The Virgin Homicides: Repulsion (1965) & 3 Women (1977)

Don't worry, I'm not going to give you a Freudian analysis of "Repulsion," though if ever there was a film that deserved one, THIS would be IT. I'm surprised that the Criterion Collection hasn't definitively transferred this cinematic masterpiece onto DVD already. Although...I saw it on VHS for the first time tonight and it made me swear off men.

Joking.

(Edit: "Repulsion" has been added to the Criterion Collection's slate of upcoming releases. The DVD will be available on July 28. See HERE.)

I have witnessed something truly unforgettable. "Repulsion" is why people still care about Roman Polanski (not to mention "Chinatown" "Rosemary's Baby," "Knife in the Water," and "The Pianist"). The performance Catherine Deneuve gives is proof positive (if proof is needed) that she belongs right up there with Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Simone Signoret, Sofia Loren, Jeanne Moreau, Giulietta Masina, Deborah Kerr, Liv Ullman--among the goddesses of world cinema. This is moviemaking at its best.

"Repulsion"'s creepiness can be explained not only by Deneuve's incredible restraint as an actor, but also by Polanski's constant insertion of counterpoints. He conditions the audience to perceive the film one way and then pulls the rug from underneath (ex. silence when one would expect sound, a sudden high angle instead of the low angles he has been using throughout a scene). The precision of rhythm, camera placement, and sound produce a precision of emotional sensitivity in the viewer so that even something as innocuous as a telephone acquires a sinister aspect and nuns become terrifying apparitions (even though nuns are kind of terrifying enough without any artistic embellishment). Polanski builds dramatic tension less from a gratuitous display of disturbing images like many horror filmmakers do than from creating a mise en scene of disturbed expectations.

Carol Ledoux brought to mind Sissy Spacek's character in Robert Altman's "Three Women." I wonder if Altman saw "Repulsion." Would these films have been very different if they were written and directed by women?