Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Roman's Baby



I was an avid reader from an early age, always raiding my parents’ bookshelf for material that was usually a bit above my head. My favorites, though, were my dad’s horror and suspense titles—Harvest Home by Tom Tryon, The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and, best of all, the amazing Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, a novel that was so cleverly and cinematically written that it played like a film in my head as I read it.

When, several years later, I got the chance to see the movie, I was amazed and delighted that the film followed the book faithfully, scene by scene, beat by beat, practically even line by line of dialogue. Director Roman Polanski had wisely followed Levin’s tightly written book to the letter; Rosemary’s Baby (1968) remains the most faithful film adaptation of a popular novel.

It’s also one of my all-time favorite movies, one that I can watch over and over and find new things to admire about it. (The beautiful Criterion Collection blu-ray edition I own allows me to do just that.) Best of all, Rosemary turned me on to the talents of one of the cinema’s most groundbreaking and controversial directors.

The best-selling novel by Ira Levin was not the author’s first to be adapted into a film--A Kiss Before Dying was first. (The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil, Deathtrap and Sliver were to follow, with varying degrees of success, but none approached the cache of the Polanski film.) Levin’s themes, delving into urban paranoia, conspiracy and the nature of evil in contemporary society, were perfect in a post-JFK-assassination America. (The Time magazine  asking “Is God Dead?” that Rosemary reads in the doctor’s office says it all.)


When wunderkind producer Robert Evans, newly minted head of Paramount Pictures (a former actor far handsomer than many of his stars) green-lighted the project, the novel had been optioned by horror schlockmeister William Castle (The Tingler, Strait-Jacket, I Saw What You Did), but Evans was determined not to allow Castle to direct. (Castle would receive a producer credit and a cameo appearance as the menacing man outside the phone booth in Rosemary’s claustrophobic telephone scene.) Instead, Evans chose an exciting new talent to helm the project.

Star Farrow confers with producer Evans and director Polanski
Rosemary is the perfect introduction to the artistry of director Roman Polanski—it may in fact be the auteur’s masterwork. It was Polanski’s first American production, after wowing European audiences with his innovative thrillers Knife in the Water (produced in his native Poland and Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film of 1964) and Repulsion (made in France in 1965). Polanski was fast garnering a reputation for bold, raw realism, taking the “New Wave” cinema of the 1960s to the next level.

Together, Evans and Polanski assembled a talented creative team to tell this absorbing story of a young woman expecting her first child, and the strange circumstances surrounding her pregnancy. 


This may be the ultimate “victim movie;” the character of Rosemary is duped, drugged, raped, lied to and controlled by a sinister devil-worshiping cabal that includes her own husband. (Ambitious actor Guy Woodhouse treats his young wife like chattel, a bargaining chip to put on the table, selling his soul—and his wife’s—to achieve stardom.) It’s also the ultimate conspiracy film as well, because not until the final scene do we know for sure that Rosemary’s worries and concerns are not mere paranoid delusions. Oh, yes, and evil seems to triumph in the end.

The character of Rosemary offers a conflicted view of womanhood. On one hand, she embodies weakness, pain and suffering. On the other, she listens to her own intuition and  relentlessly pursues the truth about her situation. Ultimately, although she is confronted with the ultimate evil, her maternal instincts kick in and she finds herself adapting to a “new normal.”


Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse

Polanski seriously considered his wife Sharon Tate for the role of Rosemary; indeed, she did have a quality very similar to Catherine Deneuve, the beleaguered heroine of his previous psychological thriller Repulsion; but Paramount wanted at least one bankable name in the cast. Mia Farrow starred on the wildly popular nighttime soap opera Peyton Place, and won the role after Tuesday Weld reportedly turned it down.

As Rosemary Woodhouse, Mia Farrow is delicate, waif-like and reed-thin, and the famous Vidal Sassoon pixie cut makes her appear even more vulnerable, a sharp contrast from her Sydney Guilaroff wigs (favored by Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day and Kim Novak) in the early sequences. Mia Farrow iconically embodies the title character, imbuing her with warmth and humanity. Farrow deserved a Best Actress Oscar for creating one of the most iconic damsels in distress in cinema history, but incredibly, she was not even nominated. She did win Italy’s David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards for her luminous and fragile—yet determined—Rosemary.

