Roman Polanski's first English language Repulsion is a tour de force of direction, framing and acting, especially from the then 22-year-old French star, Catherine Deneuve, who brings a sterile intensity to her role as the increasingly deranged and psychotic Carole, who lives with her older sister in a spooky rented flat in 1960s Kenisngton. Carole is a curious mixture of coldness and vulnerability and Deneuve manages to successfully imbue her role with these very qualities. In contrast to her sister who's having an affair with a married man, Carole shuns male interest and increasingly becomes lost in a nightmarish world of hallucinations and a rotting rabbit.
The claustrophobic atmosphere of the film is a sight to behold and is genuinely unnerving and disturbing. The flat becomes the locus of Carole's mental disintegration and Polanski makes full use of the walls, floors and windows as signifiers of Carole's condition.
What I found disappointing was the refusal of Polanski to provide a back-story for Carole's anxiety and repulsion. There are many suggestions why Carole is the way she is, but we are never given a grain of truth to let us empathise with her plight. Perhaps this was part of Polanski's agenda? In doing so, Carole is objectified, devoid of true sympathy. Her descent into murderous psychosis seems at odds with the seemingly sweet, naive girl depicted in the opening scenes. The ending shot of the family photo, though clever, is also rather shallow and prefigures Polanski's later preoccupation with amorality and evil. Carole becomes the dehumanised, demonised 'other'; separating herself from her family with that demolish, possessed gaze. Yet these are minor gripes in a very intense film.
The claustrophobic atmosphere of the film is a sight to behold and is genuinely unnerving and disturbing. The flat becomes the locus of Carole's mental disintegration and Polanski makes full use of the walls, floors and windows as signifiers of Carole's condition.
What I found disappointing was the refusal of Polanski to provide a back-story for Carole's anxiety and repulsion. There are many suggestions why Carole is the way she is, but we are never given a grain of truth to let us empathise with her plight. Perhaps this was part of Polanski's agenda? In doing so, Carole is objectified, devoid of true sympathy. Her descent into murderous psychosis seems at odds with the seemingly sweet, naive girl depicted in the opening scenes. The ending shot of the family photo, though clever, is also rather shallow and prefigures Polanski's later preoccupation with amorality and evil. Carole becomes the dehumanised, demonised 'other'; separating herself from her family with that demolish, possessed gaze. Yet these are minor gripes in a very intense film.