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Title: Repulsion
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents should be careful of this film. Despite not being rated there is strong horror violemce, rape scenes, and mild language. Recommended for ages 16 and up. |
The movie I am about to review is not for the faint of heart. Many people will not like it. Many people will not get it. Some will both not it or get it. It is a polarizing film. Maybe it’s appropriate that the movie is named “Repulsion,” though the word has little to do with the actual movie as far as I can see. Here is an unconventional movie in every sense. As far as I can tell there is no story. This is very much like Stanley Kubrick’s classic “2001: A Space Odyssey” where the point of the film is not to tell a linear story but to set a mood, atmosphere, and feeling into the audience. The movie revolves around a girl named Carol (Catherine Deneuve) who is cold, distant, and looks to be more then a little troubled. She has a job at a beauty parlor where she is caught staring out into nothing.
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She has a sister named Helen (Yvonne Furneaux), who leaves her alone for a few days while she goes to Italy to have an affair with a married man. From here things get very, very weird. Earlier in the film Helen’s boyfriend asks her if Carol has ever seen a doctor. She hasn’t but that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. She stops going to work. She conceals herself in her dark apartment. She has visions of men raping her. Earlier in the film she shows signs of depression, arrhenphobia, and psychosis. Before the halfway point it’s clear she has psychosis, but the question is what caused it and how bad does it get? From personal experience I was watching the film a little fearful because many of the shots are distant and wide, except for the rare shot where Carol seems to be fully aware of her surroundings (this is not very often).
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Once in awhile someone will intrude on Carol’s life and temporarily snap her out of her delusions, but this isn’t for long because Carol is a suspicious and untrusting woman. Most of these people will be dead by the end. It almost feels like a horror film in some ways, and while it’s technically a drama it wouldn’t be inappropriate to call this horror. Conditions like this are a horror for people who live through them and seem to live in an alternate reality where emotions and reason don’t exist. By allowing us to live that life through this character we feel the pain so many mentally handicapped people do. We are alone, always gripping our chairs, and the only way to tell the passing of time is the ticking of the clock and rotting food that just sits in the kitchen.
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The film is directed by Academy Award-winning director Roman Polanski. It was his first English language film. Many of his themes are present in this film including his famous “death in water” theme that persists. One thing that is clear is that Polanski was not a master of English, and the weak spot in this film is the dialog which is often stilted and spoken by actors who don’t speak English very well themselves. Thankfully most of the film is dialog-less and Polanski instead focuses on sound effects and music. The way sound is used in this film is masterful, where sound can either be clear as the day, disconnected from reality, or sometimes it just isn’t there at all.
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I don’t know if this can be considered an overlooked film or not. The film was obviously enough of a hit where Polanski got to make more of his movies, so I suspect that this was a bigger hit in Europe then it was in America. Still, I don’t think it’s as popular in America as Polanski’s “Chinatown” and “The Pianist” are. Criterion has deemed this film worthy enough to make part of their famous DVD collection (#483), and it’s a wise and worthy choice. Though it’s far from a fun movie I fully intend to watch it multiple times to feel the emotions over and over again, and maybe to help myself understand the film a little better with each viewing.
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