***1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Catherine Denueve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Patrick Wymark, and Yvonne Furneaux.
Directed by Roman Polanski & written by Polanksi and Gerard Brach.
1965 NR (should be PG13)
It’s fair to call Roman Polanski’s “Replusion” a somewhat-dated classic. Its views on sex may strike modern viewers as outmoded 1960s non-conformity, or maybe an extremist side of the sexual revolution. I don’t know; I wasn’t alive during the 1960s. One could interpret “Repulsion” as being terrified of over-long virginity, and I hope today that we do not share this terror. But as a surreal character study of one woman’s unspoken ideas and fears about sex, “Repulsion” is not at all dated. And Roman Polanski’s direction, while slow in spots, certainly holds its own after thirty-seven years.
The object of this study is a gorgeous young French woman (Catherine Denueve) living in London. She dreads males. This limits her entire world to the apartment she shares with her sister (Yvonne Furneaux), the beauty salon where she works with women for women, and the walk between the two locations, fraught with the leers of passing men. In this tight little universe, she slowly goes mad, listening to the clock count off her lonely, wasted hours, or to the bell of the convent across from her home. In one ear are the muted sounds of the nuns. In the other, the heavy breathing of her sister in the night, with a man (John Fraser) who isn’t particularly thoughtful toward either of them. Denueve throws away the toothbrush he keeps in their bathroom, the same bathroom where she furiously scrubs her legs after a man leers at them.
Like “Taxi Driver,” the heart of “Repulsion” might not be sex so much as loneliness, and Denueve’s character suffers from powerful loneliness. We see her walk from work to home in so much detail because it is a large part of her life. While most people have friends and hobbies and interests, she is too afraid to go exploring, and in the place of human contact she has every inch and detail of the London sidewalks and streets where she is daily subjected to the horror of being looked at and lusted after. She eventually barricades herself inside her apartment, just as she has barricaded herself within herself, and attacks those who try to get in, including her off-and-on boyfriend (Ian Hendry) and her landlord (Patrick Wymark). Deneuve’s performance is flawless and Polanski’s manipulation of her apartment—turning it into a hell of infinite shadows and assaulting walls—is reminiscent of “Citizen Kane” in its use of shadows and wide-angle lens. Here Polanski puts Orson Welles’ techniques to evil uses, creating at atmosphere so unbearable and oppressive that we fear for her even as we are afraid of her.
“Repulsion” can be seen as a vicious companion piece to Denueve’s own performance in “Belle du Jour” from 1969, also about a sexually frustrated beauty, but of a different sort. In both films we see the behavior, usually silent, of a troubled woman, and we only catch glimpses of her past, of what drew her to who she is today. In “Belle du Jour” there is the telling scene of Denueve as a child, being offered candy by a dirty-looking man. In “Repulsion” there is a photograph of her entire family when she was an adolescent. She is looking away, as if disgusted by the entire idea of being photographed. She is lonely, but she wants to be left alone, just as she is terrified of her walks around London, but even during her descent into madness she takes a stroll now and again.
Some viewers may be put off but Denueve’s completely shut-in character. She has no speeches, little dialogue, and no explanation is offered for her condition. There are only hints, glimpses of her sewing as if pregnant, dreams of rape that may be recollection or fear or fantasy. “Repulsion” gives us no explanation because the character herself is not articulate enough to go looking for or explaining what ails her. She just wants whatever it is to leave her alone.
Finished February 4, 2002.
Copyright 2002 Friday & Saturday Night