Plathological

Rosemary's Baby, etc.

I finally saw it. I finally saw it last night. After finally seeing it, I went on what can only be described as a diatribe (I think that’s a step above “rant,” no?), with much forceful hand gesticulation, my voice loud enough for Graeme to be concerned that I’d wake the neighbours, as I screamed about the colour blue, the use of camera shots as steadfastly maintained motifs and how it’s impossible for any artist to have any sort of coherent relationship with his work outside structure ("God Is Dead," is he, Time Magazine?). Which was apparently why Derrida was both right, and so very wrong in what he preached and who he was, respectively. I mean, here’s a fun fact I ran across on the net: You are familiar with the 6 Signs of Kevin Bacon, right? Well, here is something similar I came across on the IMDb that is extremely interesting: Roman Polanski's pregnant wife was murdered by Charles Manson and his family, whose story is told in the book Helter Skelter, the title coming from the song by the Beatles member John Lennon, who was killed by a born-again Christian in The Dakota, a Manhattan apartment building where "Rosemary's Baby" took place. Now that I’m all torn up and pleasantly reactionary, I’d like to say that if you’re like me, and have yet to see this film for some ignorant or woeful reason: you should! My viewing experience consisted of autistic back-and-forth rocking, and yelling at the screen. And I wasn’t aware of how stupid I must have looked while I was doing that at all. I also recommend Nóz w wodzie (Knife in the Water), which I believe was Polanski’s first feature-length production and made a bit of a political splash as it showed the existence of the Polish upper middle class - a class that wasn't supposed to exist. The short ones he did while still at film school: Rozbijemy zabawe (Break Up the Dance), Morderstwo (A Murderer), Dwaj ludzie z szafa (Two Men and a Wardrobe) and Lampa (the Lamp), are also all worth seeing. In fact, here, Youtube is being good to us all today (though the quality is obviously quite poor – however! I still go a bit crazy for the camera angles and lighting):

1. the Lamp:

2. Two Men and a Wardrobe:

3. Opening scene from Knife in the Water (Polish with English subtitles)

Posted by caroline at February 14, 2007 3:41 PM