I chose to watch the 1965 Roman Polanski psychological thriller Repulsion on YouTube at 4:30 p.m. Yvonne Furneaux, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Patrick Wymark, James Villiers, Renee Houston, Helen Fraser, Valerie Taylor, Hugh Futcher, Mike Pratt, Monica Merlin, Imogen Graham, Lewis Alexander, Roman Polanski, Tony Allen, Joe Beckett, Hercules Bellville, Wallace Bosco, Mel Churcher, Maxwell Craig, Muriel Greenslade, Eileen Harvey, and Angela Kay are among the cast members of this black and white film. Roman Polanski, Gerard Brach, and David Stone directed the London-shot British film, which was also written by Roman Polanski and Gerard Brach and produced by Gene Gutowski.
A 1965 Roman Polanski Movie
A disturbed young woman is the subject of this unsettling movie. Carol, played by Catherine Deneuve, is the main character in this film. As Carol goes about her life and navigates her environment in a bewildered and disoriented manner, the camera follows her around. She works at a spa or salon, and she lives with her older sister, Helen. A young man, Colin, often pursues her but she seems disinterested and ignores him. I also thought she seemed out-of-body because she wasn’t aware of her surroundings, even when she nonchalantly walked by a car accident, ignore the crowd around the two cars in the background. She also seemed empty, unable to respond to others around her, except her sister, who she appears to be close with, to the point of dependency. She also forgets that the bathtub is filling with water until she later noticed the bathtub is overflowing and the bathroom is flooded.
She also seems to be quite sensitive, easily irritated by others, especially her sister’s lover, who is a married man. He often leaves his toothbrush and shaving knife in her glass, in the bathroom, which grosses her out. She struggles to sleep at night because she often hears her sister and Michael having sex.
I notice cracks symbolism on the sidewalk, pavement, and on the walls inside the apartment, which probably indicates that her life is falling apartment, or maybe she is cracking.
When Colin tries to kiss her in the apartment, she pushes him away and goes upstairs to brush her teeth because she feels dirty. Moreover, she becomes even more distant at the salon with her coworkers that it affects her work. During another time at work, she accidentally cuts a customer’s finger.
When Helen and Michael leaves for a trip, Carol feels isolated and alone, and her situation seems to worsen. The poor rabbit that her sister cooked, remains on the same dish, covered with flies. The apartment is in total disarray, similar to a college student’s dorm room, as Carol looks around to only notice Michael’s possessions, which makes her physically sick. It appears she might have schizophrenia because she often hallucinates when she is alone. Footsteps in the hallway, walls cracking into big cracks, and hands coming toward her from the walls, and a man entering and raping her are all a part of her hallucinations. She is irritated by the telephone always ringing. But sometimes no one responds from the other end.
Her coworker sees a rabbit’s head inside Carol’s purse. Colin later comes by, but Carol refuses to open the door. He eventually breaks it open. He expresses his feelings for her, but she seems disinterested in his love, as she just stares at him with blank, empty eyes. She responds to his love by killing him with a candlestick. She later dumps Colin’s body inside a bathtub filled with water. Michael’s wife calls the apartment, calling her a filthy bitch, which is meant for Helen. Carol decides the cut the telephone wire so she doesn’t have to deal with such telephone calls.
The landlord comes to the apartment door for the rent money. He enters to see the mess inside the apartment and Carol gives him the rent money. As he scans the disgusting filth in the apartment, he notices the rotting dead rabbit on the plate. He hits on her and comes on too strongly, but she remains unresponsive and disinterested. He tries to rape her to get her interest. But she pushes him away and kills him with Michael’s shaving knife. She then goes into another hallucination.
Helen and Michael arrive at the apartment. Helen sees Michael’s dead body in the bathtub, before later noticing Carol’s body under the bed in a catatonic state. Many neighbors arrive at the apartment, watching the chaos. Michael carries Carol’s body out with a weird smirk on his face, and the camera focuses on the family photograph, where a young Carol’s face has a cold and mean expression as she stares at an older man. I actually thought she looked like an evil child from Omen or Godsend, wanting to kill that man. But the man and woman in the photograph looked happy and normal, each with a relaxed smile.
You can watch the full movie on YouTube.
It is an interesting but disturbing and sad movie about a mentally disturbed young woman who cannot connect with men. I am assuming the older man in the photograph likely molested her when she was young, and she likely dissociated from that traumatic childhood experience in order to help her move forward. She should have gotten help for her traumatic childhood experience to help her deal with her hallucinations and emptiness, which had kept her from connecting to men, especially Colin, who loved her and wanted a serious relationship with her.
