Review of Repulsion (1965) by Nick O — 11 May 2011

It's a toughie to make a movie about a fear of madness without becoming redundant. In these cash-starved times, there's always something new to be afraid of, and eventually we all get lost in one massive wave of paranoia. Enter "Repulsion" and its co-writer-director Roman Polanski, who'd probably object to my claims. Though "Repulsion" in turn solidifies them in ways "Rosemary's Baby" couldn't. That flick totes a chick who's part of her own loud, personal resistance. The bombshell of "Repulsion", salon worker Carol Ledoux, keeps her trap shut as much as she can, though Polanski does a stellar if pronounced accomplishment in personifying her chasteness by giving her legitimate fears of dirty human things.

The pressure is heaped almost entirely on the film's frame-for-frame wonder Catherine Deneuve, considering the story execution tends to repeatedly loop her Carol back alternating fetal positions in her mannequin London apartment. Carol's sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) is going to Italy on vacay with boyfriend Michael (Ian Hendry), and she's freaking out in her own subtle ways. It makes for some nifty feminist drama regarding whether helplessness comes strictly in isolated incidences, whatever sex. Plus there's the relationship between Carol and peeping looker Colin (John Fraser), who reads her silence as some kind of needy, pillow-talk thing.

Polanski is truly among the brightest in the biz, and even the times "Repulsion" hangs too long on the words Carol doesn't say the movie essentially gets away with murder by feeling more invested and interesting than it has any right to be. You can see it under Deneuve's sultry lashes, the nightmares of sex and crime. Maybe if they're framed as fantasies she can better control them. It pops off the screen.