Last night I went to the phenomenal BAM theater to catch Repulsion, the 1965 Roman Polanski film screening as part of their tribute to Catherine Deneuve. I thought about recording a Virgin Territory video after the screening, but no one I saw it with had ever seen the film before either. It's the kind of movie you could write an entire film school thesis about, full of metaphors about feminine sexuality and repression, the male need for female attention, and even the painful rebuilding process of post-war Europe. It also pulls off this perverse trick of casting Deneuve, one of the most beautiful women in the world at the time, as a meek wallflower and eventually a complete loon.
But maybe the most interesting reason to see the movie right now is to see it and try to count exactly how many times Darren Aronofsky has watched it. The influence on Black Swan is obvious-- it's about a meek woman slowly losing her mind, yes, but it also uses some of the same mirror imagery and even a great scare involving fingernail clippers-- but as my friend Devindra pointed out after, you can even see it in the menacing apartment scenes in Requiem For A Dream. Yes, Repulsion is a great movie worth checking out on its own merits, but as someone whose job is to engage in current movies and who still hasn't shaken Black Swan, it was amazing to put together one more piece of the Aronofsky puzzle.
Now maybe I'll run with this and put together a Virgin Territory on Rosemary's Baby.
