Repulsion (1965)

Roman Polanski was still a newcomer to the world of cinema when he unleashed this unforgettable exercise in skin-crawling terror. Repulsion was the Polish director's first film in English, but that hardly mattered: much of the movie is as wordless (and as weird) as the silent Nosferatu. The young Catherine Deneuve plays a Belgian girl stranded in '60s London, a shy beauty with no social skills. When her sister leaves their shared flat, Deneuve goes gradually, quietly, completely mad. Her world becomes Polanski's paintbox, as the devilish director distorts reality via a series of surrealistic touches (grasping hands that protrude from elastic walls) and out-and-out murderous horror. Very few films cast the kind of eerie spell that this 1965 classic achieves, and it clearly points the way toward Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. As with most of the director's work, what is unsettling is not the overt violence, but the terrifying sense of emptiness and isolation, and the boiling unease inside one's own mind. --Robert Horton Amazon.com essential video

 Timeless Horror: As Cinematic as a Silent Film. As Modern as a Contemporary Film.
"Repulsion" (1965) was Roman Polanski's first English language film and the first of what would retrospectively be thought of as his "apartment trilogy", the other two films being "Rosemary's Baby" (1968) and "The Tenant" (1976). Whatever your neighbors might be up to, it is probably best left undiscovered. "Repulsion" is top-notch psychological horror about a woman's descent into madness within the confines of her apartment, aided by nothing more than her own troubled psyche and everyday creaks and cracks, a ringing telephone, a persistent landlord, and other mundane features of domestic life.

Carole (Catherine Deneuve) is a quiet, distant young Belgian emigree living with her older sister in London, where she works as a manicurist at a day spa. Carole's good looks attract attention, but she wants nothing to do with men, who seem to repulse her. Her sister Helen's (Yvonne Furneaux) obnoxious boyfriend Michael (Ian Hendry) only heightens her distaste for the opposite sex. When Helen and Michael leave on holiday, Carole is left alone in the apartment with her anxieties and fixations, only to be overcome by them.

This familiar set-up paves the way for perhaps the most convincing and subjective horror film I've seen, the horror of a mind unraveling. "Repulsion" was thankfully shot in stark black-and-white. Color would distract from Carole's internal crisis and the subjective view of her environment. Carole's mental isolation is conveyed strongly and consistently, partly through a lack of dialogue, necessitated by Deneuve's poor English. Although the film starts out with an objective perspective on events, at some point we begin to experience the apartment as Carole does. Her disturbed mind is both terrified and terrifying, both victim and perpetrator, and the audience is caught up in it.

"Repulsion" is remarkable on a couple of counts. The idea is so internal that it might seem more suited to literature than to a visual medium. But the film's focus on Carole's behavior, without distraction, followed by its embrace of her experience in the apartment, takes us into Carole's mind enough to fear for her -though not enough to dispel our fear of her. And "Repulsion" is almost completely cinematic. It communicates visually, not verbally. There is no more dialogue than a silent film would have on intertitles. Once we're confined to that apartment with Carole, the shot, not the scene, is the component part through which the story is told, something that has been achieved only rarely since the silent era.

There is a lot of speculation over the origin of Carole's insanity, but my feeling is that this is a genre film with a simple premise -young woman with dread of men stuck in apartment alone- that is essentially self-contained. I think it's probably a mistake to look to events or behavior outside the action of the film for answers. Psychiatrists often think "Repulsion" depicts schizophrenia. Until the end, I thought it meant to imply that Carole's neurotic fear of sex was the cause of her madness. Then I thought that her fear was part and parcel of her madness instead. Pay close attention to the last shot of the film. People's interpretations, or misinterpretations, of Carole's problems tend to be based on that shot.

The DVD (Westlake Entertainment 2007): This is a poor transfer of a poor print. "Repulsion" was shot in 1.85:1 aspect ratio and has been cropped to 1.33:1 for this disc. Furthermore, the print needs cleaning up, as there are a lot of specks. It's watchable, but if you need to buy it, I would look for some of the other OOP DVDs that were made from a restored print. The only bonus feature is a Gallery, which is a slideshow of stills from the film. No subtitles or dubbing. May 11, 2008

 GREAT FILM...poorly rendered
A beautiful young woman (ravishing Catherine Deneuve) with a "repulsion" toward men, slowly sinks into madness and murder. Creepy and terrifying, this is among Roman Polanski's best work. The film is ***** all the way. It deserves far better treatment than this murky pan-and-scan DVD version that looks like it was video taped off a late night TV showing. Let's hope somebody at Criterion thinks it's at least as worthwhile as "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" and "The Blob." May 8, 2008

 I liked it
I truly enjoy this film. I heard of it from Cynthia Freeland's book "The Naked and the Undead," a feminist perspective of horror films. Maybe because of this I was more prepared for what to expect. I thought her analysis was intriguing and I sought out the movie because of it.

I think the movie is a great film. Weird, strange, at times disgusting--of course. But I still like it. I also like Rosemary's Baby.

As for the DVD itself. My copy does still have the scratchy/grainy effect of film, but I happen to enjoy that. I also do not have HD, so maybe my taste in technology is lagging. April 24, 2008

 One of the best films about insanity
This film is a first rate exploration of a woman's decent into madness. Catherine Deneuve is quite convincing as the central character. Disturbing and haunting. March 31, 2008

 I sincerely tried to get into this one
If Catherine Deneuve hadn't been as hot as she was, I wouldn't have gone the 50 minutes into this that I did. This flick roared along at the same frightening pace at which paint dries. It's remeniscent of "Eraserhead", but if you were to remove anything remotely interesting in Eraserhead , whatever was left would be Repulsion. Normally I enjoy the bizarre and the wierd but this was just flat. Like trying to spot your hair growing. March 24, 2008

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