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Sunday, July 26, 2009

BD impressions: Repulsion

3:02 PM / BD Impressions / 2 Comments

I don't doubt that the precise "meaning" of Roman Polanski's Repulsion has been debated ad nauseam. What is the purpose of the nuns playing ball in the courtyard overlooked by Catherine Deneuve's flat, or the street musicians? Who does the man who Deneuve imagines raping her represent? What is the purpose of the rotting food? I'm sure there are plenty of very interesting answers to these questions (I can come up with a few theories myself), but I suspect the short answer is that there is no answer. As a director, Polanski is very blunt, tending to deliberately eschew metaphor and symbolism in favour of just going with images that serve no purpose other than to convey the sort of mood he's looking for, and in Repulsion, that mood is very much one of creeping unease, with bursts of outright terror. These bursts are never, in my mind, as sustained as I would have liked, and, as the film progresses, Polanski runs the risk of becoming slightly redundant: there are only so many times you can show Catherine Deneuve acting skittish before the audience says "Enough already, let's move on." To some degree, I suspect that this may have stemmed from Polanski's slightly snooty desire to make something that was "not just a cheap horror film": it's essentially a film that toys with a repressed desire to delve into all-out terror, but restrains itself for fear of seeming uncouth.

Still, in spite of its flaws, I can't deny that Repulsion lingered with me. I actually dreamed about it when I went to bed after watching it, which is unusual for me (I don't normally remember my dreams, more's the pity). So yes, it certainly got under my skin. I prefer Rosemary's Baby overall in terms of Polanski's "crazy woman in apartment" tales, but there's much to be said in favour of this one, from Gil Taylor (Star Wars, The Omen)'s striking lighting and use of lens distortion to Deneuve's brilliant performance as the flaky, unhinged Carole.

Image quality: According to the booklet included with the disc,

this new high-definition transfer was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine, in 2K resolution, from the original 35 mm negative, a 35 mm composite fine-grain master positive, and a 35 mm duplicate negative.

It's reasonably easy to tell which shots are derived from a source other than the negative, as the definition is reduced, the grain intensified and print damage more pronounced, along with some noticeable (optically derived) haloing; for instance, see Example 14. Otherwise, this is a remarkably good image, with an impressive amount of detail and a rich, film-like texture. The abundant close-ups of Deneuve's jittery features fare particularly strongly, with sufficient clarity to see the hairs on her nose. There may be a hint of posterisation (or something else to do with the greyscale) going on, as in Example 11 (note the "harshness", for lack of a better word, in the shades of Deneuve's hair and face), but whether this is the result of foulplay or simply how the materials looked is anyone's guess. Either way, it's a very pleasing image overall. 8/10

Repulsion
studio: Criterion; country: USA; region code: A; codec: AVC;
file size: 28.5 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 38.86 Mbit/sec

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