repulsion is the story...actually, there isn't much of a story to it. it's more of a character study. a study of character who is straight up nut-balls. the movie's main character is carole, played by catherine deneuve (absolutely wow), who is described as "a bit strung up." that's putting it lightly. carole is disconnected from reality. people assume she's daydreaming, free-spirited. after all she's young and beautiful and there's never anything wrong with the young and the beautiful. all they see is a pretty face. oh, how they are wrong. oh god are they wrong. oh god...
obviously there is something wrong with carole. she displays neurotic tendencies. she's desperately attached to her sister and can't stand isolation. so when she begs her sister not to go on a week long holiday it's not because she's dramatic and wants the attention but because she knows she can't handle it. which is to say, with a little help and understanding the following events never would have happened. which is also to say, this movie would make a great case for the need for health care reform and the revision of best medical practices. anyways...back to the crazies. the first act of repulsion is a little tedious as we go through the seemingly normal day-to-day of carole's life. sure she seems a little off but she's a french woman in england. she's homesick. she's sick sick. she's just wistful. who knows? it's not until she's left alone to take care of herself we see how bad it really is. the nightmares inside her head start to manifest themselves into her reality. the walls of her apartment literally start crumbling around her. hands burst through the walls to try and grab her. a strange disgusting man continually breaks in and assaults her.
and why is there this strange man anyways? several times he sneaks into her bedroom and forces himself on her. well, im no psychologist, but i would say it's because most of her neurosis relates heavily to sexual anxiety. early on in the movie, carole is haunted by her sister's love-making moans through the wall. she persistently spurns the advances of men and freezes up around any acts of intimacy. later on she'll go at great lengths to prove her point (i used to want a straight razor, now not so much). she seems to have no real concept of what it means to be an adult. a lot of her actions could be interpreted as childlike and immature: wearing lingerie around strange company (a sort of naïveté), lashing out violently (ie. temper tantrums) to things that she doesn't understand or feels threatened by, etc. so this strange assaulter could be seen as a manifestation of this threat she feels from sexuality/men in general.
furthermore, it could be something similar to a rape fantasy. there's a couple of reasons i say this. the first is her relationship to her sister. she depends on her sister for support and direction. her sister's disappearance more than likely caused an intense episode of attachment anxiety which started the nightmarish series of events. studies have shown that women with attachment anxiety have more sexual fantasies featuring submissiveness. people who fear abandonment like other people who can't help but force themselves onto them. futhermore, a lot of times these types of fantasies are attempts to transform difficult experiences (aka. childhood trauma, aka. rape or even incest) into pleasure. an attempt to master their trauma by taming their experiences.
speaking of childhood trauma! the only hint of her past the viewer gets keyed in on is a family photo from long ago. in it we see carole, standing off by herself in the background, her face twisted in some sort of sour grimace which seems to indicate that her demons had already begun to take form back then. my sick misguided theory is that the evil scowl and death stare she's giving in the photo directed straight towards her father, who just so happens to be in the direction she's looking. yes, i'm making the conclusion that the trauma she experienced was from too much contact between her and dear old dad. which could also explain why she's stuck in her child-like behavior. it was the last time her mind existed free of trauma so it stuck itself there.
at the very least repulsion is a movie about something so beautiful that it can only see the ugly in everything around it - a sort of obsessive compulsion to the repulsive. it's sad in that way. in a lot of ways really...but overall this movie has some really cool concepts going on (relationship of space, lighting, sound and environment to the psyche) and the effects don't even look that dated. well some more than others i guess.
bonus:: another music video. this time the cardigans (i would feel better posting this if it was lovefool or my favorite game, but i actually like the cardigans so im not going to be ashamed about this). more a direct lift of the movie than the justice one:
0 comments:
Post a Comment