630 Rosemary's Baby

[dadaistnun]

This was a must-buy for me anyway, but the Komeda doc really seals the deal. It's easily my most anticipated release on the schedule right now.

[jedgeco]

The Komeda doc is 70 minutes, so it probably will be two DVDs. I agree though, about the somewhat disappointing slate of extras. A commentary would have been nice.

Why are so many of the extras only tangentially related to the film itself? You've got a doc on the composer, which I haven't seen, but I'd be shocked if it devotes more than 5 minutes to Rosemary (although to be fair, it might cover his other collaborations with Polanski). Two supplements appear to focus primarily on the source novel. Unless the interviews with Polanski, Farrow, and Evans are uncommonly compelling, you're not getting much that actually supplement the movie.

[HerrSchreck]

It does seem a little tangential to the matter at hand, i e Rosemary's baby. That was my first thought, re this central extra in the set. I can pretty much get interested in anything if I open the cerebral valves without prejudice, but still. . . it does seem an inch off to the side.

But. O well- will be nice to see this most eerie film sparkle with that Palazzola lustre (if indeed CC personnel are sitting in on the telecine).

[ryannichols7]

they could always tack something else on, as they did for A Night to Remember and Certified Copy, which both cemented both of those discs' in the top of the year.

[MichaelB]

It does seem a little tangential to the matter at hand, i e Rosemary's baby. That was my first thought, re this central extra in the set. I can pretty much get interested in anything if I open the cerebral valves without prejudice, but still. . . it does seem an inch off to the side.

I suspect Polanski himself might have been involved with its selection - he absolutely worshipped Komeda and his music, and was devastated by his shockingly premature death.

And Komeda is nowhere near as well known outside Poland as many Poles think he should be - passing through Sopot the other month, I realised I was driving along the Aleja Krzysztofa Komedy (or Krzysztof Komeda Avenue), and I understand that that's far from the only place named after him.

It was a pretty central street as well, not tucked away off some obscure back alley.

[MichaelB]

Blu-ray.com - which confirms that the extras are a fair bit more substantial than previously thought, with a combined running time of 138 minutes. So it's not hard to see why the DVD edition is a two-discer.

[krnash]

I don't know if I've ever gotten so excited reading a blu-ray review before.

[colinr0380]

DVD Beaver

[mfunk9786]

I don't know if I've ever gotten so excited reading a blu-ray review before.

[barryconvex]

I managed to snag an early copy of this is and i have to say the "Making of" doc on the 2nd disc is superb.Everyone is extremely forthcoming especially:

SpoilerShow

Mia Farrow talking about her failing marriage during the production-Sinatra actually served her with divorce papers in the middle of shooting-And Polanski talking about his dislike of working with Cassavettes.I never knew about any of that and Rosemary's Baby is one of my very favorite films.I would've like a little more on Ruth Gordon but it certainly doesn't ruin the piece for me.

For me this is right up there with the best criterion features and is probably my favorite release of the year...

[manicsounds]

bluraydefinition review

[The Narrator Returns]

I suppose that Criterion is now widely advertising their higher-profile titles.

[knives]

Rewatching this (don't have the Blu yet, but rented it to prep for Halloween) I was mostly left depressed over how the social aspect of this film still holds up which is just criminal. The film practically runs like a parody on the republican platform with a woman forced to carry her rape baby to term and everyone from medical professionals to husband telling her she is insane for wanting to take control of her own body emphasizing the importance of a son over the mother. The supernatural aspect seems mostly a gag in the film, but that brutal abuse of Farrow might be all the more real for it as if you could make the film without any supernatural elements and have it be just as believable.

