Product: Rosemary's Baby (El Bebe de Rosemary) [ NON-USA FORMAT, NTSC, Reg.4 Import - Latin America ] (1968)
Rating: 4.0
"He's got his father's eyes."
This quintessentially 1960s film should be considered director Roman Polanski's masterwork.Rosemary (Mia Farrow in her ingenue phase) is a young wife, married to the controlling and unpleasant Guy (John Cassavetes) a struggling Broadway actor who, for the sake of success, gives not his soul but his wife's body to the Devil. What Rosemary doesn't know is that her neighbors are all members of a witch coven dedicated to seeing Satan's spawn brought healthfully and happily into the world.Polanski's genius here is that he is able to take the utterly ordinary and add to it bit by bit until the viewer is ready to shriek along with Rosemary as she discovers the true nature of her child.Even the physical setting of the film adds to the tension. Polanski filmed ROSEMARY'S BABY in The Dakota, a fearfully gothic-style residential building on Central Park West and 72nd Street (later, sadly the site of John Lennon's murder).When this film was released in 1968 it was considered terrifying. Not until 1973's THE EXORCIST was a supernatural film to have such a memorable impact on the American psyche.Ruth Gordon won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Rosemary's busybody neighbor, who ensures that the little devil growing within her has the proper nutrients.The film is a time capsule classic of late '60s mores as well. Some of it is laughable now. People mock Rosemary's Vidal Sassoon hairdo throughout the film; one afternoon, Guy surprises his pregnant wife with a carton of unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes as a gift; he ensures that they drink fairly copious amounts of alcohol daily; people smoke pipes and cigars around her with abandon; and Guy shouts at Rosemary and bosses her in a way that seems absolutely insulting today, especially considering the fact that Rosemary initially has a difficult pregnancy and feels like complete hell.Enjoyable and still oddly disturbing, anyone interested in classic horror films needs to see ROSEMARY'S BABY.