Country: UK
Year: 1965
Duration: 104'
Carol, a young manicurist, is both repelled and obsessed by sex. She is particularly repulsed by the married lover, Michael, of her sister Helen by his razor and toothbrush in the bathroom of the apartment the sisters share and by the sounds of the couple's lovemaking. When Helen and Michael leave on vacation, Carol quits her job at the beauty salon and shuts herself in the apartment. Gradually, her mind become unhinged: after receiving an abusive telephone call from Michael's wife, intended for Helen, Carol tears out the phone; she sees arms coming out of the wall to assault her; an uncooked rabbit takes on grotesque significance. Carol's boyfriend, Colin, concerned about her breaks down the door but she kills him with a candlestick; later she slashes the landlord to death with a razor. When Helen and Michael return from vacation, they find Carol lying in a trance.
"Roman Polanski explains that he and Gérard Brach wrote the screenplay for Repulsion with a view to ensuring financing from Michael Klinger and Tony Tenser's Compton Group. It could not be too sophisticated; it had to be horrific. The product of the Compton Group is best exemplified by a fisting of its other titles: The Pleasure Girls, Primitive London, The Loch Ness Monster, and The Lunapark Horrors. Polanski persuaded Klinger and Tenser to accept his choice of Gil Taylor as cameraman; Polanski had admired Taylor's work on Dr. Strangelove. Compton wanted Francesca Annis for the female lead, but, yet again Polanski persuaded them, to accept the more expensive Catherine Deneuve. The Compton Group probably saw Repulsion as nothing more than another B picture; it had reportedly cost only ninety-five thousand pounds. But the film became a major critical success and won the Silver Bear (Special Jury Prize) at the Berlin film Festival." (Anthony Slide, Fifty Classic British Films, New York, Dover Publications, 1985, p. 121)
Biography
film director
Roman Polanski
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia essenziale/essential filmography
Nózw wodzie (Il coltello nell’acqua, 1962), Repulsion (Repulsione, 1965), Cul-de-sac (id., 1966), The Fearless Vampire Killers (Per favore… non mordermi sul collo, 1967), Rosemary’s Baby (Rosemary’s Baby - Nastro rosso a New York, 1968), Macbeth (id., 1971), Chinatown (id., 1974), Le Locataire (L’inquilino del terzo piano, 1976), Tess (id., 1979), Bitter Moon (Luna di fiele, 1992), Death and the Maiden (La morte e la fanciulla, 1994), The Pianist (Il pianista, 2002), J’accuse (L’ufficiale e la spia, 2019).
Cast
& Credits
Director: Roman Polanski.
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Roman Polanski e Gérard Brach.
Director of photography: Laurie Turner.
Editor: Alastair Mac Intyre.
Art director: Seamus Flammery.
Cast: Catherine Deneuve (Carol), John Fraser (Colin), Patrick Wymark (il proprietario), Yvonne Fourneaux (Helen), Ian Hendry (Michael), Valerie Taylor (Madame Denise), Helen Fraser (Bridget), Monica Merlin (Mrs. Renlesham), Renée Houston (Mrs. Balch), James Villiers (John), Hugh Futcher (Reggie), Mike Pratt, Imogen Graham.
Production company: Gene Gutowski per Compton Film, Michael Klinger e Tony Tenser.
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Roman Polanski e Gérard Brach.
Director of photography: Laurie Turner.
Editor: Alastair Mac Intyre.
Art director: Seamus Flammery.
Cast: Catherine Deneuve (Carol), John Fraser (Colin), Patrick Wymark (il proprietario), Yvonne Fourneaux (Helen), Ian Hendry (Michael), Valerie Taylor (Madame Denise), Helen Fraser (Bridget), Monica Merlin (Mrs. Renlesham), Renée Houston (Mrs. Balch), James Villiers (John), Hugh Futcher (Reggie), Mike Pratt, Imogen Graham.
Production company: Gene Gutowski per Compton Film, Michael Klinger e Tony Tenser.