Farrow sacrificed her marriage to Frank Sinatra to finish filming Rosemary. Sinatra had signed his young wife to costar opposite him in The Detective, but by the film’s appointed start date, the Polanski film was far from finished. Polanski’s painstaking attention to detail and elaborate setups slowed the creative process and put the picture weeks behind schedule, which infuriated Sinatra. He served his wife of nine months divorce papers right on the Rosemary set.

John Cassavetes as Guy Woodhouse
Polanski was inspired in his against-type casting of John Cassavetes in the role of Guy Woodhouse; an auteur himself, Cassavetes epitomizes the hungry ambition of the New York “actor type.” Originally the role was planned for Robert Redford...but if he had gone through with it, Polanski would have run the risk of turning his suspense thriller into Barefoot at the Bramford…with Mia in her sunny Doris Day-like outfits with golden boy Redford by her side. (Later Redford would star opposite Farrow in the unfortunate 1974 version of The Great Gatsby.) Instead, the dark, inscrutable Cassavetes (sexy without being handsome) with his curious Method delivery and his shifty eyes, adds a menacing air right from the start.

Making the villanous Satan-worshiping cabal a seemingly kindly group of senior citizens was an Ira Levin stroke of genius, and those supporting roles were cast just as brilliantly by Polanski, with old-time character actors like Patsy Kelly (Pigskin Parade), Ralph Bellamy (His Girl Friday) and Elisha Cook (The Maltese Falcon). Sidney Blackmer (who played Grace Kelly’s dad in High Society) is eccentric and bombastic as Roman Castevet, martyr to his father’s old religion.


Sidney Blackmer as Roman Castevet
As Roman’s dotty wife Minnie, showbiz veteran Ruth Gordon all but steals the show, earning her a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of 71. A multitalented actress and writer, Gordon was the wife of Garson Kanin, with whom she coauthored such classic films as A Double Life, Adam’s Rib and Pat and Mike.

Gordon’s quirky character role as Natalie Wood’s demented mother in Inside Daisy Clover had reignited her acting career, and thanks to Rosemary’s Baby, she went on to enjoy the most successful third act in all of show business (save perhaps for Betty White), working steadily through the 1970s in classics including Harold and Maude, Where’s Poppa? and My Bodyguard. Her last film was Maxie with Glenn Close in 1985, the year she died. In 1977, Gordon briefly reprised her role as Minnie Castevet in the poor TV movie sequel Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby. Perhaps it would have been more palatable had Minnie’s role been bigger!


Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet
Director Polanski begins his storytelling at a leisurely pace, letting the tension build slowly but surely with a heightened form of naturalism, as newlyweds Guy and Rosemary rent a four-room apartment in a grand and charming old apartment house with a sinister history, as they are warned by their elderly friend Hutch. The film is punctuated with a strain of black humor throughout, mostly in the character of Minnie Castevet but also through Guy (“I think I hear the Trench Sisters chewing”) and Maurice Evans’s Hutch (“I see you had another suicide over there at Happy House”), among others.


The Woodhouses tour the Bramford apartment with Mr. Miklas (Elisha Cook, Jr.)
An important character in the film is the gothic apartment house itself, the “Black Bramford.” The filming location, of course, is the infamous Dakota on Central Park West, scene of tragedy a dozen years later when John Lennon was shot and killed in front of the building where he lived.

Production designer Paul Sylbert, aided by his talented daughter costume designer (and later producer) Anthea Sylbert, creates a palette of bright Technicolor to contrast with the darkness of the tale—lemon yellows, rose reds and wild prints. Rosemary’s penchant for yellow-and-white wallpaper described in the book is brought to life here and used as a backdrop for the weird dreams and goings-on in the bedroom scenes. Anthea Sylbert captures the late 1960s zeitgeist in Rosemary’s breezy dresses (including some very chic maternity ensembles), the avant garde outfits of the young friends at Rosemary’s party.  and even the colorfully zany pinks-and-reds of the Castevets, oldies trying to seem hip and vibrant and “with it.”


