The horror of Rosemary’s Baby explores close-to-home realities like the loss of control.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
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Rosemary’s Baby is a masterful example
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of horror realism director Roman
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Polanski’s realism is expressed both in
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how he visually tells the story and in
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what the story’s about it taps into our
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real fears about urban living religion
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the female body pregnancy and most of
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all loss of control the 1968 film set
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the tone for other horror realist
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classics to follow The Exorcist and The
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Omen today’s average horror movie
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revolves around special effects and gory
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shocks but the horror realism of
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Rosemary’s Baby relies on a slow build
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of tension precise character portrayals
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long camera takes embedded social
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commentary and masterful use of point of
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view to represent psychological States
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as we watch Mia Farrow’s young Manhattan
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night housewife rosemary discover that
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she’s given birth to the spawn of Satan
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our terror results not just from
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believing what we’re watching but also
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from believing it could happen to us
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what have you done to his eyes I saw
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this showing the baby would be a great
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mistake this show
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that there is a subliminal moment when
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she remembers the eyes she saw in her
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dream but other than that the film is
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totally realistic there’s nothing
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supernatural and everything that
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occurred could have happened in real
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life
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Polanski style executed by
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cinematographer William Frey Kerr
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creates the realistic atmosphere through
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long takes but don’t call attention to
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themselves this uncut camerawork makes
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us feel that reality continues outside
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of the frame this style represents meson
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son filmmaking where the camera creates
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meaning by moving through space as
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opposed to montage style filmmaking
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which creates meaning through cuts these
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long takes also absorb us in Rosemary’s
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point of view we’re always grounded in
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Rosemary’s eyes never allowed to see
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beyond what she does like her we’re
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piecing together clues and kept in the
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dark when we’re not looking through
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Rosemary’s eyes we’re looking at her the
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frequent close-ups of her face keep us
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in tune with what she’s seeing and
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feeling Rosemary’s Baby is a story about
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control through his fluid camera and
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disciplined focus on Rosemary’s point of
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view Pulaski makes us emotionally
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understand that rosemary is not in
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control and by extension neither are we
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lack of control weaves together the real
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horror of every aspect of Rosemary’s
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situation from the way her husband talks
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to her to the systematic way she’s
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denied important information about her
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body to not being able to keep neighbors
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out of her own space in her constrained
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existence as the traditional housewife
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rosemary is treated dismissively like a
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child she’s constantly tolerating what
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she doesn’t like for a modern viewer
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it’s hard not to get a little frustrated
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with rosemary because stop drinking that
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stupid drink woman mini castevets is
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clearly giving you devil herbs and why
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are you wearing the gross smelling
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necklace when you hate it and you know
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that suicidal woman was wearing it when
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she jumped out of the window all of
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Rosemary’s in
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things are telling her no but she
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continues to acquiesce Rosemary’s
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submissive attitude reflects the very
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real power of the patriarchy both then
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and now look at the way her husband guy
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feels he’s allowed to bully her and
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attack her character for not liking a
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dessert to explain her deep scratches
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from the satanic ritual guys shockingly
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claims he had rough sex with rosemary
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while she was passed out as if sexual
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violence and rape are condoned as long
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as it’s your husband dr. Saperstein
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keeps telling her not to read books as
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if this would be a ridiculous thing for
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a woman to do anymore and I also takes
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away Rosemary’s book when she’s getting
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too close to the truth an action that
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alludes to the age-old practice of
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disempowering women by depriving them of
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education also note that he places the
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forbidden book on top of treatises about
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male and female sexual behavior
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underlining the film’s focus on how male
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society coops female sexuality and the
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pregnant female body even dr. hill who’s
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not one of the Satanists responds to
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Rosemary’s despairing plea for health by
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of course calling the very husband and
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male doctor who’ve driven her to a state
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of terror notably we can read this film
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in very different ways so we can read
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rosemary struggle to reclaim her own
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body as a feminist critique of the
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patriarchy and a defense of the pill or
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the need for abortion in cases of
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dangerous pregnancy but we can also
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interpret the film as the opposite a
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defense of conservative family values
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based on Rosemary’s final inability to
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reject her baby
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despite the harrowing circumstances of
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her impregnation likewise Rosemary’s
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physical transformation also supports
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opposing interpretations at the start
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like her childish lullaby over the
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opening credits
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Rosemary’s girlish pigtails and yellow
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dresses make her appear as a little girl
