Catherine Deneuve is mesmerizing as a deeply troubled soul in Roman Polanski’s REPULSION
REPULSION (Roman Polanski, 1965)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
November 3-8
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
If you think Lower Manhattan was scary this last week while the power was out, just wait till you see Roman Polanski’s first English-language film, the 1965 psychological masterpiece Repulsion. Catherine Deneuve gives a mesmerizing performance as Carol Ledoux, a deeply troubled, beautiful young woman who shies away from the world, hiding something that has turned her into a frightened childlike creature who barely speaks. A manicurist who lives in London with her sister, Hélène (Yvonne Furneaux), Carol becomes entranced by cracks in the sidewalk, suddenly going nearly catatonic at their sight; in bed at night, she is terrified of the walls, which seem to break apart as she grips tight to the covers. A proper gentleman (John Fraser) is trying to start a relationship with her, but she ignores him or forgets about their meetings, unable to make any genuine connections. Deneuve’s every movement, from the blink of an eye to a wave of her hand, reveals Carol’s submerged inner turmoil and desperation, leading to an ending that is both shocking and not surprising. Shot in a creepy black-and-white by Gilbert Taylor (A Hard Day’s Night, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) and featuring a pulsating score by jazz legend Chico Hamilton, Repulsion is a brilliant journey into the limitations and possibilities of the human mind, with Polanski expertly navigating through a complex terrain. Winner of a pair of awards at the fifteenth Berlin International Film Festival, Repulsion, the first of Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy (followed by 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby and 1976’s The Tenant), will be screening in a new 35mm print November 3-8 at Film Forum, which is reopening this afternoon after having lost power because of Hurricane Sandy.
Set in a former hotel that itself was a subject on Ghost Detectives, Joe Raffa’s 6 Degrees of Hell is a Halloween horror flick that starts off promisingly before falling flat and careening into a meandering maelstrom. Paranormal investigator Kyle Brenner (Corey Feldman, who gets top billing but has very few scenes) has come to the small town of Metcalf to find out what happened one horrible night. Deputy Len Hendricks (Brian Anthony Wilson) fills him in as the story is told in a series of flashbacks in which Uncle Jack (Brian Gallagher) prepares his “Hotel of Horror” attraction with the help of Chris (David J. Bonner), Kelly (Ashley Sumner), Kellen (Raffa), and Rachel (Tereza Hakobyan), the classic quartet of partying youngsters who are either doomed from the start or destined to be heroes. They are joined by local ghost hunter Erik Sanborn (Kyle Patrick Brennan), who is harboring a secret of his own. Raffa (You’ll Know My Name) and screenwriter Harrison Smith fill 6 Degrees of Hell with references to a myriad of other horror movies, including, Night of the Living Dead, Friday the Thirteenth, The Exorcist, Fright Night, Creepshow, and the Hammer films, but it never manages to establish a uniqueness of its own. There are a handful of gruesome moments that are just excuses for blood and gore, leading to an infuriating ending that will disappoint the hell out of you. It’s better to keep several degrees of separation from this hackneyed haunted house movie.
Culinary documentarian Paul Lacoste details the handing over of a world-renowned restaurant business from father to son in the appetizing if not wholly satiating Step Up to the Plate. In 1999, Lacoste kicked off his “Inventing Cuisine” series with an inside look at gourmet chef Michel Bras, followed by episodes focusing on Pierre Gagnaire, Gérald Passédat, Michel Troisgros, Olivier Roellinger, Michel Guérard, Pascal Barbot, Alain Passard, and Nadia Santini. Ten years later, when he learned that Michel was retiring and his son, Sébastien, would be taking over, Lacoste asked if he could document the transition, resulting in the Bras family welcoming the director into their restaurants and homes, although the results are sometimes surprisingly distant and empty rather than intimate and revealing. Over the course of four seasons, Lacoste follows Michel and his wife, Ginette, and Sébastien and his wife, Véronique, and their two kids from their franchise three-Michelin-star restaurant in the Aubrac region in the south of France to the glorious, stunning Michel Bras Toya Japon situated atop a mountain in Japan. Much of the film focuses on Sébastien creating a new dish, a special request from the director; the deeply intent chef stares at the plate, knowing something is missing but not sure what it is, the camera lingering, a bit too long, on his consternation. When he ultimately brings the dish to his demanding father, Sébastien declares, “Stop looking, taste it! Food is for eating,” to which Michel responds, “But you look at it first, you know.” It is fascinating to watch just how central a role food as both reality and concept plays in this close family’s life, especially as they entertain thoughts of a fourth generation someday grabbing the reins. But while Step Up to the Plate will leave you hungry to eat at their restaurants, it will also leave you hungry for more from the film itself. Step Up to the Plate is screening on October 30 at 12:30, 4:00, and 7:00, concluding FIAF’s “Films for Foodies!” series; the 7:00 show will be presented by chef Jean-Louis Gerin, curator John Mariani, and film producer Jaime Mateus-Tique. [Ed. note: Because of Hurricane Sandy, this presentation has been canceled.]
“Are we not men?” declares the Sayer of the Law (Bela Lugosi) in Erle C. Kenton’s 1932 horror classic, Island of Lost Souls. (Yes, the phrase was eventually coopted by Devo.) After surviving a shipwreck, Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) soon finds himself on a very strange island where it appears that a madman named Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) is experimenting on living beings in rather inhumane ways. While his fiancée, Ruth Thomas (Leila Hyams), is trying to find him, Parker starts hanging around with Lota (Kathleen Burke), but there’s more to her than meets the eye. As Parker continues to poke around, he learns a little too much about what’s going on, meaning it just might be the House of Pain for him if he doesn’t watch out. Island of Lost Souls is a creepy pre-Code horror flick that holds up surprisingly well, with odd twists and turns that include more than just hints of torture, S&M, and bestiality. Laughton seems to be having a blast, pulling out his whip to tame his creations, enjoying it all way too much. It was quite a year for the British-born American actor, who also played Nero in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross and the title character (winning an Oscar) in Alexander Korda’s The Private Life of Henry VIII in 1932. Island of Lost Souls is based on the H. G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, which was also filmed in 1977 by Don Taylor, with Burt Lancaster as the doctor, Michael York as the curious wayward traveler, and Richard Basehart as the Sayer of the Law, and more famously by John Frankenheimer in 1997, with Marlon Brando as Moreau, David Thewliss as the shipwreck survivor, and Ron Perlman as the Sayer of the Law, often considered one of the worst films ever made.