Repulsion
UK 1965
Director: Roman Polanski
Production co: Compton/Tekli
Producer: Gene Gutowski
Screenplay: Roman Polanski,
Gerard Brach
Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor
Editor: Alastair McIntyre
Sound: Stephen Dalby
Music: Chico Hamilton
104 mins
16mm/Black & White
Synopsis
Carol Ledoux, a Belgian girl, works as a
manicurist in London, sharing a flat with her sister Helen. Moody and inclined
to fits of abstraction, she seems oppressed by the frequent presence in the
flat of her sister’s lover Michael, and fastidiously objects to finding his
toothbrush and razor lying about; and her own boyfriend, Colin, is puzzled by
her coldness and indifference to him. Left alone when Helen and Michael go on
holiday to Italy, Carol begins to go to pieces, suffers from hallucinations, is
fired from her job, shuts herself up in the flat and disconnects the telephone
after receiving an abusive call from Michael’s wife (intended for Helen).
Worried because he hasn’t been able to get in touch with her, Colin calls at the
flat, and breaks down the door when he is unable to make her open it;
frightened, she bludgeons him to death, throws his body into the bath, and
tries to barricade the broken door. Then the landlord calls for the rent and
forces his way in; at first appalled at the mess, he gets the wrong idea,
starts to make advances, and is slashed to death with Michael’s razor.
Returning from their holiday, a horrified Helen and Michael find her lying
inert and staring-eyed on the floor.
Press Materials
“In the 1960s Polanski, like a
number of foreign directors, was drawn to the UK and the trendiness of the
‘Swinging London’ scene. Repulsion
was his first English language film and financed by Compton, an exploitation
movie company that wanted to go arty/legit and saw the expatriate Pole, much
acclaimed for Knife in the Water
(1962) as the ideal and cheap(ish) way to do so.
“Repulsion's plot is simple: Carol (Catherine Deneuve), a young Belgian
woman, lives in a London apartment with her older sister, Helen. Carol is a bit
unhinged, with a revulsion to men and sex. Naturally, then, nice guy Colin's
attempts to chat her up don't get very far. Helen, meanwhile, is carrying on
with a married man, Michael (trivia buffs might care to note that Repulsion features the first orgasm ever
heard in British cinema). Helen and Michael go off on holiday, leaving Carol
alone in the flat. It doesn't take long for her to crack up completely...
Repulsion is one of those rare horror
films which manages to transcend its genre ghetto to be a must see for anyone
with an interest in cinema generally. In this, and many other ways, it follows
in the footsteps of Hitchcock's Psycho
and Powell's Peeping Tom. Like Hitchcock's
film, Repulsion is a prime example of
the cinema as shock machine: Everyday sounds—dripping taps, ticking clocks, and
bells—resonate with menace. Phantom attackers suddenly appear. Walls split
open, or have hands emerge from them. An intruder is slashed up with a straight
razor. But, like Peeping Tom (with
which it shares an opening shot of an eye, along with Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou) there's little mystery
about what's going on. Instead, the emphasis is upon exploring the lead
characters insanity. And here Repulsion,
with its more straightforward plotting, is more believable than Powell's film.
“Repulsion is perhaps Polanski's and Deneuve's finest hours.
Polanski's direction is simply masterful. Here, he's a virtuoso who manages to
avoid simply showing off. Near every shot is in there for a good reason.
Progressively, we're taken deeper and deeper into Carol's psyche, as her
apartment is rendered both her prison and the landscape of her mind. Deneuve is
utterly convincing in her role. Largely mute, she accomplishes so much through
gestures and looks.” — Keith Brown, Edinburgh Film Society
“Roman Polanski's directing
career has been so eclipsed by his personal excesses that we tend to forget
he's responsible for some of the most disturbing, stylish films of the 60s and
70s. Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown cemented his reputation in the
United States, but it was Repulsion,
a 1965 psychological thriller that opens today at the Castro for a one-week
revival, that introduced Polanski to English-speaking audiences.
“One of the most frightening and
disturbing pictures ever made, Repulsion
contains a scene in which a man's face is slashed with a razor until he dies,
captured by Polanski's camera with a clinical expertise that pushes the
viewer's nervous system to the edge. Repulsion
has often been compared to Psycho,
but Polanski's film, rather than presenting a portrait of a psychotic killer
from outside, pulls the audience into the crazed individual's mind.
“Deneuve plays a Belgian
manicurist working in London and living in an apartment with her sister,
Furneaux. She becomes increasingly unhinged, apparently due to her feelings
about sex, which simultaneously repulses and attracts her, and about which she
is constantly reminded by the presence of Furneaux's lover. When her sister
goes on holiday, Deneuve is left to fend for herself and becomes the victim of
terrifying, destructive hallucinations within the confines of the apartment. Repulsion tells a simple story, but
Polanski turns it into something undeniably brilliant. The director-writer took
great pains in creating the proper composition and details for his nightmarish
black-and-white visuals, extracting
Carol: Catherine Deneuve
Helen: Yvonne Furneaux
Colin: John Fraser
Michael: Ian Hendry
The Landlord: Patrick Wymark
Mme Denise: Valerie Taylor
Bridget: Helen Fraser
Miss Balch: Renee Houston
John: James Villiers
Reggie: Hugh Futcher
Workman: Mike Pratt
Mrs Rendlesham: Monica Merlin
Manicurist: Imogen Graham