Roman Polanski’s 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby offers a suggestion about how an indifferent actor can get a chance to make it big on stage and in Hollywood. It’s as plausible an explanation as any I’ve heard to explain the popularity of certain big name actors in real-life Hollywood. (Clooney, I’m looking at you.)
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
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Just kidding, George. Who could resist your unique mix of easy charm,
unforced slapstick and A-list versatility?
Absolutely no need to resort to pimping out a baby to devil worshippers
to explain Clooney’s success, but for Guy Woodhouse (played by John
Cassavetes), the actor husband of Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow)
in the film, a little Satanic assistance with his career proves to be
irresistible.
A difference between this film and
that other classic of childhood demonic possession, The Exorcist, is that Polanski chooses not to show the baby at all
and plays throughout the film with the idea that the supernatural conspiracy could be a delusion of Rosemary’s, caused by her
pregnancy. It’s a classy approach and it
adds to the spookiness of the film as well as sharing Rosemary’s paranoia with the
audience, since there is a sense that we can trust no body, just as
Rosemary feels.
However, it is a weakness of the execution
that we are never in any serious doubt that the Satanic plot is real. There are too many telling details from Rosemary’s
point of view – from the fact she notices that pictures have been taken down
when she visits the weird old neighbours’ apartment (the Castevets, played
nicely by Ruth Gordon (as Minnie) and Sidney Blackmore (as Roman)), to the
pierced ears of Roman Castevet, to the chalky undertaste in the ‘chocolate
mouse’ that she eats before her impregnation etc etc.
The only time doubt is cast on her view of the world is when she demands that her husband shows her his shoulders, thinking he has been marked by the coven. It turns out that his shoulders are unmarked (although he doesn’t offer to show her the rest of his body). Perhaps a few more of these kinds of moments would have strengthened the ‘is she / isn’t she?’ angle.
Review continues below...
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There is a lot to love in the
film. The details of the main characters’
relationships, their unstated backstory, their ambitions are beautifully put
across. The apartment itself, with its
long history of human tragedy has a spooky presence. And there are some nicely sinister moments pulled
out by the slow burn approach, such as the way the husband’s complicity is
gradually reviewed, and the jolt as Rosemary realises that the coven has
acquired a personal belonging of each of its victims in order to curse them. When we do get to see the removed paintings
in the Castevets’ apartment, they are suitably disturbing – the burning church, for example.
The technical delivery of the filming is
unobtrusively superb, with long takes and perfect camera angles. The many older characters are played by big
name actors and that adds a sheen of quality to all the minor parts in the film
as well as to the sinister neighbours, the Castevets. Ruth Gordon’s performance as Minnie is terrifying, perhaps inspiring the character of Ros in Monsters, Inc: "I'm watching you,
Wazowski. Always watching. Always!"
It’s debatable whether Mia Farrow was the
best choice of the various actors that Polanski considered for the part of
Rosemary. I’d say Polanski got the best
performance out of her that it was possible to get, and that he bent the character to benefit from Farrow’s appearance and personality (she was
at the height of her dippy-hippy little girl persona at the time of
filming). But perhaps he wouldn’t have
had to work so hard with another actor.
The vulnerability and elfin gauntness of Farrow has ended up becoming
part of the character of Rosemary and a keynote of the film – I suspect this
more a result of Polanski’s genius than Farrow’s.
Personal Score: 8/10
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This is part of a series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.
For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.
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