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she’s innocent even babyish during her
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pregnancy rosemary is increasingly de
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feminized with a fading complexion and a
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boyish haircut on one level if we read
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her drained masculine appearance as
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signs
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the evil within her the movie could be
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equated health with traditional
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femininity and suggesting Rosemary’s
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unwomanly looks are inherently sinister
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or the change could also be subversive
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li+
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I think Vidal Sassoon it’s it’s very in
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her radical fashion forward new look
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could represent her painful awakening as
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she becomes an adult with her eyes open
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her babyish passivity departs with her
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lost girlish appearance that would
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explain why her domineering husband
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hates the new haircut you look great
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it’s that haircut that looks awful it’s
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a testament to the complex writing
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adapted faithfully from Ira Levin’s
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novel that the film holds up to varied
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interpretations we see what we want to
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see because more than sending a
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definitive political message the film’s
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aim is to dramatize our deepest fears
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involving sexuality and the female body
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if you’re a woman this movie may make
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you terrify to ever let a man near you
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again let alone get pregnant Rosemary’s
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pain exaggerates the way in which any
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pregnancy is on the literal level an
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invasion by a foreign entity and most
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fundamentally this movie dramatizes the
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most basic fear of every pregnant woman
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that something is wrong whether
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Rosemary’s Baby is radically feminist
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misogynistic or a little bit of both it
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undeniably captures the terror of being
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robbed of power over one’s own body the
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story captures another underlying real
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fear in its portrayal of dense city
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living and the stress of existing and
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close intimacy with so many strangers
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Rosemary’s urban paranoia is embodied in
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the grotesque appearances of her
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intrusive neighbors the castevets
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Polanski exaggerates the urban
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irritations of overcrowding noise lack
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of privacy and annoying neighbors in an
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extreme over-the-top sensory depiction
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of the strains of city living equally
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real is the portrait of city ambition
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and the ugly human habit of forgoing our
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morality and ideals while trying to get
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ahead
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Rosemary’s Fame obsessed self-absorbed
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husband guy played by John Cassavetes
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evidently doesn’t think twice before
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offering his wife’s body to the
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Satanists in exchange for getting acting
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roles as we see here he takes
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to roman castevet in their very first
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meeting I’m gonna go over there again
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tomorrow night and Rosemary’s desires
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also make her complicit she lets her
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longing for a baby and a big lovely
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apartment blind her to what her husband
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really is meanwhile the film’s
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over-the-top satanic elements are
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balanced with a realist portrait of how
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religious ideas and guilt can shape our
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behavior the film arguably links
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Rosemary’s Catholic upbringing which Mia
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Farrow also shared to Rosemary’s lack of
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assertiveness in the dream sequence she
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asks for forgiveness from the Pope while
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being raped by Satan she resists
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rejecting her terrible doctor partially
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it seems because she’s afraid a better
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doctor might tell her she needs an
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abortion rosemary is increasingly shown
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in the traditional colours of the Virgin
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Mary
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blue and white representing loyalty and
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purity yet again the Mary imagery
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underlines her passivity and
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submissiveness she’s deferring to
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greater powers without question the fear
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of one’s body being invaded impregnated
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by the most evil spirit mirrors a
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Catholic girls fear of doing wrong again
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hear the story exaggerated a common fear
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in light of our closeness to Rosemary’s
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point of view and her subconscious we
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have to acknowledge that rosemary could
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be an unreliable narrator the idea of
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devil could be conceived as the
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Rosemary’s folly
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would have been all question of her
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paranoia suspicions during the pregnancy
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and postpartum craze as Polanski
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suggests the realism of the story
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doesn’t hinge on whether the devil has
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actually impregnated rosemary it lies in
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the story’s eerie relevance to our lives
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the realistic fear of Rosemary’s Baby
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becomes even more terrifying in light of
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the real-life tragedies that followed a
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year after the movies 1968 release
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Polanski’s pregnant wife Sharon Tate and
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her unborn child were murdered by
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Charles Manson cult followers and in
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1980 John Lennon was killed outside the
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Dakota building the film’s shooting
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location for the eccentric Bramford in
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another eerie connection the Manson
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murderers also took inspiration from the
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Beatles helter skelter these strange yet
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true events reinforced that if the
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concept of having the devil’s baby
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sounds far-fetched the realized film is
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all too familiar
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along with rosemary we’re trapped and
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controlled held captive in an apartment
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a society and a body which turn on her
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and take away her power to decide her
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life we feel her pain
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you
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
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