Repulsion
original film poster
Directed by	Roman Polanski
Produced by	Gene Gutowski
Written by	Roman Polanski & Gérard Brach (original screenplay), David Stone (adaptation)
Starring	Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux
Music by	Chico Hamilton
Cinematography	Gilbert Taylor
Editing by	Alastair McIntyre
Distributed by	Compton Films (U.K.), Columbia Pictures (U.S.A.)
Release date(s)	January 1965 (UK)
Running time	104 min
Country	U.K.
Language	English

Repulsion is a 1965 film directed by Roman Polanski on a scenario by Gérard Brach and Roman Polanski. It was Polanski's first English language film, and was filmed in Britain, as such being his second film made outside his native Poland. The cast includes Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux, with a cameo appearance by Roman Polanski himself. It is widely considered a masterpiece of the psychological thriller genre.

[edit] Plot

Carol (Catherine Deneuve), is a young Belgian woman who lives in Kensington, London, with her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux). She suffers from androphobia (the fear of men), and finds repulsive interaction with, or the mention of, males. Throughout the film, innuendos derived from her neurotic, fragile mind hint that the underlying reason for this asocial behavior lies in childhood trauma, although this is never confirmed, and the photograph merely depicts a solemn, disturbed young girl who is uninterested in the taking of a family photograph.

When Helen, with whom Carol shares a strained relationship, leaves on a holiday to Italy with her married boyfriend (Hendry), Carol is left to withdraw deeper into her own paranoia. What was phobic neurosis now unveils as full-fledged psychosis. She withdraws from work, refuses to leave her apartment, and experiences spiraling hallucinations. Food rots around her and her sister's flat falls to shambles. She bludgeons a would-be suitor to death with a candlestick, and later, fends off the sexual advances of her landlord, played by Patrick Wymark, by slashing him to death with a cut-throat razor.

When Helen returns, she discovers the dead men's bodies and finds Carol hidden under her bed. Carol appears catatonic, only a shell of her former self. Polanski turns his audience to the photograph again, zooming in on Carol's face as a child. As the focus gets tighter, one realizes that this is not a typical family photo – Carol is offset from the rest of the family with the look of a trapped animal – and Carol has had these problems for a long time.

[edit] Cast

• Catherine Deneuve as Carole Ledoux
• Ian Hendry as Michael
• John Fraser as Colin
• Yvonne Furneaux as Hélène Ledoux
• Patrick Wymark as Landlord
• Renee Houston as Miss Balch
• Valerie Taylor as Madame Denise
• James Villiers as John
• Helen Fraser as Bridget
• Hugh Futcher as Reggie
• Monica Merlin as Mrs. Rendlesham
• Imogen Graham as Manicurist
• Mike Pratt as Workman

[edit] Imagery

Repulsion is the first of Polanski's "apartment trilogy" (the other two being Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant (Le Locataire)).^[1] As in those two films, the horrors are not external threats, but rather the horrors that lie within the minds of the protagonists. The film is shot in black and white, increasingly adopting the perspective of its protagonist. The dream sequences are particularly intense. ^[2]

[edit] Awards and reception

At the 1965 Berlin International Film Festival, Repulsion won both the FIPRESCI Prize and the Silver Berlin Bear-Extraordinary Jury Prize.^[3] The film paved the way for Polanski's entry into the cinemas of Western Europe and drew attention to Catherine Deneuve with her performance.^[2]

[edit] Similar films

• Rosemary's Baby (1968), by Roman Polanski.
• π (1998), by Darren Aronofsky, includes spoofs.
• May (2002), by Lucky McKee, was heavily influenced by the film, and has a similar motif of the protagonist's apartment mirroring her mental state.
• Scissors (1991), by Frank De Felitta and starring Sharon Stone as a paranoid woman trapped in a mysterious apartment.
• Music videos for The Cardigans' "Hanging Around" and Metric's "Monster Hospital" were directly inspired by the film.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Film portal

• Repulsion at the Internet Movie Database
• Repulsion at Allmovie
• BFI gallery
• Images from the movie
• Repulsion at Rotten Tomatoes