Repulsion

REPULSION

Director : Roman Polanski

Year : 1965

Genre : Psychological Horror

Rating : ****

 

'Repulsion' is the English language directorial debut of the hugely successful and influential Roman Polanski, who would later make a name with multi award winning films such as 'Rosemary's Baby', 'Chinatown' and 'The Tenant'. Shot in beautiful black and white and starring French blonde bombshell Catherine Deneuve and British 1960's T.V. star Ian Hendry, Polanski is able to bring both a European and stereotypically English sensibility to this story of sexual abuse, loneliness and doomed insanity. Watching 'Repulsion' is a difficult watch and throughout the duration of it's playtime, my perceptions and views on the film were constantly changing and altering; even now 3 days after watching the movie, I still don't exactly know what 'Repulsion' means. But I do know without any doubt that it is a hugely impressive and daring movie that broke the boundaries of what was expected from 1960's cinema with dangerous subject matters, unexpected visual devices and a surprisingly bleak look at London suburbia.

Catherine Deneuve plays Carol, a beauty parlor worker who clearly has social and mental issues. She is constantly biting her nails, displays nervousness around the opposite sex and can be seen crouching in tight corners; hiding her face from the world. Haunted by nightmares and seeking dependence in her sister, she seems to be a child trapped in the body of a woman. When her sister unexpectedly goes on holiday with her boyfriend, Carol is left alone in her sisters cavernous apartment is forced to face the demons that surround her world on her own and 'Repulsion' traces both the genesis of her insecurities and the inevitable complete mental decay that comes with ignoring the problems that besiege her.

Before Polanski had mainstream success with 'Repulsion', he had been nominated for an Academy Award in 1962 with the depressing 'Knife In The Water', a dark, suppressing drama which chronicled the story of sexual tension and rivalry; clearly setting the blueprint for what would later become 'Repulsion'. After the success of 'Knife In The Water', Polanski left Poland to make short films in France, but was faced with racial prejudice and xenophobia. Leaving France for London after making only two shorts, Polanski would begin writing the script for 'Repulsion' along with Gerard Brach, a screenwriter who would become a frequent collaborator with both Polanski and noted French director Jean - Jacques Annaud.

 

'Repulsion' stars French sex icon Catherine Deneuve who had previously worked with Polanski on 'Les Plus Belles Escroqueries Du Monde', one of the two short films that he made while living in France. Bringing both an air of intense sexuality and surpressed childlike vulnerability, Deneuve creates a character who is clearly a magnet to men but doesn't know how to deal with the attention or adoration. Displaying tendencies that are more noticable in youngsters such as biting nails and cowering when being told off, we can see that Carol is clearly damaged in a psychological and social sense, affecting the way she interacts with both the people and the environment around her. Polanski wisely uses many point of view camera shots throughout the scenes of Carol wandering the flat on her own and this allows the audience to see the world through her warped and surpressed eyes. 

Interestingly, this kind of female perception and characterisation seems to pave the way for Francesca Annis' portrayal of the insane and murderous Lady Macbeth in Polanski's masterful 1971 adaptation of 'Macbeth'. However, unlike Annis who is given lines of luscious Shakespearean dialogue, Deneuve's part is mostly silent, relying on eye movements, facial expressions and body language to convey emotion. In this sense, Carol is essentially a silent movie character and the black and white aesthetics only adds to this.  Her silence allows us to enter her mindset and see what she sees and hears what she hears. Almost schizophrenic in nature, 'Repulsion' is a deeply disturbing movie that puts us in the frame of mind of a damaged and potentially dangerous individual. 

While 'Repulsion' is not notably explicit or exploitative, Polanski uses visually arresting objects as metaphors to convey Carol's deep psychological scarring and while not as graphic as the films of David Lynch or David Cronenberg who also use the same devices to depict zeitgeists, Polanski is able to disturb on a more subconscious level with seemingly innocuous and harmless items. In this sense, 'Repulsion' could seem to resemble a Luis Bunuel or Jean Cocteau picture. Whether it be a table of rotting food, cracked walls or a nearby nunnery, Polanski's use of imagery and iconography all help to build a picture of the state of Carols diseased mind without overt explanation or visual clues. However at the time of release,  despite being virtually bloodless and not at all sexually graphic 'Repulsion' was deemed to be a very dangerous movie and as a result was given an X certificate by the board of film classification in Britain.

 

The sexual abuse aspect of this movie proved to be the biggest conundrum for me. At first, 'Repulsion' seemed to be a movie about surpressed sexual nature, similar to Cronenberg's 'Shivers' (though obviously not as graphic). Carol's reluctance around the opposite sex and constant nightmares of being raped by an unknown man seemed to say to me that she had a deep underlying sexuality that is bursting to get out. The flat in which she and her sister lives is situated directly opposite a nunnery and to me, this seemed to resemble the forced abstinence that both she and the nuns have to experience. Unlike the nuns, Carol doesn't have to abide to the chastity laws and could easily have sex at any time, she just chooses not to. However as 'Repulsion' played on, it became clear that the film is about sexual abuse, NOT sexual tension and repression. Her nightmares resemble an experience that happened to her when she was younger and the final frames of the movie clearly shows the deep set root of her fears. Carol's childlike nature is due to her constantly reliving the horrors of her past and despite trying to forget them and continue with her life, the traumas have trapped in a quiet and desolate world filled with fear and sexual anger. The genius of 'Repulsion' is that Polanski makes the main character both a protagonist and a murderer. Despite being beautiful and quiet, Carol is a killer who is deeply disturbed and whilst trying to find sympathy and love which she is clearly owed, she is much more dangerous than anyone can expect.

On it's release, 'Repulsion' opened to wide critical acclaim. Nominated for a BAFTA and winning both the coveted FIPRESCI Prize and the Silver Berlin Bear - Extraordinary Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, the movie would become known as a classic of the psychological horror subgenre. It would set the foundations for Polanski's Western directing career and would influence a wide number of future film makers. Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan'; one of the best films of 2010, would draw heavily from 'Repulsion' and 'May' by Lucky McKee would also use the template of a woman trapped in an apartment that mirrors her mental state.

'Repulsion' is a classic Roman Polanksi film. Elements of it can be seen through many of his later works and would become the first part of a trilogy known as the 'Apartment Trilogy' which would also contain 'Rosemary's Baby' and 'The Tenant'. It is also a classic of psychological horror and to me, there aren't many other movies that convey the terror and absolute hopelessness of sexual abuse like 'Repulsion'. Be warned, it is not a movie for children or young teenagers. As mentioned, while not explicitly graphic, the film does contain subject matter that is extremely disturbing and upsetting. While slow in some parts and not completely satisfying as an ending, 'Repulsion' is a must see for fans of both horror and arthouse movies. It is just amazing to me that in a decade centred around Beatlemania, free love and hippies, a filmmaker could create such a dark and depressing vision.