Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer,
Have I Seen it Before: Yes? I really do want to say that I caught it on some TCM screening over the years, but everything about it aside from the haunting lullaby at the beginning and flashes of the ending had slipped from my memory. Is it possible I had only seen clips? I’d like to think not.
Did I Like It: Nothing like Mia Farrow showing up in a film to make one wonder if I shouldn’t be supporting this kind of thing. The soon-to-be-recorded episode of Beyond the Cabin in the Woods will likely focus at least some of its time on whether it is possible to enjoy art separated from the artist. It may be impossible to ethically completely divorce the art from the artist, but it might be possible to be fascinated by the art.
Honestly, I’m not detecting a lot of Polanski in the film itself. Hell (no pun intended), with William Castle producing, I’m surprised movie theaters in the 60s weren’t rigged to make you think you were having a liaison with the devil while the movie played. Having read Ira Levin’s novel before viewing the film as part of my podcast prep, this is more an act of transcription than adaptation. Aside from the protracted debate in the opening chapters about which apartment the Woodhouse’s would choose*, and just how many siblings Rosemary (Farrow) has and just how estranged she is from them, nearly every word of the original text is here.
Which is great, because when the film isn’t being genuinely terrifying during the final revelation and impregnation scene, it’s a deeply unsettling march through alternating paranoia and true sinister actions that should be detected, if we in fact were aware that we were in a horror story.
I might have a few quibbles with the casting. Farrow is fine, if a little too restrained (it’s both a flaw of the novel and film that it doesn’t earn Rosemary’s acceptance of what has happened to her) for what is going on around her. I also didn’t see Cassavetes as Guy when I was reading. He seemed so restrained in the book, that I honestly started to imagine John Cazale as the character. Book Guy is so aloof, that the leading man quality of Cassavetes feels wrong. Although, to be fair, it’s hard to get any indication that he’s ever been honest with that kind of discordance going on.
*Real estate decisions are, in fact, the least interesting elements of any story. I will not be taking questions at this time.