A scuffed-up Rosemary in her lemon yellow bedroom
Polanski seemed galvanized by every aspect of the story, both grandiose and mundane, and his obsessively detailed and choreographed camera compositions make this a cinema experience like no other. Some of my favorite Polanski moments here include seeing a distorted Rosemary’s bloody lips and fingers reflected in the toaster as she gnaws on raw chicken livers (her kid will not grow up a vegan); and Rosemary using her butcher knife to stop the baby’s bassinet from rocking and give her away as she readies herself for a climactic confrontation with evil.





"Oh, no, don't change the program on my account..."
The director excels in conceptualizing the novel’s unusual dream sequences, which when reading seem impossible to convey on film. These include Minnie Castevet’s voiceover on a scene with nuns in a Catholic school, and the drug-induced yacht sequence replete with weird cameo appearances by lookalikes for Pope Paul, Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy, which segues into the nude ritual in which Rosemary is impregnated by “someone inhuman.” “This is no dream, this is really happening!”

Polanski’s choice of composer is another feather in his cap as a master of suspense. Christopher Komeda’s innovative use of music conveys the underlying tension and anxiety, from the repetitive piano tinklings of “Fur Elise” to the atonal cacophony of jazz as Rosemary flees from Guy and Sapirstein upstairs to her apartment. Komeda even composed a memorable theme for Rosemary’s mysterious pregnancy pain, described by Levin in the book as “a wire around me getting tighter and tighter.”


Mrs. Gilmore (Hope Summers) and Dr. Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy)
 Is this a horror film? In some ways, yes, but far from a conventional one. Though the supernatural element is downplayed in favor of gnawing tension and paranoia—is Rosemary imagining it all?—we must remember that the Castevets’ satanic magic actually works. Guy wins the star-making stage role he had previously lost to Donald Baumgart after his enlightening after-dinner conversation with Roman—Baumgart suddenly goes blind. (The tense telephone scene between Rosemary and an unseen Baumgurt later in the film is chilling—thanks partially to the inimitable voiceover performance of Tony Curtis, who just happened to be a visitor to the set that day!)  And Hutch goes into a coma before he has time to warn Rosemary about all of those witches, directly after meeting Castevet. And of course, in the iconic final scene when Rosemary sees her baby open its eyes for the first time, she knows that Guy Woodhouse is definitely not the father.



Dark humor alert: Rosemary, Roman and Laura-Louise (Patsy Kelly)
Rosemary’s Baby made Roman Polanski an international filmmaking superstar. Though not nominated for Best Director by the Academy that year (he should have been!), Polanski did earn a well-deserved Oscar nod for Best Adapted Screenplay of the Levin novel. 

The controversial Polanski has manifested even more drama in his life than in his work. Less than a year after Rosemary’s success, he endured a horrific real-life tragedy when wife Sharon Tate, pregnant with their child, was brutally murdered in their L.A. home, becoming the most famous victim of the gruesome “Manson family” murders.


Roman Polanski
Several years later, Polanski was convicted of raping a teenage girl at the home of Jack Nicholson. The director fled the U.S. to avoid a prison sentence, and has not been permitted to set foot in the United States since. He has been married to French actress Emmanuelle Seigneur since 1989.

The prolific Polanski has enjoyed many career high points since Rosemary’s Baby, most notably 1974’s Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and 2002’s The Pianist, which finally earned him the Best Director Academy Award. My personal favorite Polanski films include Frantic with Harrison Ford and soon-to-be-wife Seigneur, The Ghost Writer with Ewan McGregor, and the auteur’s return to the occult devil-worship oeuvre with 1999’s The Ninth Gate starring Johnny Depp, with Seigneur as a seductive female Satan.

My all-time-favorite blogpost about this all-time-favorite film can be found over at the divine Le Cinema Dreams movie-lover's mecca.

Thanks so much to my friend Quiggy at the Midnite Drive-In and Phyllis Loves Classic Movies for hosting the Favorite Director Blogathon!  

