I have been
in a bit of a wilderness as far as catching up with cinematic history goes. Oh
I know. It’s an impossible endeavour – or very close to being so anyway. But
the simple fact is, I have not watched nowhere near as many of the classics as
I would have liked to have by now. That’s why I have decided to really make it
a priority. There is a certain place in my head that I would really like to
reach, now I don’t know how realistic it is, but we shall see. And I mean, you
lot get quite a lot of film reviews out of it so… Not such a bad thing, is it?
Now having
a rather active imagination that really enjoyed taking slightly bizarre angles
on even everyday life (To give but one example, as a young child I was adamant
that when you got into an elevator, the elevator stood still and the building
moved… As you can imagine my Mother was
subjected to a whole series of very bizarre questions as I grew up) I was
fascinated by horror films and yet tried to avoid them. Knowing that my
watching even one would mean nightmares for weeks and a whole new universe of
bizarre questions, Mom was incredibly strict about my not watching anything
even vaguely horror. Understandably. This is probably why I got a weird
sensation of guilty excitement when I came across Rosemary’s Baby the other
day. I had to watch it. It was like, I don’t know… That “forbidden pleasure”
kind of excitement. I mean obviously Mom doesn’t have a say in what I watch any
more (although she shudders at the very mention of Quentin Tarantino – she gets
faint at the mere idea of blood you see, much less large quantities of it on
her TV screen) but still. You know. It’s that kind of film. It has the
reputation. It led to people firmly believing Polanski was into spells and witchcraft
himself (How else could he have known? Asked people, momentarily forgetting
this little thing called research). Anyway, at 30 years of age I just about
felt ready for the experience. I dived (dove?) right in…
So Rosemary
(Mia Farrow) and Guy, a newlywed couple move into their brand new home. Guy is
an actor looking for his big break, Rosemary is a homemaker and they are madly
in love. And although the new flat seems like a dream home to the young couple,
soon the peculiar occurrences begin. Rosemary initially explains it all away.
Their neighbours are a bit eccentric but they seem ok – if a little nosey. But
surely this is to be expected from an old couple with no children of their own?
Things take on a slightly sinister turn when Rosemary finds herself pregnant.
As her pregnancy advances Rosemary gets more and more sure that her unborn
child’s life is in danger… But with Guy seemingly in cahoots with the
neighbours who can she trust?
If there is
one thing that annoys me above all others when it comes to horror films, it is
over-reliance on monsters and jump-scares. A good jump-scare from time to time
is a fine thing, however, it should NOT form the backbone of a horror film. A
film is not a film if it isn’t playing with your mind. As is the want of Mr
Polanski, in this film he DEFINITELY plays with your mind. In fact mind games –
with you and poor Rosemary – is mainly what the film is all about. Every
filmmaker has a “thing” you may have noticed. In fact I think this is true of
books as well, this thing can be a theme, a place, a character, just something
that every single one of their artworks share. For some it’s more obvious, for
others less so. For Mr Polanski, it’s very clearly flats. In many of his works
the flat itself becomes the enemy, turning on its inhabitant. You would have
thought with various different films along the same theme, “one more” wouldn’t
be anything too special. But this one is. This film is the granddaddy of all
the films that came after it, irrespective of the genre, that built themselves
up on that feeling of eyes constantly on you, a sense of constantly mounting
dread and the complete inability to find a place to turn. It starts small and slowly grows into an
all-engulfing monster which is the heart of this cinematic classic. In fact I
believe this film should be watched if only JUST to see how that sense of being
completely surrounded, constantly watched and engulfed SHOULD be done on film. And
as I write these lines it has only just occurred to me that one of the main reasons
Mr Polanski is so good at it has to be his own experience of the feeling. It is an opportune moment to remember that Mr
Polanski is a Holocaust survivor. Couple this fact with Rosemary in the latter
part of the film with her shortly cropped hair… Oh I’m not saying it’s an
allegory or anything but I think the feeling, the emotion portrayed must surely
have its roots in that particular historical moment. I mean yes, her haircut is
purportedly Vidal Sassoon but is the prison-style close crop not there to give
a message? At the very least it tells us that Rosemary is the prisoner of her
circumstances, the house and everyone that surrounds her.
I defy
anyone to watch this film and then be able to instantly shrug off the sense of
dread it fills you with. These are the kinds of monsters that do not melt away
in the sunlight. I know horror is not everyone’s thing… But if monsters do
float your boat… This is one film NOT to be missed…
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