The history of Roman Polanski is almost as fascinating as his best films.
He also directed one of the greatest feminist horror movies with Repulsion.
If absolutely nothing else, the man is filled with interesting contradictions.
CL
My review is after the jump.
Catherine Deneuve stars Carole Ledoux, a young French manicurist living in London.
Helene has a boyfriend in Michael (Ian Hendry) who is also married.
Carole hates Michael, and throws away his belongings at their house.
When Helene and Michael go off for a romantic tip together abroad, Carole is left on her own.
And so she begins to unravel.
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From the get go, Carole is objectified by men, and work conversations often turn to men.
None of this interests Carole.
There is a brief intimation that Carole is a lesbian, but she’s also pre-sexual in her way.
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When her boyfriend wants to make out she runs away.
But the longer Carole spends on her own, the more she falls into her own paranoia.
Few filmmakers have capture the essence of objectification of women as potently.
And though it honors the conventions of the genre, it transcends them.
It’s truly one of the great horror movies, and one of the best feminist horror films.
This may not jibe with people’s feelings towards Polanski, but that is the movie without the baggage.
The Criterion collection’s Blu-ray is a stunner.
The image is revelatory, and suggests how great Blu-ray can be for older films if transferred well.
Also included is a commentary by Polanski and Denevue, recorded for the Criterion laserdisc of ages past.
Also included is the Blue Underground documentary “A British Horror Film” (24 min.)
It speaks more to the making and release than the commentary, and is laudatory.
Also included are two trailers.
