Look Who’s Growling, Too: Our Deep, Abiding Love of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby
Posted in Films, Halloween, Horror, Retrovirus |By John Lane and Less Lee Moore
Hands-down, Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby is one of our favorite horror movies of all time. We love it as much for what it doesn’t do as for what it does do. It seems that there’s a storm cloud of creepiness that settled upon this movie before, during, and after which makes it all the more fascinating. Like a lot of other things from the late sixties, it is a sinister relic from a haunted time. So here are our reasons why Rosemary’s Baby—behind and in front of the camera—is one of the most enduring, complex horror films ever committed to celluloid.
Screencap from dj_capslock
The apartment building where most of the action takes place is The Dakota, the infamous and imposing building in NYC where John Lennon was assassinated. Rumor has it that the ghosts of Lennon, Boris Karloff (most famous for playing the Frankenstein monster), and turn-of-the-century (the other one) children roam the premises. In Ira Levin’s original 1967 novel, the building is referred to as The Bramford, but interestingly, The Dakota is mentioned as a place Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse also considered when they were looking for apartments. They are warned by a friend of Rosemary’s against renting at The Bramford because it was the site of satantic worship and child murders years before.
Mia Farrow (Rosemary Woodhouse) was served with divorce papers by hubby Frank Sinatra’s legal representation on the set of the film. Once you’re done chewing on the fact that Mia Farrow was 21 when she married a 50 year-old Sinatra in ’66, then ponder just what it takes to be given the heave-ho by Sinatra in the first place. The year of the release of Rosemary’s Baby found young Mia chilling out with The Beatles, Mike Love, and the Maharashi in the Himalayas, if that gives you any idea of where her head was.
According to Wikipedia, Farrow’s acceptance of the role of Rosemary “incensed Sinatra, who had demanded she forgo her career when they wed, and he served her divorce papers via a corporate lawyer, in front of the cast and crew midway through filming.”
In addition, the papers were served during the filming of a scene in which a stressed-out, pregnant Rosemary is crying in her kitchen and being consoled by friends (who are also keeping husband Guy out of the kitchen). Polanski wanted to stop filming but Farrow refused. The juxtaposition of a controlling real-life husband/actor (Sinatra) with that of a controlling fictional husband/actor (the character of Guy is also an actor) is intriguing, to say the least.
Screencap from dj_capslock
John Cassavetes (Guy Woodhouse) clashed frequently with director Roman Polanski, which perhaps added an additional layer of tension to the proceedings. While Cassavetes took on Hollywood star roles to make money for his own artistic film endeavors on the side, he looked down upon the very star system that put bread and butter on his table. He complained frequently of the over-the-top things that Polanski ordered him to do, thinking them too obvious and at times, too demeaning.
One senses the “Let’s make love” scene, where Guy and Rosemary have just moved into their new apartment unit, is a scene that Cassavetes didn’t particularly like doing. And let’s face it, while Rosemary strikes me as particularly hot, there’s something off-putting about Cassavetes appearing to sigh reluctantly and yank the lamp-cord out of the wall as if to say, “OK, let’s get this over with.” The movie is replete with scenes like this where one gets the feeling it’s the umpteenth take.
This all results in a particularly striking case of life imitating art (or vice versa) as Cassavetes portrays Guy with a supercilious self-centeredness that makes one’s skin crawl. One feels an immense sympathy for poor, naïve Rosemary the ex-Catholic; Rosemary who just wants to have a baby and spend time with her young friends; Rosemary who we sense was a pawn in Guy’s world long before his pact with Old Scratch’s septuagenarian buddies. Rosemary is being smothered by the patriarchal world that would lead to the explosion of the feminist movement just a few years later. It is this manipulative, claustrophobic world that seems a larger threat than any Satanic spawn could ever be, and perhaps this strange, dark air is the true evil of the film.
A strange, dark air seems to surround the director Roman Polanski as well. The year after Rosemary’s Baby was released, his pregnant wife Sharon Tate (along with a host of others) were slaughtered by Charles Manson’s minions in their California home. Polanski was out of the state working on another film, and thus was spared direct involvement in that nightmarish evening.
Apparently the dark air didn’t really touch Ruth Gordon (Minnie Castevet) as she won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in ’69 for her role. And then later went on to play perhaps her best role ever as Maude in Harold and Maude. Maybe that was a perk for representin’ one of Satan’s minions? Who knows!
Screencap from dj_capslock
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