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Repulsion (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
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Genre | Mystery & Suspense |
Format | Blu-ray, Widescreen, Black & White, Special Edition, NTSC |
Contributor | Catherine Deneuve, Roman Polanski |
Language | English |
Runtime | 1 hour and 45 minutes |
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From the manufacturer
Roman Polanski’s suspense classic—one of cinema’s most shocking psychological thrillers starring Catherine Deneuve
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Product Description
Roman Polanski followed up his international breakthrough Knife in the Water with this controversial, chilling tale of psychosis, starring Catherine Deneuve as Carole, a fragile, frigid young beauty cracking up over the course of a terrifying weekend. Left alone by her vacationing sister in their London flat, Carole is haunted by Specter's real and imagined, and her insanity grows to a violent pitch. Thanks to it's unforgettable attention to disturbing detail and Polanski's unparalleled adeptness at turning claustrophobic space into an emotional minefield, Repulsion remains one of cinema's most shocking psychological thrillers. Special edition features: New, restored high-definition digital transfer, Audio commentary featuring director Roman Polanski and actress Catherine Deneuve, a British Horror Film (2003), a documentary on the making of Repulsion, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor, a 1964 television documentary filmed on the set of Repulsion, featuring rare footage of Polanski and Deneuve at work, Theatrical trailer, Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar and curator Bill Horrigan.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.66:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 3.53 ounces
- Item model number : CRRN1823BR
- Director : Roman Polanski
- Media Format : Blu-ray, Widescreen, Black & White, Special Edition, NTSC
- Run time : 1 hour and 45 minutes
- Release date : July 28, 2009
- Actors : Catherine Deneuve
- Studio : Criterion Collection
- ASIN : B0026VBOJ2
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #52,329 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #1,219 in Mystery & Thrillers (Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:
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Repulsion (The Criterion Collection)
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The thing that most impressed me the first time I saw REPULSION was the final tracking shot through the apartment, past the artifacts of Carol's insanity, to the picture of Carol's family in Belgium, and then closer to the picture and all the way into Carol's eye. I wonder if Polanski was nodding to PSYCHO, in which the camera zooms down the drain of the shower and then out onto the dead eye of Janet Leigh.
Concerning the commentary, it is interesting that as filmmakers get older, they forget things. In his autobiography, Polanski said there was to be a third murder, when the sister's boyfriend comes back unexpectedly from his vacation. Carol was going to kill him, but Polanski thought three murders would be too much.
In the commentary Polanski says it is the wife of the boyfriend (whom Carol kills with the candlestick) who was to appear and be murdered. Indeed, there is the voice of an irate woman on the phone, and we see a woman across the street.
I was somewhat disappointed when Polanski and Catherine Deneuve were talking about other things as Carol touches the light switch and the wall splits apart with a dull roar. I thought this particular special effect made the movie, because it wasn't gothic or ethereal like most special effects, it was frighteningly concrete and physical. The theme of the cracking, splitting, sundering, has a long history in philosophy and literature. It was a key to Lowry's UNDER THE VOLCANO (the ravine), Gilles Deleuze's Logique du sens (la fêlure), F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Crack-up," Maurice Blanchot's critical essays. It signifies a whole that is cracked, split in such a fundamental way that it can never become a whole, and indeed never was a whole in the first place. Polanski's genius was to select this as a visual theme at age 28, knowing nothing about schizophrenia (etymology "the SPLITTING of the mind"), and make the most of it.
In my opinion, the hands coming out of the wall, which was done by Cocteau, is a bit more gothic, less original, than the cracking of the walls.
Given the girl's extreme sexual anxiety, which is the motive for the two murders and the three fantasies of rape, one would have to give a cloacal significance to the crack as well. Behind the crack is evil, darkness, feces, concupiscence. The theme of decay -- the rotting rabbit, the eyes growing out of the potatoes -- is a concomitant of this. Behind the crack is unwholeness, unwholesomeness, the fermentation and dissolution of all things. Related to this is the dripping of the faucet, the oozing, the softening of all that was once solid and secure -- hence the softening of the walls into clay.
