Repulsion - Film review

Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) is a black and white psychological horror film following Carol Ledoux (Catherine Deneuve) as she suffers through a mental breakdown.

Fig.1

The soundtrack of Repulsion really adds to the scenes, which in some cases meant there was no soundtrack other than the sounds of a ticking clock, which draws you in further due to there not being any out of place music distracting from the scene. "the overriding acoustic effect is one of invasiveness, of unwelcome sounds overheard" (Horrigan 2009)
There are also scenes where the sound is merely the ambient sounds of the scene, but then evolves into music masking all other sounds while the camera focuses on Carol's glassy eyed stare as she sinks further into her own nightmare. "a soundtrack carefully composed of distracting, repetitive noises" (Silver 2014)

Fig.2

"Polanski transforms Carol’s apartment into a shadowy world of nightmarish fantasy." (Fraley 2013)
The set itself also shows Carol's deteriorating state, with large cracks in the walls that come and go and can't be seen by others, which is an interesting point as at the start of the film Carol mentions a crack in the wall that hasn't been fixed yet to her sister (Yvonne Furneaux), who doesn't seem to know what she's on about even though you would think that if there was a crack in the wall in the first place, she would have noticed it, and thus is one of the first indicators that something is wrong, rather than just being able to cast off her blank look at the start of the film as ditzy-ness, or daydreaming about a man as others in the scene implied.
As well as cracks, the walls also manifest arms that stick out and attempt to grab and grope Carol as she goes past. The arms all appear to be male arms, which add into the idea that Carol only sees men as dangerous predators, and with the few interactions she has with men, can you really blame her? The first man we see speak to her does so in a crude, sexualising way, the man who appears to be her lover forces a kiss on her when she clearly doesn't wish for it and then later breaks down her front door, which is a rather threatening act when the only motivation behind it is wanting to be with her, and then the landlord attempting to force himself on her, the only man she interacts with that isn't seen to be after her in a sexual way is her sister's boyfriend, but he still has his moments of no regard for Carol's personal space or belongings.
The sudden appearance of the cracks and the hands keep a constant reminder of the horror element. "the sudden, giant cracks she imagines on switching on a light – they always creep me out with a thoroughness that run-of-the-mill horror movies never achieve." (Bradshaw 2013)

Fig.3

Bibliography:
Images:
Figure 1, Poster (1965) [poster] At: http://discreetcharmsandobscureobjects.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/repulsion-dir-roman-polanski-1965.html (Accessed on 21 November 2017)
Figure 2, Film still (1965) [film still] At: http://www.themoviedistrict.com/repulsion-1965/2/ (Accessed on 21 November 2017)
Figure 3, Film still (1965) [film still] At: https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/ (Accessed on 21 November 2017)
Quotes:
Bradshaw, P. (2013) Repulsion - review At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jan/03/repulsion-review (Accessed on 21 November 2017)
Fraley, J. (2013) Repulsion (1965) At: http://thefilmspectrum.com/?p=18863 (Accessed on 21 November 2017)
Horrigan, B. (2009) Repulsion: Eye of the Storm At: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1207-repulsion-eye-of-the-storm (Accessed on 21 November 2017)
Silver, C. (2014) Roman Polanski's Repulsion At: https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2014/02/11/roman-polanskis-repulsion/ (Accessed on 21 November 2017)