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| Repulsion | 
 enlarge | Director: Roman Polanski
Actors: Catherine Deneuve, Helen Fraser, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux, Hugh Futcher
Studio: ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMS INC.
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $6.95
You Save: $8.03 (54%)
New (30) Used (14) Collectible (1) from $6.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  104 reviews
Sales Rank: 15092
Format: Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 105
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 2119
UPC: 016226211922
EAN: 0016226211922
ASIN: B0007GAG42
Theatrical Release Date: October 3, 1965
Release Date: February 8, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED
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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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 99 more reviews...
 Movie is great - This DVD release is HORRIBLE March 13, 2006
49 out of 49 found this review helpful
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.
 Gives cinematic expression to madness December 15, 2003
36 out of 44 found this review helpful
The film begins with the shot of an eye (of the actor Catherine Deneuve) beginning with the pupil and slowly moving out, and the film ends with a shot of the same eye, albeit taken from a family snapshot of the protagonist as a young girl, which snapshot has been on display on the sideboard in the flat where the psychological breakdown of, and murders committed by, the character occur. There is a famous eye shot in an early silent film involving Salvador Dali where an eye (of a sheep) is cut by a razor. REPULSION too features eyes and razors in abundance. And it is the accumulation of many such details which reveal Mr Polanski's deep knowledge of cinematic art. For example, the three street musicians, and their music, could have walked straight from a Fellini set. The use of wide-angled lenses and the consequent distortions disturbing to the viewer and the brilliant use of chiascuro, shadows, light used as sculpture, and the long corridors of light and dark suggest German expressionist cinema in the tradition of "Dr Caligari". As well the masterful use of SOUND including that by jazz musician Chico Hamilton is quite powerful. For example, the attack by the protagonist, dressed in her nightgown, slashing at the man with another man's cut-throat razor is given incredible power by the drumming of Mr Hamilton and is an interesting comparison with the screeching violins of Bernard Hermann in the shower scene in Psycho. Or the weird arco bass and shimmering cymbals when the ceiling cracks before her very eyes. Otherwise, ordinary sounds, such as the nearby bells in a convent, dripping tap water, a clock, flies, become a tintinnabulation of horror. Not a film to see alone. Do not watch if having suffered any mental illness however minor. I would call this one of the more telling examples of "total" cinema, by which I mean every element of the film goes towards creating a powerful feeling in the viewer - a premier example of experiencing what the central character herself is experiencing. One of the greatest.
Superb--and Terrifying--Psychological Examination March 5, 1999
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
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.
Disturbingly realistic foray into a darkly demented soul May 24, 2004
23 out of 27 found this review helpful
1963 French made Black and white Roman Polanski film with a very young Catherine Deneuve; this was Polanski's first English speaking film, and an exceptional thriller for its time. Transfer from older B&W film to DVD is probably about as good as it could get, the sound and film being poor in the original film, there wasn't much to work with and I believe it was cleaned up as best it could be. No extras and no subtitles available, only the movie and a scene selection.Carol (Deneuve) is a young beautician who lives with her sister in a tiny apartment. Amazingly beautiful, Carol is nonetheless an aloof, spacey, loner who a...well...repulsion, of men. Her sister Helen brings home her boyfriend Michael (Ian Hendry) who Carol dislikes, and has a lusty romp, which deeply disturbs Carol in the next room. We are next introduced to Colin, a young man who is infatuated with Carol, and deeply desires to date her, trying to arrange a dinner with her. She doesn't just spurn his attentions but ignores him almost completely, and I was given the impression that in her mind she felt that maybe he would just go away. He does not go away, however, and takes her silence as an affirmative that she would have dinner with him. In the midst of all this, we are treated to scenes with Carol alone, walking down the street ignoring the cat calls of men, sitting silent and unresponsive at her job, and always showing the twitchy signs of mental disturbance. Rubbing at her face, looking dazed and confused, brushing imaginary dirt from chairs, and obsessive toiletry rearrangement in her bathroom. These first signs are subtle, and throughout the movie develop in intensity and strangeness.
Colin corners Carol by confronting her with their missed date, and manages to get her into his car where he kisses her. She sits like a stump during his kiss, then bolts from the car, running home scrubbing at her mouth and obsessively brushes her teeth before throwing away Michael's things in the bathroom. Then Helen leaves on holiday, leaving Carol alone in the apartment, who is ill-equipped to be alone. After being sent home from work for cutting a customer's hand during a manicure, we begin our journey with Carol on her downward spiral into madness. Polanski did a beautiful job on depicting Carol's increasing madness, and though this was very early in her career, Deneuve's own naturally aloof demeanor heightened her performance into true believability. Because she is an achingly beautiful and alluring woman at any age, I think using her in this film only heightened the terror of what Carol was becoming. We follow Carol as she prowls through the apartment, leaving food out to rot, overflowing the tub, seeing people that aren't there, listening to the walls cracking, imagining herself being raped, listening to the loud insistent ticking of the clock; and in one beautifully filmed scene, crawling down a hallway made of putty-like hands all reaching out to grab her. She takes walks in her housecoat, and irons her sister's dress without the iron plugged in, getting twitchier by the second. This is a dark and disturbing film, inventing the word "creepy" and showcasing insanity. Psycho has nothing on Repulsion as far as intensity and terror. Of honorable mention is an extra actor at the end of the movie. When Sis comes home and discovers Carol's activities, it seems all of the buildings residents come into their tiny apartment, and there is this one guy with a moustache *so funny* that despite the uneasy horror of the movie I had to laugh my butt off. The ending left me a little flat, not tying up the loose threads, but this is still a must see for any fan of suspense horror. Enjoy!
WARNING: POSITIVELY DISGRACEFUL EDITION OF A 5-STAR FILM!!! February 16, 2006
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
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.
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