There are details so subtle that even Polanski probably doesn't remember them. For instance, when the sister's boyfriend moves toward Carol to pinch her cheeks, he touches the back of his own neck. This foreshadows the landlord convulsively clutching the back of his neck after Carol slashes him with the razor.
There is a fine irony to the men approaching her sexually without an inkling of the risk they are running. All they see is female flesh; they can't see her insanity. The sister's boyfriend, who has coveted her from the outset, finally has a completely catatonic Carol in his arms at the end as the police are on their way.
The movie abounds with sexual symbolism. Carol is upset that her sister's boyfriend puts his razor and his toothbrush in her glass; both those phallic objects enter the glass like a penis. She is unnerved at the sight of her glove coming off her fingers -- another image of penetration, akin to a condom. The razor fascinates her not only because it is phallic in its form, but because it hints at castration. The shocking moment when she cuts the finger of the woman she is manicuring, followed almost immediately by her friend's discovery of the rabbit's head in Carol's purse, confirms the theme of castration.
In any case, I agree with those who say this was Polanski's most inspired film. The movements of his camera are so original that they can't really be compared to those of any filmmaker. Perhaps Renoir at his best...
The theme of hallucination was an inspiration by Polanski and Brach. The true terror of the movie is that the images haunting the girl are not real. No one can rescue her, because the attacker is in her mind. There is no escape.
Most amazing of all, we learn in the special features that there was no money for special effects, so the crew had to create them. REPULSION is one of the greatest special effects movies ever made.
The short special feature "Grand écran" is wonderful, because it shows Polanski telling Deneuve where to move, how to use her body, how to use her hands. This is a precious opportunity to see a masterpiece in the making.
Those who say the transfer is horrible are, pardon the turn of phrase, hallucinating.
"Repulsion" is a movie about a young woman who has a deep-seeded repulsion (I was looking for the right word for it and I guess the title is appropriate) to sex. Although not your usual plot, there are probably many things that could be done with this theme from comedy (think Woody Allen) to sensitive love story. Polanski took it to the macabre and horrific with a result that will haunt viewers for years. This is a movie that explores the darkness of the mind in a brilliant mix of fantasy and reality. It is so well done that, once the basic outline of the story has been set, most viewers will be unsure if what they are seeing at any given point is real or imagined. There is enough that IS real to leave us emotionally exhausted by the time full reality returns. In the end we are left with a view of what a deranged mind might look at. That is all the more impressive by use of the innocent-appearing subject played by Catherine Deneuve. Her acting, as well as that of the rest of the cast, is excellent but it is the directing that is the key to the success of "Repulsion". The known and the unknown, the innocent and the brash, the real and the imagined, all are interspliced to keep us on edge and unsure of what we are seeing.
As a rather pointless personal aside, I realized during the film, that it had been the subject of a photo layout in the first "Playboy" magazine I ever purchased in my adolecence. I guess I mention that because the DVD cover coyly suggests that this is a story of "the nightmare of a virgin's dreams becomes the screens shcking reality". I watched it alone lest the subject matter was inappropriate and, I found out that it is inappropriate for younger audiences although not for the reasons I had suspected. This movie deals with sexuality without exploiting the subject. There are visual and audial "suggestions" but they do not cross the line. However, the film is disturbing, to say the least. There are many scenes that will stay with you including one involving a door mirror in motion that was as shocking as any scene I've ever seen. Yet even this is misleading. There is a purpose to everything in "Repulsion" which re-iterates my praise for the director's skills. Many people may find the film's title an apt discription of their reaction to seeing this movie. However, it tells a dark tale eloquently.
Top reviews from other countries
Bon film
This is a French release disc, but was shot in English so can be enjoyed in English as filmed or with French dub or English with French subtitles.
Came from Europe, as described and fully functional.
Cela faisait un bail que je ne l'avais pas vu et...ouf! très dérangeant! Catherine Deneuve joue ce rôle à merveille, celui d'une demoiselle schizophrène hanté par un passé troublant dû à une liaison incestueuse avec son père. Disons que tout au long du film, elle n'est vraiment "plus là"! Elle n'aime pas les hommes et les...tue violemment. Polanski, à qui l'on doit un autre classique "Le Bébé de Rosemary", signe ici un film grandiose.