Repulsion

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Repulsion
Image:Repulsion.jpg original film poster
Directed by	Roman Polański
Written by	Roman Polański & Gerard Brach (original screenplay), David Stone (adaptation)
Starring	Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser
Music by	Chico Hamilton
Cinematography	Gilbert Taylor
Editing by	Alastair McIntyre
Distributed by	Compton Films (U.K.)
Release date(s)	January 1965 (UK)
Running time	104 min
Country	U.K.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Repulsion is a film made in 1965 directed by Roman Polański. It is Polański's first English language film, and was filmed in Britain.

The cast includes Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux, and a cameo appearance by Roman Polański himself.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Analysis 3 Similar films 4 Awards 5 External links

Plot summary

The virgin Belgian Carol (a 20-year-old Deneuve), repelled by and at the same time attracted to the idea of sex due to her repressed feelings, is a timid and fragile young woman living in London with her sister Helen (Furneaux). When Helen leaves on a holiday to Italy with her married boyfriend (Hendry), Carol is left alone. Isolated at work too, she shuts herself up in their apartment, and becomes a slave of her own paranoid fears, unable to tell fantasy from reality, and starts hallucinating. She first violently kills a would-be suitor, Colin (Fraser), using a candlestick, and later the landlord (Patrick Wymark) who attempts to rape her. When her sister returns home, she finds Carol under her bed, catatonic, just a shell of her former self.

Analysis

The weird shadows and dark corners of Carol's house are reflected at the viewer from unusual angles. The current state of the house is strange and nightmarish to both Carol and the audience. Hands protrude from walls and everyday objects transform into objects of horror.

One of the most well-known images is that of the rabbit, which was prepared for dinner but never cooked. The rabbit sits in the corner of the room throughout the film with a razor blade also on the plate. As the film progresses the rabbit begins to rot while first maggots and then flies feed on the carcass. The deteriorating state of the rabbit parallels that of our protagonist.

Repulsion is the first of Polański's "apartment trilogy" (the other two being Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant). The stylish Repulsion is widely considered a psychological thriller masterpiece, thanks in part to the stirring performance of Catherine Deneuve. As in The Tenant and Rosemary's Baby, the film's horrors are not external threats, but rather the horrors that lie within the minds of the protagonists.

Similar films

• Rosemary's Baby (1968), by Roman Polański.
• π (1998), by Darren Aronofsky, includes spoofs.

Awards

• 1965: Berlin International Film Festival, FIPRESCI Prize, Silver Berlin Bear.

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