24 comments:

  1. Keep thinking I've seen this when I was a kid. (Might have been The Stepford Wives instead, another Levin work made into a movie. BTW, speaking of Levin, when is someone going to film "This Perfect Day"?) I've only seen a few Polanski films, most assuredly Chinatown, maybe this one and maybe not, and Tess (get all hot and bothered just remembering Nastassja Kinski in that one...) Excellent entry to the blogathon, Chris. We'll get it posted first day.

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  2. Hi Quiggy, thanks so much for turning me on to this blogathon! And I too am a big fan of This Perfect Day--a sexy version of Brave New World--and agree it needs to be made into a film. I too love Stepford Wives! And yes, we have Polanski to thank for introducing us to the charms of Miss Kinski in Tess!
    Looking forward to exploring all the blogposts over the weekend!
    - Chris

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  3. Another excellent post, Chris! I can't say I love the movie as much as you do, but I do like it, and I thought your critique was thoughtful, exhaustive, and altogether excellent. Good job, as usual!

    Love the interesting things you put in the essay -- such as, you're right that Cassavetes was sexy without being out and out handsome.

    [Two funny asides re the brief marriage between Sinatra and Mia. Mia's mother, Maureen O'Sullivan, said, "he ought to be marrying me!" and Ava Gardner said, "I always knew Frank would wind up in bed with a boy."]

    But I digress.

    Levin's novel may not have been an intellectual exercise, but it was well-done and entertaining, as most of his work, and by (mostly) eschewing old-fashioned Universal film= type horror trappings (the Satanists were more or less "ordinary," for instance), he pointed the path for Stephen King, who did much the same thing in his books.

    I agree with you and Mr. Quiggy that "A Perfect Day" (a book that I love and read every few years) would make an interesting movie.

    Let's see -- Stepford Wives, Boys from Brazil, not to mention a Kiss Before Dying -- methinks Levin wrote quite a few good books!

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  4. Forgot to ask if you ever read Levin's "Son of Rosemary." Apparently Levin wrote some bad books, too!

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  5. Hi Bill - thanks for reminding me about A Kiss Before Dying - that was the first film made of a Levin novel, I will make that correction.

    And yes, I did read the unfortunate Son of Rosemary...Levin should definitely have quit while he was ahead.

    Thanks so much as always for stopping by!
    - Chris

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  6. Terrific post, Chris! Your thoughtful coverage highlights all of the aspects that make "Rosemary's Baby" a top notch film of its genre. By the way, I also own the Criterion Blu-ray edition, and it is a great disc!

    John V of "John V's Eclectic Avenue"

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  7. Rosemary's Baby is two-edged for me as I admire it, but it leaves me drained and frightened. It's not something I want to return to often. I wasn't even sure I wanted to read about it, but your insights and ability to convey the sense of the film was a real treat.

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  8. Hi John - thanks for stopping by! Glad to hear you own the Criterion blu ray as well... the film is a visual feast!
    - C

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  9. Hi CaftanWoman thank you for taking the time to read and comment. I agree that this film is both disturbing and unsettling...and I am obsessed with analyzing and deconstructing all the elements that come together to create these emotions for the filmgoer-- script, music, camera choices etc. film really is a medium that takes you on a journey, but I do understand not wanting to take the trip that Roman and Rosemary are taking us on. It is indeed chilling.

    Thanks again for reading!!
    - Chris

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  10. Great post here on "Rosemary's Baby", incredibly depth and a much-deserved thorough approach to such an expertly crafted film. I'm no stranger to tackling Polanski for a blogathon myself: I analyzed his version of "Macbeth" for the Criterion blogathon a couple years back.

    I notice "Macbeth" is absent from your list of great Polanski films. Was that intentional, did it slip your mind, or have you not seen it and didn't want to exalt something you were unfamiliar with?

