Tuesday 20th December

A friend has just posted on Facebook that they have just watched Rosemary’s Baby.  I am not sure if she watched a DVD or saw it on Sky; there seem to be so many channels on Sky that it is quite possible that every film ever made is being shown on some obscure channel at some time.  And it reminded me just what an amazing film it was.  It was another of those films of the late sixties that like ‘The Graduate’ seemed to define a new era in film, and also in some way too define what the sixties was all about, and maybe it did.  I have watched it since a few times, usually late at night on BBC2 or Channel 4, and it always scares me.  It has such an aura of unease about it, you just know it is all going to end up badly for Rosemary and it is as if everyone, except Rosemary knows it.  But in another way Rosemary knows it all along too, and we are somehow complicit with her, and in the end I think that she is so determined to have the baby anyway that she disregards what is so obviously happening.

It was directed by Roman Polanski, at the height of his ability and early fame; he later of course earned notoriety in a different direction completely.  It starred Mia Farrow as Rosemary and John Cassavettes as her husband who is of course part of the conspiracy against her.

I won’t tell you the story, except that it is so believable and convincingly told that you find yourself believing it as much as Rosemary does, and yet nothing is really spelled out for you, and it is one of those films where the tension is beautifully ratched-ed up slowly and surely, layer upon layer, and it never quite topples over.  It is also one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen; disturbing but you just cannot stop watching it either.  The performance by Mia Farrow is superb and so harrowing you could just cry for her.  And it is of its’ time, nobody would make a film like that now, they would have to have lots of quick scene changes and tracking shots and cut-up camera angles that would ruin it.  It is the very slowness of the film that works so well.  Films today are generally far too long and complex and far too fast, as if they daren’t let you actually catch your breath long enough to start enjoying it, and you end up being bored and not caring about the characters at all.  And it was a landmark film in so many ways, Mia Farrow never seemed to make anything half as good again, it was almost as if the film had taken so much out of her that she hadn’t anything left to say.  And Roman Polanski was always judged by Rosemary’s Baby too.

So, if you are still stuck for a Christmas present for me, I wouldn’t mind the DVD.