and
barricades herself in the flat, where things get so bad that when two men do
actually break in--a would-be suitor and Carole’s lecherous landlord--she
impulsively kills them both. And her hallucinations increase, with hands
bursting out of the walls to grope her and ceiling fixtures descending upon
her. Eventually Yvonne arrives back and is understandably shocked at what she
finds...
The Direction
Directorially you’ll have a difficult time finding a single flaw in
REPULSION. The roving camerawork is spot-on and the visual compositions
perfectly arranged (the gritty black and white photography was by the great
Gilbert Taylor, whose other credits include DR. STRANGELOVE and STAR WARS). The
hallucinatory scenes are superbly carried off, particularly the deeply unnerving
rape fantasies, effectively played in total silence but for the sound of a
ticking clock. The pacing, which will likely aggravate audiences weaned on the
music video aesthetic favored by modern moviemakers, is likewise flawless,
perfectly delineating the heroine’s slow descent into total insanity.
Polanski utilizes an almost unbearably claustrophobic
setting, as well several key images, most notably the famous sprouting potato,
to convey the progress of Carole’s mental deterioration. He also, as in his
other early films, favors voyeurism, with several scenes featuring passerby
watching the heroine suspiciously, including a man seen from Carole’s window
staring up at her from below, and an old woman viewing a key emotional scene
through a doorway.
Psychologically the script, by Polanski and his
standard collaborator Gerard Brach, is never less than totally convincing (I
understand that several psychologists have testified to the film’s astuteness as
a case study). Credit must also go to the stunning performance of Catherine
Deneuve. She’s in nearly every scene and succeeds in creating a beautiful,
complex and deeply unhinged individual who’s at once pathetic and profoundly
menacing.
Vital Statistics
REPULSION
Compton Films/Tekli British Productions
Director: Roman Polanski
Producer: Eugene Gutowski
Screenplay: Roman Polanski, Gerard Brach
Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor
Editing: Alastair McIntyre
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux, Patrick
Wymark, Renee Houston, Valerie Taylor, James Villiers, Helen Fraser, Hugh
Futcher, Monica Merlin, Imogen Graham, Mike Pratt, Roman Polanski