Roman Polanski's repulsion (1964) is a film deemed
to be a psychological horror film in which involves the main character carol
who is clearly mentally ill and the deterioration of her sanity and mind is
becoming ever greater as the progresses. Her mental state truly comes spiraling
down when carol's sister Helen (See Fig 2.) leaves to visit Pisa with her
"boyfriend" who is also married to another woman.
Fig 2. Helen Reassuring Carol |
Carol fear and eventual mental deterioration comes
from the fear of men and their lust that they have for her as Peter Bradshaw
explains "her fear of sex develops into
a neurotic fascination and horror of dust and dirt of all kinds, a condition
that escalates into agoraphobia and paranoid episodes" ( Peter Bradshaw
2013 ). There is many issues that can justify these feelings, for
instance each and every man that Carol comes to meet seem to be 'forceful' upon
her. The first example would be Colin, who is Carol's admirer and later on
breaks her door down to see her, Carol in return kills him with a candle
holder. The second example would be the landlord who becomes confrontational
about the late rent payments and goes onto attempt to sexually assault Carol
until Carol cuts him up with a cutthroat razor. Carol cannot even escape the
tight grip of her fears, even in her dreams. As in her dreams she regularly is
sexually assaulted by a blacked out figure, this happens about three times
throughout the movie. It's really saddening to know that there's a point her
mental state is that far gone that there is a scene where she even applies red
lipstick to herself before she sleeps, it's almost as if she is preparing
herself for the repeating nightmare that she knows she will have.
Fig 3. Carol's Flat walls beginning to crack and rupture |
Through brilliant set design Roman Polanski manages
to use the flat as a symbol for Carol ever fading mental state. This begins
when Helen leaves home, which backs up the fact that she clearly relies on
Helen and cannot cope without her. That's why when she is left for what is in
Carol's mind as a long time things that her flat crumbles and breaks much like
her mind. "Small cracks in
the walls of the apartment flow into crunching indicators of the heroine's
crumbling mind" (Bosley Crowther 1965) (See Fig 3), the walls become much like putty, male hand
protruding out of the putty like wall trying to grab Carol. At the same time
other things are deteriorating/going to suggest the deterioration of Carol's
mind, As Elaine Macintyre iterates "A skinned rabbit from the fridge is left out in the
living room to rot and gather flies whilst potatoes sprout eyes in the
kitchen* and the bath overflows and floods the floor." (Elaine Macintyre 2014)
*(See Fig 4)
It's quite clear that Carol's mind state has not
been like this for a small amount of time. This can be suggested from the
family photograph which is showed, in this photo it can be seen that Carol is
clearly hollow and is only looking directly at a male figure that could be her
father or another male family member. This could mean that her fears come from
being sexually abused as a child by a male family. Another signifier of this is
that in the film it is admitted that Helen and Carol used to live in Belgium,
therefore either her parents/family have passed away or they were forced to
move away for their own safety.
Overall it's clear that Roman Polanski's depiction
of a frayed and unstable mind of a woman who has intimacy fears is truly
brilliant and the use of imagery and subtle symbolism mixes together to make a
great feature.
Bibliography
Bradshaw, P. (2013) Repulsion review. At:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jan/03/repulsion-review. Accessed
(27/11/2015)
Crowther, B. (1965) Repulsion.
At://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF1739E471BC4C53DFB667838E679EDE Accessed (27/11/2015)
Macintyre, E. (2014) Repulsion. At:
http://www.elainemacintyre.net/film_reviews/repulsion.php. Accessed
(27/11/2015)
Image Sources
Figure 1: Repulsion Film Poster (1964) [Poster]
At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repulsion Accessed
(27/11/2015)
Figure 2: Helen Reassuring Carol (1964) [Film
Screenshot] At; http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2013/01/roman-polanski-bfi-retrospective.html
Accessed (27/11/2015)
Figure 3. Walls cracking in Carol's flat (1964) [Film Screenshot] At:
http://psychocinderella.com/2014/08/06/repulsion-review/ Accessed (27/11/2015)
Figure 4. Rotting dead rabbit abandoned by Carol (1964) [Film Screenshot]
At: http://horrordigest.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/repulsion-quiet-perfection.html
Accessed (27/11/2015)
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