Claustrophobia, Paranoia and Farrow Mia ...

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2011)

No bleeding, no screaming, no killing, but an absolutely terrifying cinematic experience. In "Rosemary's Baby", Roman Polanski's horror masterpiece, the terror is induced by two universal feelings that nourished the imagination of our worst nightmares: being alone and being vulnerable. But what's the secret of Roman's 'baby'?
Loneliness. "Rosemary's Baby" conveys a disturbing paranoid feeling all through the film, thanks to Roman Polanski's Hitchcockian virtuosity. He invites us to a cheerful and hospitable space while suggesting its claustrophobic scariness. Space plays a significant part to the story as it's constantly invaded by nosy neighbors and it gets more difficult to escape from it. The apartment which looked so spacious in the beginning, gets smaller as the movie progresses, increasing Rosemary's discomfort and ours. The yellow walls are like the bars of a golden cage keeping Rosemary alone in a suffocating atmosphere ... and still, Polanski's direction is so nuanced that we also consider the possibility of a simple case of paranoia.
Anyway, Mia Farrow was perfect as she genuinely embodies vulnerability. She naturally plays a young and sweet woman dreaming of having a baby and living in perfect harmony with her husband, Guy Woodhouse, portrayed by John Cassavettes. But fate lead her to the apartment right behind the Castevets' walls, Roman and Minnie, a peculiar old couple with an obnoxious nosiness. And poor Rosemary is like these shy little creatures who try to remain friendly only to hide their discomfort. Her kindness rhymes with weakness, and as if she was carrying paranoia with her baby, the more certain she'll be about the conspiracy and the necessity to protect her unborn child, the weaker and more vulnerable she'll get. How ironic ... Even the evolution of her clothes, her hair style, her pale complexion indicate a progressive sickness as if Polanski broke a taboo by depicting pregnancy with the same symbolism as for the hostile closed space. Rosemary trapped in the secret and by the secret growing in her ...
Rosemary's fragility is beautifully incarnated by the feminine score that accompanies the film, a music like for a cosmetic advertisement, so inconveniently peaceful we figure that there's a horrific element waiting to provide a shocking contrast. But we're only given hints during the film ... the most eloquent being the dream sequence which is so tactfully directed that despite Rosemary's shouting, we really have the feeling that this "is a dream" and NOT "really happening". We have in this scene an excellent direction by the precocious genius Roman Polanski who could have betrayed the movie's terrible secret had he handled this crucial part with a too ambitious approach. No, it was horrific enough to scare us, but surrealistic enough to be associated with a dream. The rest of the film keeps a realism that keeps our guard down, thinking that the secret is only on the surface, or that again, Rosemary may be victim of paranoia  such a brilliantly furnished plot has no room for obviousness.
And the 'plot', in every meaning of the word, works thanks to the masterfully constructed script. I was fooled, but I'm glad I was. The originality in "Rosemary's Baby" is that even the lead character couldn't know about a secret that could only be revealed after the pregnancy. She's both the most and least likely person to know and this is the horrific element driving the last act. It almost starts like Polanski's "Chinatown" set in an apartment, where we try to put and reassemble the pieces of the puzzle together with Rosemary, inhabited by a new strength : a poignant motherly instinct inspiring her to protect her baby from the claws of the Castevets and the others. The rest is probably one of the most thrilling experiences I've ever had.
The whole direction of the film consists on following a poor creature lonely and fragile trying to escape from the influence of many dangerous individuals, that 'All of Them' feeling getting more and more unbearable as no one seems to help her. And the irony is that these individuals, took alone, are quite harmless, especially, Minnie Castevet, played in a delightful performance by Ruth Gordon who deserved her Oscar as the nosy neighbor. And Guy Woodhouse is just a schmuck and an opportunistic bastard. But the strength lies within the group who's like a herd of greedy wolves with Rosemary as the poor little lamb. The story is perfect and totally fit for a horror film and I really believe Mia Farrow's performance should have earned her an Oscar nomination.
And how could I describe the famous second where Rosemary's, dressed in her pajamas, sees what's in the cradle ... the way she bugles her eyes and puts her hand in her mouth as to hide a horrific scream is probably one of the most iconic moments ever captured in a horror film. It's the quintessential shocking effect, the conclusion of a great thriller masterfully directed by Roman Polanski, and the end of a torment that was less a relief, than a realization of the degree of evil that could drive people, especially Guy who didn't hesitate to sell his soul to promote his career by providing his own woman's womb for that terrific project.
And yet, despite everything, the movie ends in an unexpectedly calm note as to suggest that either the motherly instinct can overcome the evil, either that Rosemary learned that the best she could do was to respond to her motherly duty and rock her baby to sleep  an ambiguity that reveals a secret to announce many others and makes the ending, despite the relief, even more terrifying
What's the secret of "Rosemary's Baby"? It just knows how to keep a secret ...