Catherine Deneuve plays a deer in the headlights, slowly losing her mind whilst cooped up in her London apartment. Repulsion is the name of the film and the name of the game. Any notion of sex, intimacy, or men in general adds to the young ladyβs ever-growing detachment from life.
Video Essay version with footage from the film can be seen here: https://youtu.be/IHH4ind-pIU
She shares the apartment with her sister, who regularly invites her married boyfriend round for a quick trip up the haberdashery, so to speak. The moaning is a bit much for our peculiar protagonist. Incidentally, the moaning was just enough for the British censorship boards, who allowed it to be the first female orgasm to grace their stiff upper lips. The man sometimes leaves his toothbrush in Catherineβs cup. Even this is another to threaten a fresh mental breakdown, the cracks literally beginning to show themselves as her sanity crumbles. She doesnβt like to be left alone, which is fair enough given the tricks her mind plays on her, so it is bad news when her sister announces sheβs going away for a bit. Naturally, things get a tad out of hand.
The hallucinatory scenes are handled admirably. Many scenes truly evoke that feeling of experiencing a nightmare, an effect which is easier said than done. Time loses all meaning, inexplicable events come and go, walls turn to putty, groping hands can invade your privacy at any second. The repetitive sound design (ticking clocks, ringing phones, soft thumping) never let the character or audience enjoy a moment of respite. The jazzy soundtrack first portrays a view of a hip 60s London where anything goes. It later transforms into a wild freeform source of menace during tenser moments. But then the flipside is also the case. During the filmβs nightmare rape scenes, the soundtrack is horrendously silent, making the brutal imagery even more uncomfortable.
A fair chunk of the film takes place in the aforementioned apartment. The location never becomes overused or stale however, as the director and his team always found a way to view the rooms with fresh new eyes. Often it is captured in one of their two ways; constantly in motion as the camera pans and sweeps around, focusing on the latest invasion to Catherineβs personal space, or incredibly still, holding for distressing periods of time. The two polar opposite types of camerawork clash, but in an appropriately disorientating way, mirroring the girlβs incr
... keep reading on reddit β‘I know they filmed the rest of the performance, but for some reason they left out. this one. You know itβs the last electric song they play just before leaving the stage for the first time, because you hear him say βLetβs go, man. Thatβs all.β It kinda sucks, because this is my favorite song they did there. Definitely the best recording of the song. Does anyone know anything about why they did this or can I find it somewhere?
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If you like old hygiene films and other scaremongering material from the 50s/60s, you'll enjoy this one:
>Perversion for Profit is a 1965 propaganda film financed by Charles Keating and narrated by news reporter George Putnam. A vehement diatribe against pornography, the film argues that sexually explicit materials corrupt young viewers and readers, leading to acts of violence and "perverted" attitudes regarding sex - including inclination toward homosexuality. Pornography is also painted as part of the Communist conspiracy and the motor behind the decline of Western civilization.
Perversion for Profit was funded by Charles Keating, a financier who campaigned against the spread of pornography in the 60s and 70s. He was even appointed by Nixon to the President's Committee on Obscenity and Pornography in 1969 (lol). In the 1990s he was convicted of wire fraud and bankruptcy fraud and went to prison for it.
The film itself is trash, but it's an interesting look at a moral panic of the 20th century.
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/perversion-for-profit-1965
->> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KYGpImn3Fw <<-
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This is a pretty good adaptation of a spectacular book by John le CarrΓ©. Seriously, if you haven't read the book you don't know what you're missing. It's a tightly crafted, suspenseful tale with one of the most satisfying endings of all time. Unlike James Bond, this story portrays spies realistically. There's no jumping off bridges, shootouts, or crazy technology. The whole story is men sitting around drinking tea and talking. And holy cow does it keep you on the edge of your seat.
At the start of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, MI6 agent Leamas (played by Richard Burton) is foiled once again by East German nemesis Mundt. "Control", the head of MI6, devises with Leamas an intricate scheme to take Mundt down. Leamas pretends to defect to the enemy to feed them false information so they will think Mundt is a traitor. He is taken from place to place for interrogations by higher and higher ranking agents until he is brought to East Germany. Part of the beauty of this story is the details of how Leamas makes himself credible and how his information is corroborated.
I won't say any more about the plot because it's really something you should experience on your own. The movie changes some of the details of the book, but overall it's a faithful adaptation.
Richard Burton is good in the film, but the actor who really stands out is Oskar Werner. Wow, his performance as Fiedler blew me away. I had never heard of him before, but now I want to watch more of his movies just to see him perform. Is he the Austrian Marlon Brando?
There's one striking plot similarity between this story and Witness for the Prosecution, the great 1957 Billy Wilder movie based on an Agatha Christie play. I searched around but couldn't find anything about John le CarrΓ© taking inspiration from Witness for the Prosecution. And yet it's such a clever and crucial part of both stories it's hard to believe John le CarrΓ© wasn't influenced.
I would love to see a remake of this movie. I thought it was odd when they made Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in 2011 (also based on a book by John le CarrΓ©) since that story is way too complex to fit properly into a two hour movie. Plus, that movie didn't come close to matching up to the amazing BBC miniseries from 1979. Unlike Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold fits great into a two hour movie. A remake with modern production value could be excellent.
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