DVD Review: Repulsion- Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]: Catherine Deneuve, Roman Polanski: Movies & TV

Jul29

DVD Review: Repulsion- Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]: Catherine Deneuve, Roman Polanski: Movies & TV

Posted by admin | on 29 July, 02:31 PM

Amazon.com essential video
Roman Polanski was still a newcomer to the world of cinema when he unleashed this unforgettable exercise in skin-crawling terror. Repulsion was the Polish director’s first film in English, but that hardly mattered: much of the movie is as wordless (and as weird) as the silent Nosferatu. The young Catherine Deneuve plays a Belgian girl stranded in ’60s London, a shy beauty with no social skills. When her sister leaves their shared flat, Deneuve goes gradually, quietly, completely mad. Her world becomes Polanski’s paintbox, as the devilish director distorts reality via a series of surrealistic touches (grasping hands that protrude from elastic walls) and out-and-out murderous horror. Very few films cast the kind of eerie spell that this 1965 classic achieves, and it clearly points the way toward Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. As with most of the director’s work, what is unsettling is not the overt violence, but the terrifying sense of emptiness and isolation, and the boiling unease inside one’s own mind. –Robert Horton

Product Description
Roman Polanski followed up his international breakthrough, Knife in the Water, with this controversial, chilling tale of psychosis, starring Catherine Deneuve as Carole, a fragile, frigid young beauty cracking up over the course of a terrifying weekend. Left alone by her vacationing sister in their London flat, Carole is haunted by specters real and imagined, and her insanity grows to a violent pitch. Thanks to its unforgettable attention to disturbing detail and Polanski’s unparalleled adeptness at turning claustrophobic space into an emotional minefield, Repulsion remains one of cinema’s most shocking psychological thrillers.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

• Audio commentary featuring director Roman Polanski and actress Catherine Deneuve

• A British Horror Film (2003), a documentary on the making of Repulsion, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor

• A 1964 television documentary filmed on the set of Repulsion, featuring rare footage of Polanski and Deneuve at work

• Theatrical trailer

• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar and curator Bill Horrigan

Stills from Repulsion (Click for larger image)

DVD Review: Repulsion Criterion Collection [Blu ray]: Catherine Deneuve, Roman Polanski: Movies & TV 200972922463165677801

DVD Review: Repulsion Criterion Collection [Blu ray]: Catherine Deneuve, Roman Polanski: Movies & TV 200972922463170377802

Movie is great - This DVD release is HORRIBLE,

By M. Williamson (Burbank, CA United States) -

This review is from: Repulsion (DVD)

Don’t buy this. Seriously. Someone is bound to release a better version. This is PAN AND SCAN, cropped at 1:33, and seems to be transferred from some sort of used tape…Like a 3/4 inch VHS. There are visible tape flutters and wrinkles throughout the film. And no it’s NOT the print. The film is fine. It’s the transfer. cheap, cheap, cheap.

The compression is abysmal (notice the obvious scan lines on the titles) and the sound is piss poor. How is it possible this is the only way this film is available in the US? Disgraceful.

WARNING: POSITIVELY DISGRACEFUL EDITION OF A 5-STAR FILM!!!,

By Steev Proteus “Mr. Steev” (nowhere in particular) -

This review is from: Repulsion (DVD)

I just wanted to write this review and warn people to save their money. My friend bought this DVD (thank god it wasn’t me!) and we were both disappointed to see that it was a horrible print, badly transferred. This DVD is disgraceful, but the movie itself gets 5 stars, of course. Just thought I’d let you know: AVOID THIS INCREDIBLY LOUSY DVD OF POLANSKI’S CLASSIC FILM AT ALL COSTS!!! If you decide to go against my advice and buy it, well… I tried to warn you! I don’t usually write reviews of DVDs, preferring instead to focus on the film in question, but this was one instance where I felt it would be unfair not to say “Caveat emptor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” If you have a region-free DVD player, get the Anchor Bay UK version (available through amazon.co.uk) for a much nicer edition.

Superb–and Terrifying–Psychological Examination,

By ”professionalhomo” (San Diego, CA) -

This review is from: Repulsion [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Roman Polanski’s first English language film, made three years following the international acclaim for "Knife in the Water" and three years before his American masterpiece "Rosemary’s Baby," is a marvelous dissection of paranoia and sexual psychosis amidst contemporary culture, with a phenomenally subtle, moving performance by Catherine Deneuve and camerawork so coldly precise that the horror seems to bloom naturally from the mundane landscape of the film. Deneuve plays Carole Ledoux, a Belgian beautician who lives in London with her frivolous sister. When the sister and her married boyfriend leave to vacation together in Italy, Carole begins to isolate herself in her apartment in a sexual and violent frenzy. The movie becomes more and more subjective as Polanski plunges into Carole’s mind and her psychoses, but what’s stunning about Polanski’s dissection of Carole’s consciousness is the way that the director moves so brusquely from an objective perspective into his protagonist’s fears without bluntly heralding the transition. We’ve already become part of Carole’s awareness before we realize it. In this sense, "Repulsion" mirrors both Luis Bunuel’s "Belle de Jour" and "Un Chien Andalou" in its precise, logical progression that expresses what is in fact illogical. The movie never feels like it’s caught up in dream logic whatsoever–it’s all starkly real and flat, until the scene reveals itself to be a subjective or illusory perception. This idea that Polanski can thrust us into the mind of his protagonist before we’re ever really aware of the fact that we’re in a subjective reality becomes more and more frightening as the film progresses, making us complicit in the camera’s perspective. Terrifying, too, is Deneuve’s ability to make us both afraid of Carole and for her; because Polanski and Deneuve craft Carole as an aggressor who perceives herself as a victim, "Repulsion" forces us (indeed, right into its final frame) to reevaluate our relation to Carole and renders our position as spectators horrifyingly uneasy. Polanski didn’t match this kind of expert craftsmanship until 1974 in "Chinatown"–itself one of the two or three greatest films ever made.
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