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  11. Hi Derek - thank you so much for stopping by and for your kind comments.
    You are right, I did not list every Polanski film of note--Macbeth, Fearless Vampire Killers, Tess, The Tenant and Cul de Sac are a few of the glaring omissions because I don't know them all that well. But I do need to give his lauded Macbeth another look one of these days... it is, as I remember, quite grisly and unnerving, as it was his first film after the murder of Sharon Tate.
    Thanks again for coming by!
    - Chris

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  12. Hi Chris
    This exceptional piece on one of my favorite films is perhaps my favorite of all your posts!
    You do a marvelous job of highlighting Polanski's contributions and style; backstory and factoids; you own experience of the film; and critique of the film itself. All in a very breezy read that finds new points of interest in a much written-about film.
    I'm referencing your taking note of Rosemary being a conflicted view of womanhood. I think that's very true and one of the things that makes her character so enduring and compelling...she comes off like a complex, flawed human being, not a pawn in service of a narrative.
    Just looking at the screencaps and reading your thoughtful take on Polanski the man/Polanski the director reminds me of how overdue I am for a revisit to this film. Thanks so much for the very kind and generous shutout, and with this and your previous post on The Omen series, it's clear that your brief trip to the dark side has been a boon to us film fans.

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  13. Hi Ken - thank you so much for your kind words and support. Your Le Cinema Dreams blog is an inspiration to me and all your readers. Obviously you could tell that this is one of my top 5 favorite films...my enthusiasm must have shined through.
    - Chris

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  14. I haven't seen Rosemary's Baby but this was a fascinating write-up. This film seems so modern that it's funny to see so many classic movie actors making appearances in it.

    Thanks so much for participating in this blogathon!

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  15. Hi Phyllis - thank YOU so much for hosting the blogathon with Quiggy! So much fun.
    Look forward to reading your post on Capra.
    -Chris

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  16. Great post! I invite you to submit it to this week's The Classic Movie Marathon Link Party. It ends tonight at midnight so if you miss this one, there is a new one each Monday night at 8 pm ET http://classicmovietreasures.com/classic-movie-marathon-link-party-10/

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  17. Hi Elaine - thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed.
    And yes, I'll be over soon to participate in the Link Party!
    :-)
    -Chris

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  19. Chris-- Sorry I'm so late to the party...missed this one!

    One of your best, by the way, you really covered all the angles here, thoughtfully.

    I really love how 'Rosemary's Baby' captures an era that was in chaos. And your comments on how Polanski contrasts that with bright colors and comical characters, is spot on.

    And I always wondered how faithful the movie was to the book...thanks for clearing that up : )

    This is just a matter of tastes, but I've never been too keen on either of the leads. Though Mia Farrow as Rosemary has grown on me over the years, it didn't help that she played latter roles like 'Secret Ceremony' and 'See No Evil' in much the same manner. Plus, Farrow seems fragile from the start. But she definitely gives her all here and has a number of iconic moments.

    Have you ever seen Tuesday Weld in 'Pretty Poison,' which came out the same year as 'Rosemary's Baby?' Weld is fascinating, and I think her healthy, All-American exterior deteriorating as Rosemary would have been riveting.

    As for John Cassavetes, I feel the same about him as his pal, Ben Gazzara. The minute they appear on screen, you expect them to be the bad guy. Plus Cassavetes was nearly 40, and looked it, playing a struggling actor. I think Robert Redford, again, with his All-American image, turning out to be the All-American sell-out, would have been fascinating. But Redford, protective of his image from the start, turned it down.

    Hey, I'm a Movie Couch Potato casting director!

    A great read, Chris
    Cheers,
    Rick

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  20. Hey Rick, thanks so much for stopping by!
    Agreed, Mr. Redford would have made quite an unexpected and interesting Guy Woodhouse. And indeed, Tuesday Weld would have been fascinating as Rosemary, though my heart still belongs to Mia--in spite of the putrid Secret Ceremony!!
    I always appreciate your thoughts on these iconic films!
    -Chris

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  21. Agree that this movie is timeless. Probably watch once a year.

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  22. Hi Sue, thanks for commenting! Rosemary is just as chilling 50 years after its debut!
    -Chris

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  23. Anonymous5:06 PM

    Hey Chris! One of the scariest movies ever made. Why, because it is so realistic! I can just imagine that there are some Witches today living in The Dakota! The sets, music and of course the amazing cast makes this a movie people born in the 1960s and 1970s will never forget! I saw it on TV in the early 1970s and it scares the hell out of me!
    Thanks for your wonderful articles.
    Chris Allen

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    1. Hi Chris Allen - yes, it is a masterpiece in every way. Thanks for reading and commenting!

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