ShangLuda
Admirable film.
Sammy-Jo Cervantes
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Leoni Haney
Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.
thedarkknight-99999
The use of nightmarish visual imagery for effect, and the reliance on the setting to illustrate Carol's mental state made me think that Repulsion is a film adaptation of one of Alfred Tennyson's poems directed by David Lynch! I'm not a fan of movies that rely so much on allegory. However, I loved Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive. But to be honest, I wasn't invested in these movies as much as I should. Nevertheless, I found Repulsion very engrossing, and I was deeply invested in the character of Carol.Polanski managed to evoke an atmosphere filled with dread and fear. but to make it more disturbing, he used another atmosphere that's quiet different and contradictory to the main one he used to depict Carol's paranoia. This contradictory atmosphere is actually very similar to the one that's used in french new wave films. Yes, it's already seems very weird and creepy! Almost every hallucination scene leaves you with a chill in the spine.Catherine Deneuve gave a very accurate, precise, and unsettling performance. Carol Ledoux could have been monotonous, and tedious due to her tepid nature. Instead, and thanks to Deneuve's captivating performance, Carol turned out to be so sympathetic and relatable that I felt for her. As for issues, I think the first act was longer than it should be, and the movie took a long time to reach the climax of its plot, but it was never boring, and built up tension very well.
From the tracking shots to the use of the unsettling sounds, you can see that Repulsion has a big influence on Aronofsky, especially his most recent, and most controversial work, mother! Also, the closing shot of this movie must be up there with the closing shots of The 400 Blows, Fight Club, Inception, Seven Samurai, Stalker,.....
As a matter of fact, Repulsion's final shot isn't just beautiful, profound, or thought-provoking, but it's very important and absolutely necessary to complete Carol's character arc.(9/10)
BA_Harrison
Repulsion is a very slow movie—probably too slow for many viewers. It's also far from what I would call a cheery experience, charting a sexually repressed young woman's descent into madness and murder. It's down to the sheer brilliance of Roman Polanski's direction and star Catherine Deneuve's powerful central performance that the film proves riveting throughout, even when there's (seemingly) very little happening on screen.The movie starts off like a typical '60s kitchen sink drama, with sulky Belgian beautician Carol (Deneuve) struggling to focus at work and trying to ignore the advances of interested males. At first, Carol merely seems mopey, but things gradually start to get weird: her behaviour towards her sister's boyfriend Michael (Ian Hendry) is unusually hostile, hopeful beau Colin is completely blanked, while a stolen kiss from the young man makes her feel violently ill. But it is when her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) leaves with Michael for a holiday in Italy that Carol really loses it: left on her own, her psychosis rapidly worsens, and she begins to hallucinate, cracks appearing in the apartment walls and strange men attacking her in her room at night.When Colin visits the apartment to see why the phone rings but is never answered, Carol lumps him over the head with a candlestick and dumps his body in the bath. Later, the landlord (Patrick Wymark) also meets a sticky end after he tries to take advantage of the mentally unbalanced young woman, a few slashes with a cut-throat razor putting an end to his lecherous ways. Eventually, Helen and Michael return home where they find a scene of unimaginable horror, with Carol catatonic in the bedroom.While not a particularly pleasant viewing experience, Repulsion has to be admired as a work of art, as an intense character study, and as a master-class in movie making, every frame, every sound, every image carefully considered. Carol's misery and loneliness is contrasted by the cheerful laughing coming from a nearby school and the lively music from a trio of street entertainers, and Polanski heightens the feeling of unease with twisty-turning camera-work and excellent use of light and shade, turning an ordinary apartment into a claustrophobic prison. Also adding to the overall unsettling effect is Chico Hamilton's score, which begins light and jazzy but becomes more discordant as the film progresses.Certainly not a film that I'll be visiting again in a hurry (it's way too depressing for that), but one that any serious cineaste should ensure that they have seen at least the once.
Irishchatter
Catherine Deneuve is such a pretty actress like she played her character really good! Its so sad to see that her character Carol wasn't well at all when it comes to men coming at her like a doll and her sister leaving to Italy along with her boyfriend. Whats even sadder, it seemed like she was sexually abused by her father and like, it has taken her life. Just think back in those days, there were sexual abuse cases weren't talked about as if the victims were wrong. This movie has a good reflection of that and how it was dealt with!It was shocking when she killed the landlord and the boyfriend. I know this is dark but seriously, the landlord was sexaully assaulting her so she was gonna defend herself somewhat. With the boyfriend, I think she should've just said no and leave her alone instead of killing him.No doubt this movie is a dangerous movie, its very very dark and very upsetting to watch especially what Carol is going through!
Eric Stevenson
I really had no idea that this was even supposed to be a horror movie, but it certainly becomes apparent after awhile. I love this movie because of how unpredictable it is. Possibly the most interesting thing about this movie is how a lot of it is left open to interpretation. It's not clear exactly how much of what we see actually happened. It's most certain that Carol killed some people, but it's mostly quite vague. It's weird, because there's this one scene where she's putting the mirror to the medicine cabinet back. I've seen enough movies to know that it's going to show someone in the reflection, but you know what? I was STILL genuinely frightened when that happened! Another shocking moment was when you first get a graphic depiction of her killing someone.It really is all quite unexpected. It's great how we get scenes of the other characters in their lives which doesn't really affect the plot. It just comes off as very realistic. The music is haunting too. I swear that one guy looks like Woody Allen. What I also love is the film's usage of closeups. A lot of time this comes off as obnoxious. Maybe it's just because this was one of the earliest films to use it, but it was definitely effective here. The moments of silence in the film are also very unnerving and create great atmosphere. Was there some deeper political meaning to this? An attack on feminism? I also love how it ends the same way it begins with the focus on the eye. You originally think the woman with the eye is going to be the main character.It's just a great psychological thriller from beginning to end and keeps getting better. It's not quite as good as "Rosemary's Baby" but it's close. It's just interesting to see horror movies get more graphic as 1968 approaches when we first got our movie ratings. We slowly earned them. Maybe tame by today's standards, but definitely well written and acted. I guess I'm not that much into Roman Polanski, but with these great films, you could call me a fan. ****
