Repulsion (1965)

The opening shot of Repulsion is a close up of the main character's eyes. They're shifting and jump cuts are being employed to tell the viewer that something is not quite right. The eyes belong to Carole who is played by the stunning Catherine Deneuve. The viewer gets a subjective view through these eyes but because it's a slow descension into insanity the protagonist is unreliable at best. There isn't much explanation for why the events are happening so all you can do is look on in horror at what unfolds in front of you.

The predominant issue that contributes to Carole's descent into psychosis is her fear of men and sex. We only get hints as to why this is. Whether it be the disgust she shows towards her sister's married boyfriend or her avoidance of a sincere suitor. She is sexually repressed but also repulsed by the thought of sex. It seems her only sexual experience(s) was traumatic and has informed her perspective of it. The past not only informs who we are in general, but who we are sexually.


Throughout the film there are constant noises, whether it be a ticking clock, the church bell across the street or a piano being played in the building. When she walks to work, she has to deal with whizzing cars and busy sidewalks. It doesn't help that she can hear her sister having sex in the next room at night. The only moments in the film of silence are of nightmarish hallucinations she suffers. They are truly horrifying and don't reduce her repulsion towards men.

After her sister goes on vacation, Carole starts to crack. She barricades herself in her apartment to keep the outside world from coming in. Her apartment becomes a major character. The rooms become distorted and she starts to crack up as do the walls that surround her. This begins the spiral of insanity.


Repulsion wouldn't be the film it is without Catherine Deneuve. She is cast as a shy beauty who is masking a lot of problems. Her beauty is so sensational that the people around her don't notice that anything is wrong with her. They only see her at face value — they don't know her repressive nature. It is not often in a film where you see a woman's beauty being used to add depth to her character. Deneuve would revisit sexual repression, though in a very different manner, in the impressive film Belle De Jour.

Repulsion influenced many that came after it, including Eraserhead. Both films have similar dreary interiors, sharp black and white photography and include rotting as symbolism. Roman Polanski's direction in Repulsion is pitch perfect and he hits every note just right. The interior lighting is exceptionally used to show the mental state Carole is in. The segues are some of the best I've seen and the slow build up throughout is intense. He uses the same subjective storytelling that he would perfect in his masterpiece Chinatown. This is both psychological thriller and horror at it's best.


Horror is an inconsistent genre filled with loud music to scare the audience, cliches and corny stories. Most don't have the patience to build suspense nor give you characters to empathize with. They show gruesome imagery without any context or meaning behind it. They're throw away movies that are forgotten after their opening weekend, until the sequel comes out. If filmmakers in the horror genre would watch this film(and others like it)and allow it's influence into their work, the world would be a better place and a less repulsive one at that.

Shutter Island (2010)

Shutter Island is more than just a schlocky B movie homage. It's Martin Scorsese having fun with genre tropes while simultaneously subverting them and adding emotional depth. There's an artifice throughout the film that will turn some off of it. This style is intentional on Scorsese's part. He and Thelma Schoonmaker do an incredible job of constantly throwing the audience for a loop. Whether it be purposeful continuity errors(one I loved involved a particular glass of water) or what some have deemed awkward editing. It's the same technique Kubrick used in movies like A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. It fittingly throws you into the world that they've created with this movie.


Leonardo DiCaprio, in what is a great performance, plays US Marshal Teddy Daniels. He and his partner(played by the always reliable Mark Ruffalo) come to the island to help find an inmate named Rachel Solando. Once they reach the island they encounter strange and suspicious activity on the part of everyone, including the guards and doctors.(two of the doctors played by the wonderful Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow) Something's not right and Teddy intends to find out, but how far down the rabbit hole is he willing to go and what are the consequences of doing so?


Teddy has flashbacks, dreams and fantasies that carry the real emotional weight of the film. Some will write off the dreams he has of his wife(Michelle Williams) as empty surrealism. The fact of the matter is that these dreams are very important in the framework of the film. The subtle chemistry between DiCaprio and Williams along with his longing memory of her is heartbreaking. He is obsessed with her memory and cannot and will not let her go. Scorsese is once again visiting the theme of obsession. It's a similar obsession to Jimmy Stewart's in Hitchcock's Vertigo. It also has subtle homages to his favorites like The Red Shoes, The Shining, Shock Corridor, The Trial, Vertigo and so many more will be a delight for many that have seen those films.


The core of the movie has to do with Teddy's investigation on the island. His interactions with characters like Ben Kingsley's Dr. Cawley are often surreal and cloaked in mystery. There's also small roles by Jackie Earle Haley, Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson as well as other class actors. Like the movie Mulholland Drive, nothing makes sense but everything counts. Every little clue and interaction and every word. It's no wonder that Scorsese got such great talent even in the smallest of roles. Every part of the puzzle is important and the audience gets a subjective view of the proceedings through Teddy's perspective. You find out every detail along with him.

