60/60 Review #34: Repulsion.

This really was the perfect film to wrap up this month. First, let's just look at the director. Roman Polanski has led a pretty WTF life. His wife was murdered by Charles Manson's followers while she was pregnant. Later, Polanski was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl, causing him to flee the country to avoid prison. He hasn't been back since (despite his victim attempting to get the charges dropped more recently), but he continues to make films even today.

Then look at the film itself. Made in 1965, Repulsion tells to tale of Carole (Catherine Deneuve), a young woman who is apparently sexually repressed. Her sister leaves her alone in their apartment while she goes on vacation with her boyfriend, and Carole begins to go insane, zoning out the majority of the time, and then having fantasies about being raped at night. There's not much more I'd like to go into in order to avoid spoiling anything.

But man, talk about conflicted thoughts on a film. I've seen both of these comparisons, so I know it's not just me (and that made me happy), but this movie was like a mix of Black Swan and Eraserhead. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this film had any kind of inspiration for either of those movies--though I have heard that Aronofsky loves this film and talks about it as an inspiration frequently, so it makes sense.

So in the one sense, I liked the film because I loved Black Swan. It's very much a psychological thriller with Carole going insane (though I figure she was already insane, primarily based on the picture from when she was a little girl). She zones out, she hallucinates, she becomes violent, she fantasizes about things based on sexual repression... and has difficulty discerning the fantasy from the reality. Hell, there's even a "fingernail" scene in this movie. And, similarly, there were some scary moments and some disturbing, tough-to-watch moments. Also, this film has a really effective "mirror" jump scare, the kind that's overused today; I just wasn't expecting it in this older film.

But, on the other hand, this movie was also very Lynchian (despite pre-dating Lynch). There was a lot of "weird" in this movie. Some of it was just her losing her mind, like cracks in the walls and/or the apartment falling apart. But then there was stuff like the dead rabbit (and I had to look up what it was, because I could never tell--though I could have missed a line that explained it). That thing was disgusting, and it just led to more and more gross-ness. Then there was the walls turning to clay at various points and the hands coming out of nowhere. Then there were random people on the street (one group in particular kept coming back, a music trio that just made their way down the road for no apparent reason). And, of course, just her staring at nothing for ages. This is a very quiet movie, and Carole barely speaks. A lot of the time, she's just blanking out and staring at stuff for no real reason, or she'll start twitching and rubbing/flicking at her nose. It wasn't as WTF as Eraserhead, but there certainly were elements both thematically and visually that reminded me of it.

The only other major thing I wanted to mention in this review was the sound. Like I said, it's a very quiet movie, and I honestly can't remember much of a soundtrack. What I do remember were the silent moments where you would just hear some background noise amplified. These specifically happened during moments of rape or violence, where everything is muted except for something like a ticking clock. And, for the most part, it's pretty effective.

I know there are more layers of this film that I'm missing. I'm just not sure it's a film I'd care to revisit much. The first 45 minutes (or so) are painfully dull. After that is when her sister leaves, so it starts getting a wee bit more interesting. And there are truly some very good and effective scenes. I was creeped out/disturbed at times, and I even jumped once (darn those mirror scares!), despite it not really being a "scary" movie in that sense. It has an interesting visual eye to it, and I can definitely see how somebody could really like this movie. But I think if I wanted to revisit something very similar and--to me--a bit more entertaining, I'll just rewatch Black Swan.


I Am McLovin!

(P.S. Finally! I'm done with WTF Month! While not filled with the greatest movies ever, this month will definitely be one of the ones I'll remember the most (though not necessarily because I want to). Next I'm moving into the month I've been waiting for! It's the only month in this whole project dedicated to a single director. I haven't seen a single one of his films (just a classic scene here or there), which I'm going to be rectifying, obviously. Can't wait! That's right, we're moving into Hitchcock Month.)

60/60 Review #24: The Pianist.

I stated yesterday in my review of The Counterfeiters that I was getting bored with the whole genre. Perhaps it's the fact that all these Nazi films feel the same. And it wasn't helping me any that, of all the films this month, The Pianist was the one that got the least amount of favorable talk and gave me the smallest expectations going in. All of this taken into account, it was to my incredible surprise and amazement how much I enjoyed this movie.

This film tells the true story of a Jewish, Polish pianist named Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) throughout World War II. He and his family lived in Warsaw when the Nazis invade, and they end up in a self-made ghetto. From then on, things continue to go downhill, and Szpilman does what he can just to survive.

There's not much of a story behind the 2-and-a-half hours of film, and that's really my one major negative behind the movie. Around the middle it starts to drag ever so slightly, but that doesn't last too long. There's also a strange flow of time, sometimes having the movie make a huge jump in time where the visuals make it seem like it's the same day or maybe only a day later. But overall, the movie kept me engaged, mostly thanks to the strong characters--particularly Szpilman. And I think that's one of the strongest aspects of the movie. I think one issue I had with the previous few films in this month was that, while a lot of the time was spent in those films building up the characters and getting you to feel for them, none of them made me feel as strong about them as I did with Adrien Brody. By the end of the film, I was in pretty heavy suspense, hoping nothing would happen to the guy (no, I didn't know the true story behind the movie).

The acting, particularly Brody, was outstanding. He definitely deserved his Oscar. Also deserving of the Oscar was director Roman Polanski. His visual eye in this film was fantastic. There are plenty of scenes that, despite the destruction, are gorgeous to look at. And there are other moments that are heartbreaking. Characters just walking down the street and stepping over dead bodies of men and children as if they're everyday occurrences. And I felt this movie was even more disturbing and brutal than the others, even though there's probably just as much death shown (maybe even less). Something about it just felt more... real.

For most of the film, I was going to go with a slightly lower rating. But it was within that last 20-30 minutes that really shot it up for me. I've always felt an ending (or third act) can make or break a movie, and this one just had a great third act. With Brody on the run and in hiding in the destroyed town, every day is a new struggle. (SPOILERS) I think it's when he's found by the Nazi near the end of the film, and the Nazi forces him to play the piano for him before deciding to not only let him live but help him survive... that resonated with me. The piano playing scene was beautiful, thrilling, suspenseful, and touching all at the same time. I think I was holding my breath, expecting the Nazi to pull out his gun and shoot Brody at the end of the song, meanwhile captivated by the beautiful music. It was just a flurried mix of emotions that grabbed me. (END SPOILERS)

Overall, I think one good reason the film resonated with me so quickly was its placement in the 60/60 List. Let me explain... over the last few movies, I've been given concentration camps and, outside that, I'd seen little things here and there that were basically glossed over, or at least hardly explained. I saw the armbands to signify who were Jews; I saw (in Schindler's List, specifically) Jews being forced into walled-in ghettos within the city; I saw people hiding their money and jewels as Nazis invaded their homes; I saw threats of uprising that never really went anywhere. But none of that was ever really explored. But in this film, they explored the armbands and reactions to said armbands; they explored the building of the walls around the ghetto and the extreme nature of living within those walls; they had a deep discussions on hiding their valuables; and there were actually uprisings. And not a single concentration camp. In other words, along with everything else I've said in this review, this was a movie that gave me everything the other movies didn't--and I think that's why I loved it.


Royale With Cheese