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Carole is a Belgian girl living in England, with far-away eyes and thick, blonde hair. At first, she seems aloof, and later troubled ... but always, she leaves the people she encounters wondering what's going on behind that dreamy stare.
Carole (Catherine Deneuve is the focus of Roman Polanski's first English-speaking film, the psychological thriller Repulsion (1965).

The mod look of sixties fashion and music sets the early mood for Repulsion, as the camera follows closely behind Carole as she makes her way through her day - to the salon where she works, the lunch counter, and home to a small flat where she lives with her older sister Helene (Yvonne Furneaux, La Dolce Vita), and increasingly her sister's ever-present lover, Michael.

Inside the apartment, however, everything from the lighting to Carole's furtive glances take on an air of trepidation. Dialogue is sparse, and camera work is abstract and deliberate, recording even the smallest moments - a cube of sugar dropping into a cup of coffee, a knife peeling potatoes. All of these studies gradually wrap together and become relevant to the larger story.

That story is of a girl who, by today's standards, may be considered suffering from mental illness that remains more or less dormant with the stability offered by her older sister's companionship and her daily routine. As the film moves on, however, it's revealed that Carole is also afraid of and even sickened by men. This fear develops steadily into a full-blown aversion: Seeing Michael's razor and toothbrush in her bathroom makes her freeze in terror, and a supper date with Colin, a handsome hopeful suitor, is thwarted only by her inability to enter the pub at which they're supposed to meet. A kiss makes her recoil; an advance her way makes her flee. The juxtaposition of her feelings as compared to the world in which she lives, where men seek her out and her sister enjoys her own sexual freedom nightly, seems to exacerbate her anxiety.

When Helene and Michael leave against Carole's protests to take a 10-day holiday, her delicate world is sent askew, causing her to withdraw into the apartment where only madness is waiting for her. She flounders through simple tasks as she simulateously grapples with her perceptions of men, who become even more threatening in her own mind, causing midnight hallucinations of rape.

Polanski, who wrote the screenplay along with Gerard Brach in addition to directing, creates a finely woven tale of internal terror, which gradually manifests itself as very real horror. The filming is meticulous, the edits are few, and the line between fantasy and reality is maintained, however faintly, to underscore how long Carole has been treading that thin line.

Repulsion was nominated for best cinematography by The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and won two special prizes at the Berlin Film Festival the same year. Factoid: Polanski makes a cameo as a spoon player in a band of street musicians. Sources: Wikipedia, IMDB, Fear.net

Learn more about this author, Jaclyn C. Stevenson.
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