1965, 100 minutes
w/ Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, Yvonne Furneaux
[Considered one of the most daring films put to celluloid, Polanski paints a vivid and horrifying portrait of a sexually repressed tenant played by the beautiful Catherine Deneuve. The film's suspense builds slowly, giving subtle motivation for Deneuve's psycho-sexual problems, namely living with her older sister who has loud, orgasmic sex down the hall when she's trying to sleep. Deneuve has a "boyfriend," but seems to be repulsed (I swear I just got that) by him when he tries to touch her. When her sister goes on a vacation with her man , Deneuve slowly loses it, first through illusions that someone is in/outside the apartment, than eventually that she is being raped (this dipping into insanity is slyly implied when she sits on a bench facing a split in the concrete). She's sent home from her beauty parlor job after "accidentally" cutting a woman's finger while clipping her nails, and this further isolation causes her to spiral out of control with what's real and what's not. She enters a struggle with her mind and these sexual fantasies/nightmares up until the final, quiet conclusion. Deneuve gives a brave performance and Polanski's direction, especially of images, is top notch and drives the film more than anything.]
***1/2
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