Many have and will see the movie and think they guessed a twist here or what can be thought of as a gimmick in the narrative there. The fact of the matter is that in the deft hands of Scorsese, he takes what could have been a cliche addled story and subverts it. The movie isn't about any particular twist or turn, it's about Teddy's character. It's about the memory of his wife, his alcoholism and his experience liberating a concentration camp in Dauchau during World War II. These are all things he deals with on Shutter Island while at the same time trying to solve his case. Will he solve his case or will Shutter Island and it's mysterious forces swallow him whole?

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

"...In those days, they had time for everything. Time for sleigh rides, and balls, and assemblies, and cotillions, and open house on New Year's, and all-day picnics in the woods, and even that prettiest of all vanished customs: the serenade. Of a summer night, young men would bring an orchestra under a pretty girl's window, and flute, harp, fiddle, cello, cornet, bass viol, would presently release their melodies to the dulcet stars. Against so home-spun a background, the magnificence of the Ambersons was as conspicuous as a brass band at a funeral."

This is part of the opening narration by Orson Welles in his follow-up to Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons. It is with this that I immediately fell for this film and it's melancholy romanticism. It's an opening that Wes Anderson was heavily influenced by and his opening to The Royal Tenenbaums is undoubtedly proof of that. Orson Welles, while having a hard time maintaining his stamp on his own films, still does so with films that have come after him.

I should get to the background of the movie out of the way. The Magnificent Ambersons is a movie that had a very tumultuous post production. Orson Welles left to work on another movie in Brazil and while he did, the studio decided to re-cut it and re-shoot many of the scenes after test audiences called it too depressing. The movie's length was originally 131 minutes and what is left as it is now is 88 minutes. The finished product is only partially Orson Welles vision and work. Regardless of this, it's still considered by many one of the greatest American movies ever made and I'd be hard pressed to say they're wrong.

The movie begins in 1873 and stars Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt and Anne Baxter. The Ambersons are the richest people in town and are the picture of decadence and class. The young daughter Isabelle is being courted by Eugene(Cotten). In his attempt to serenade Isabelle, Eugene falls onto his instrument and ruins his chances with Isabelle as she ends up humiliated. She goes on to marry another man and they have a son named George(Holt). Georgie grows to be a spoiled man that can be described as an arrogant mama's boy who thinks the world owes him everything.



Soon Eugene comes back into the picture and through subtle gestures and words it is made obvious that there are still feelings there, that they've always been there with Eugene and Isabelle. Eugene arrives with his daughter Lucy(Anne Baxter) and George becomes possessive of her and jealous of the attention she gets from other men. Despite the fact that Lucy becomes a romance for George, he can't help but step on his own feet by being rude to his possible future father-in-law and/or stepfather Eugene.

It is within this narrative that we are introduced to such a great display of romantic longing between Eugene and Isabelle in their older age. They've lost time with one another and are still having a hard time being together. This along with the juxtaposition of the brashness and naivety of George brings a great comparison in the ages and their wisdom or lack thereof. George is so caught up with disliking Eugene that he has a hard time convincing Lucy of his love for her. Lucy isn't so excited that George has no career aspirations as he implies working is beneath him.



I have a hard time finding many faults with this movie. Despite the tacked on ending, it still worked for me in the context of the film. Despite many scenes not having Welles' directorial touch, they still are able to bring emotion and entertainment to the table. The performances are all great, especially that of Joseph Cotten with whom I've never been disappointed. Every aspect of the production no matter how troubled comes together to make a beautiful picture.

And with that, I hope you seek out and bask in the magnificence of the Ambersons.

A Simple Goal.

I've decided to document through this blog my future adventures through cinema. The reason I've called it Film Osmosis is because with time, watching movies becomes a slow process of absorption. I will share with anyone and everyone that wants to read my absorption of cinema from different countries, languages, topics and perspectives.

I've always been fond of film but it wasn't until a few years ago that they became a passion of mine. I've discovered the work of masters like Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Andrei Tarkovsky, Akira Kurosawa and many others. I've discovered that movies aren't just about plot but also, among other things, about characters and themes and emotions. It's often the authenticity of these aspects that draw me to them.

One of the greatest aspects in having a passion for film is that no matter how much I generalize it, it will never offer a glimpse into the singular experiences one has with specific films. The excitement you feel when Roger Thornhill is dodging a cropduster in a cornfield in North By Northwest, Lawrence going back for a fallen man at the risk of dying in the Nefud Desert in Lawrence of Arabia or Guido escaping into his dreams and fantasies to avoid the realities of having no idea how to make his film in 8 1/2. These are the moments I live for in my viewing experience and hopefully with this blog I can share those moments with anybody that will read.