Repulsion '1965' Film Review

Fig 1, Repulsion Poster

Repulsion, Directed by Roman Polanski and released 1965, is a black and white thriller showing the over exaggerated fears of a young Belgian Immigrant that come out when she is left alone in her apartment for a few days to a week utmost.
The story which is centered around the protagonist, Carol (Catherine Deneuve) is a young Belgian Immigrant who lives in a London apartment with her older sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) and who also works as a manicurist at a salon. When Helen leaves with her boyfriend, Michael (Ian Hendry) for a week vacation and leaves her sister alone in the apartment, that is when we start to see Carol break down mentally. Carol, who presumably suffers from traumatic events from her past that involve mostly her father and hes abusiveness towards her, she shows a darker side to her in the later stages of the movie which turn her into a killer, mainly on men who try to abuse her physically and sexually.

As the movie progresses we start to see what really goes on inside Carols head and what she has to face during her time of isolation in the apartment, from Cracks appearing in the walls suddenly (Fig 2) and corridors made of flesh with hands that reach out for her body (Fig 3 & 4). At nights when she sleeps she hears the constant sound of footsteps as if someone is walking around outside her room, this is later shown to be a man that she has conjured up who proceeds to rape her each night the sound has been muted so her screams are unheard, probably to show that no matter how hard she fights and screams nothing can be done to stop what is happening.

"Roman Polanski takes us on a deeply disturbing, hallucinatory trip into Catherine Deneuve's mental breakdown in this British psychological thriller." Tom Hutchinson, Radio Times.

Fig 2, Carol starts to see cracks from in places
and complains to Helen that they need fixing.

Fig 3, Carol is grabbed by the hands of men in ways that
show a sexual nature towards her, this could show how
she sees all men.

Fig 4, The hands of men reaching out of the flesh like walls
trying to grab at Carol.

The way that this movie represents the condition and what the mind can conjure up while in isolation is pretty well done, now nobody can know what it's like to have OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder) or whatever kind of disorder she has, it was never really stated in the movie what she has, you just instantly know that something is wrong. When the sister was around it seemed that Carol was some ordinary woman, bit shy and kept to herself but as normal as she could be (Fig 5). She feels that she doesn't have to worry about the outside world, the sister plays a security role or a motherly role to Carol, but once she leaves, Carol starts to break. It's not just the sister she acts like this around, her attitude and personality are the same when she is with the other girls at the Salon. The only time where she is not herself is around men, it's as if she doesn't want to acknowledge their existence even with the constant appearances of Colin (John Fraser) who seems fascinated with her and will not leave her alone, only that he got to deep and payed for it with his life.

Carol throughout this movie, seems to show some kind of dislike to men, that their all the same and from what the movie was showing us with Colin and his friends her theory doesn't seem to far off. As the movie progresses you see Carol become more defensive around men and attacks them without thinking on what she's using as weapon and how long she is attacking them for and when she comes out of this daze and sees the damage she starts to panic and hides the bodies the best she can and immediately forgets about them. (Fig 6 & 7)

"Repulsion wastes no time before plunging its audience into the frighteningly disturbed mindset of its central character." Felix Gonzalez Jr. DVD Review.

Fig 5, Helen playing the Mother role to Carol, she describes
Carols strange demeanor as Sensitive.

Fig 6, Carol proceeding to continuously beat Colin to death with a dazed
hypnotic look in her eyes and face.  

Fig 7,  Carol getting ready to stab the Landlord as he continues
to flirt and seduce Carol

The movie ends with a brain teaser by showing a photo of Carol a few years younger in a family photo (Fig 8 & 9) but upon closer inspection you can see she is giving some form of a disgust look at one of the members presumably the man, there have been many theories as to what this could mean but the popular theory is that she is looking at her father with disgust and fear because he is the one who abused her and molested her which is why she is OCD and imagining a man coming in and raping her every night to the point where she comes to terms with the onslaught of abuse and just takes it, that is shown through her putting on lipstick for the first time in the movie as if she is awaiting her Attacker. (Fig 10 & 11)
From this point she has fully broke and is found unconscious under her sisters bed perhaps trying to find some form of protection and security that her sister has over her.

Fig 8, A photo, presumably a Family Photo with Carol in
the middle of the 4 older people.

Fig 9, Carol looking on towards the two older people.
Possibly looking at her Abuser?

Fig 10, Carol seeing her attacker in her room knowing what is to come.

Fig 11, Putting on lipstick as if she is getting ready to meet her attacker.

Images taken from;
Google Images search - Repulsion.
IMDB Images - Repulsion.

Reviewers - Rotten Tomatoes.
Felix Gonzalez Jr. - DVD Review
Tom Hutchinson - Radio Times.