The first of Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy,” “Repulsion” lacks the character intrigue of “Rosemary’s Baby” and the impish humor of “The Tenant,” both of which are “A” pictures. What it does have is some of the finest imagery you’ll find in any of Polanski’s films. And the very beautiful Catherine Deneuve. Now — I hate to speak ill of ol’ Katie, but I must say I found her performance a little lacking. It kinda feels like how an actress who really wants to show people in the third balcony that she’s bananas would play bananas. Because of this, I found myself wishing I knew more about the backstory — about why this woman is bananas. Ann disagrees. She says, “she’s a kook, why does it matter what made her kooky? You can see in the family photo that she was always a kook and she needed some help.” Maybe she’s right. Anyway, a fine, creepy, edgy film about a hymen. (Oh, yes, it is all about the hymen. The lipstick stain on the sheet toward the end? I have to spell it out? The plate of rabbit? What causes a rabbit to die, eh? Eh? And the only happy thing in the film? The sound of singing nuns. Nuns? Eh? Hymen? Eh?)
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Welcome
Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
He is the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and challenges you to a game of backgammon.
1. The hymen idea is a good one. The only problem: most girls who are even semi-athletic destroy said membrane by the time they are thirteen. The hymen is therefore a false symbol. But I’ll still give you the metaphor.
2. My friend Marc says that the photo illustrates her staring with hateful eyes at her father, implying that Daddy did something to make her repelled by men. (Side note: I believe that you are “repelled” by things you can’t stand, but “repulsed” by things that reject you. This is a usage issue, but Polanski might have tried to get the right word for his one-word title. At any rate, I thought the photo was an illustration that she was nuts from childhood, or, alternatively, that the blank stare pre-dated her mental illness, which would at least get Deneuve off the hook for that bland indication of a performance. (I agree with you completely about the blank stare. It never changed from shot one to shot fifty thousand. Is this a performance problem, a language barrier problem (perhaps a stare in France has more nuances and variations than does one in English-speaking countries?) or a direction problem?
3. Yes she is gorgeous, but I noted with interest, that like many European beauties, she got more beautiful as she grew older. When I think of Catherine Deneuve I think of all those Ponds cold cream ads and her luscious, mature stare and cat-like eyes and fashionable hairdo. In this film, she is just another beautiful girl with long blond hair. ( I realize there are never enough of those for male movie-goers, but still!)
4. I thought of the nuns as representing the isolation of mental illness. She stares out the window and wishes she could break through her shell of illness and sing too. She is lonely. Mentally ill people are often acutely aware of the wall between them and those regular frolicking, love-making, smiling, eating heartily people they see all around them. To me, when she doesn’t care about what food she is eating at the restaurant, and doesn’t respond to her suitor’s suggestion that they get a good expensive meal, that was an illustration of depression’s ability to destroy the function of the taste buds, to shut down the desire to eat due to lack of ability to experience taste.
5. What imagery in the film did you find “fine?” I am genuinely curious, as I am not a film expert and don’t want to miss out.