Tannis Anyone?

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2007)

Movies were constantly raising the bar for shocking in the late Sixties but few succeeded like this one. It was one of the last films officially 'Condemned' by the Catholic Legion of Decency. The dream sequences were easily the best of their time and continue to hold up well. Polanski's delight in the medium is palpable throughout but it never distracts from the narrative. The movie's texture --sophisticated Manhattan, but attainable-- resonates beautifully in the Christmas season scenes and later, when the temperature rises and Rosemary fumbles in a public phone booth. Note the gay friends at Ro and Guy's party. All the actors are in top form. Mia Farrow, lovely and vulnerable but crucially believable. Cassavettes as an ambitious actor, young but his biological clock is ticking. Did the Catholic Church get it right? This exemplifies the subversive power of cinema.