Product: Rosemary's Baby (El Bebe de Rosemary) [ NON-USA FORMAT, NTSC, Reg.4 Import - Latin America ] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
a captivating masterpiece
Rosemary's Baby really isn't as shocking as it must have been when it was released in theaters, but I greatly admire this movie. While the shock effect really wasn't there (for me at least), there is great acting; suspense; drama; excellent sets; a well written script that allows for good character development and fine cinematography. The choreography was very well done, too. The action moves along at a pace that is neither too slow nor too fast; I was thoroughly entertained even without any major shocks.When the action starts, we meet a young couple, Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse (Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes) who move into a stately but old and poorly lit apartment house which was probably meant to appear creepy at the time. (It is Manhattan's Dakota apartment building, actually.) They soon meet their remarkably nosy neighbors Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer). When Rosemary and Guy decide to have their first child, Rosemary is at first ecstatic--but it's just about this time that some rather strange things begin to occur. Rosemary's new young friend in the apartment building is found dead from suicide; and Rosemary has a dream that she is being forced into intimacy with none other than Satan himself! Guy and the rest all insist she's just imagining things; and they encourage her to continue seeing a reportedly brilliant but somewhat peculiar obstetrician, Dr. Abraham Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy).Time passes and as her health becomes worse (Rosemary loses weight in the first two or three months of her pregnancy and she has sharp stomach pains that won't go away), Rosemary begins to believe that something is seriously wrong. However, she is still encouraged by others to stay with Dr. Sapirstein and ignore her increasing suspicions that some of these people--and perhaps even their neighbors the Castevets--practice witchcraft.All this, of course, can lead toward many interesting and unusual situations; and it's all very well done. I could tell you much, much more but I don't want to spoil it for you!The DVD comes with a "making of" featurette; and there are retrospective interviews with drector/sreenplay writer Roman Polanski, producer Robert Evens and production designer Richard Sylbert. Look also for a great performance by veteran actress Patsy Kelly as Laura-Louise McBirney, another elderly and nosy neighbor in the apartment building; and actress Victoria Vetri has a small part as Terry, a young woman living with the Castevets. Maurice Evans plays Rosemary's friend "Hutch;" and Charles Grodin plays another obstetrician, Dr. C.C. Hill.Rosemary's Baby may not have scared me as much as it was meant to scare me, but I truly appreciate this film and I can tell you it's a classic! Classic movie buffs may want this for their collections and of course fans of the horror genre will surely want this, too. It's also a great film for fans of the actors in it.