Obscure, disturbing, intense, Repulsion is perhaps Polanski's masterpiece. Carol is a lonely girl who works as a manicurist and interacts awkwardly with men. After her sister's departure on vacation with her boyfriend Michael, she stops working and starts hallucinating. She practically sleepwalks through her days. She resembles Raskolnikov, from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, a little.
From the beginning, the film shows how repelled by men Carol is. She can't stand her toothbrush next to Michael's. Also, there is that scene where she and her colleague are laughing about the Chaplin film and when her colleague mentions her boyfriend Roger, Carol immediately stops laughing and gets serious. Not to mention her attitude towards Colin.
The scene with the tricot and the other where Carol irons clothes show how she fantasizes about being a wife. Carol has bad dreams of men raping her and hallucinates with arms coming out of the walls touching her. These experiences satisfy her repressed sexual desires and, at the same time, they are pictured as tenebrous nightmares, fact which corroborates with her repulsion towards sex.
In the photo scene, she stares at the nowhere and not at the man who presumably is her father. I believe Polanski wanted this issue to remain open. Therefore, Carol being raped by her father in her childhood is a possible explanation to her repulsion towards men/sex.
Catherine Deneuve plays her part with perfection. She's lovely as the awkward, innocent girl in the beginning and astonishing as the hallucinated girl. The soundtrack is terrific. It's replete with sounds of shattering glass, walls cracking and clocks ticking to portray a schizophrenic event. Gilbert Taylor's beautiful black and white photograpy increases the viewer's sensation of loneliness and apathy felt by the protagonist.
Repulsion's influence over Aronofsky's Pi is very clear. The second of Polanski's Apartment trilogy is indeed underrated. 9/10.
From the beginning, the film shows how repelled by men Carol is. She can't stand her toothbrush next to Michael's. Also, there is that scene where she and her colleague are laughing about the Chaplin film and when her colleague mentions her boyfriend Roger, Carol immediately stops laughing and gets serious. Not to mention her attitude towards Colin.
The scene with the tricot and the other where Carol irons clothes show how she fantasizes about being a wife. Carol has bad dreams of men raping her and hallucinates with arms coming out of the walls touching her. These experiences satisfy her repressed sexual desires and, at the same time, they are pictured as tenebrous nightmares, fact which corroborates with her repulsion towards sex.
In the photo scene, she stares at the nowhere and not at the man who presumably is her father. I believe Polanski wanted this issue to remain open. Therefore, Carol being raped by her father in her childhood is a possible explanation to her repulsion towards men/sex.
Catherine Deneuve plays her part with perfection. She's lovely as the awkward, innocent girl in the beginning and astonishing as the hallucinated girl. The soundtrack is terrific. It's replete with sounds of shattering glass, walls cracking and clocks ticking to portray a schizophrenic event. Gilbert Taylor's beautiful black and white photograpy increases the viewer's sensation of loneliness and apathy felt by the protagonist.
Repulsion's influence over Aronofsky's Pi is very clear. The second of Polanski's Apartment trilogy is indeed underrated. 9/10.
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