[Niale]

Mia Farrow has such amazing legs! With those two remarkable assets... How can one call Rosemary's Baby a HORROR film?
The film is quite remarkable, It depicts human's as opportunists, and religion as contradictory to this nature.
The two pope bashing scenes had me smiling ear to ear. I rather like to imagine that in this film, the birth of Satan's son, is a GOOD thing.
"Its nice to know there are people like that, when you hear so much about apathy". That line is one of the keys to the film I think. We know that she is mistaken, that these are NOT altruistic people, and if there indeed ARE "people like that"... They are few and far between, thus making the birth of MAN... The birth of a BEAST!

[R0lf]

I think by casting Farrow the brutal abuse is also given another element. Farrow lends an extremely unsympathetic side to Rosemary leading the audience to have a little bit more of an empathetic reaction to her attackers than they rightly should.

I think an interesting contrast to Farrow in Rosemary's Baby is Liz Taylor in Night Watch. It might be down to the different intent in Night Watch but with the same set up as Rosemary's Baby and Liz placed in the role of the victim of those surrounding her Liz never for a moment really becomes vulnerable or a victim in the same way Farrow does.

Oh you could make a Mia and Liz triple theme feature for Halloween - Rosemary's Baby, Night Watch, Secret Ceremony!

[colinr0380]

The two pope bashing scenes had me smiling ear to ear. I rather like to imagine that in this film, the birth of Satan's son, is a GOOD thing.

I watched it again last night as well - you know the way that Cronenberg when talking about Videodrome says that he decided to take the idea from critics that television did cause violence as if it were true as a jumping off point? Well the thing that I found very funny about this film was the idea that this is a very pointed Catholic moral dilemma film: abortion is wrong in any circumstance? Well, what if that circumstance is the birth of the antichrist? That is what makes that final acceptance of being the new anti-Mary kind of ironic as it is someone who cannot abort or kill her new baby just making the best of a bad situation.

(I also love that idea of just being a vessel and the way that as soon as the baby is born, everyone suddenly just drops the caring attitude towards you now that your function is over! I guess that is part of what leads into post-partum depression?)

Those flashbacks/dreams are still stunning and extremely disturbing in the way that the real sounds merge with guilt or hopeful fantasies which feel very Repulsion-esque. It was also quite touching and haunting the way that in such an enclosed, claustrophobic film these fantasies represent Rosemary's only real escapes from those stifling rooms and nosy neighbours, but those brief escapes are also when she lets her guard down for the worse betrayals to occur.

While watching it last night I was really struck by the way that the plot of Ira Levin's later novel The Stepford Wives has much the same structure as Rosemary's Baby, just with a more technological than ancient evil edge and with the introduction of a career as another element that the woman can lose - a seemingly idyllic setting (in a way the opening of The Stepford Wives with the family moving from New York to the suburbs could pick up where Rosemary left off!); the wonderfully sketched in friendship between Johanna and Bobby feels like an expansion of the brief scene between Rosemary and Terry, which again is brutally cut short; the women change from unruly individuals into a perfectly respectable cabal, compared to the witches here retaining their individual characteristics but being just as much of a force against the main character; the brief move outside of the suffocating atmosphere to try and get outside help, with that being the element that kicks off the final betrayal climax.

But most especially in the way that the central relationship crumbles as the husband makes another pact with the devil (including in this case an ex-Disney animatronics engineeer!) and the wife is left to move from suspicion to outright hatred - the trust crumbles in both relationships and the films show in no uncertain terms that it was right to have distrusted the husband all along. The only real flaw in either heroine is that she was far too slow and trusting to have not woken up to that fact sooner.

EDIT: And I had never put together the fact that Ira Levin wrote Sliver until the radio interview, although on watching the opening scenes of Rosemary's Baby again I was struck that the opening 'suicide' could have been similar to Terry's and the way that the main character was introduced walking through the open air atrium of her new apartment building! There's also that 'nosy neighbour' theme too! (SECOND EDIT: And on watching Sliver again, there is also the male friend that our lead character has who gets taken out of the picture early on!)

[matrixschmatrix]

Has anyone read Son of Rosemary, the book Levin is pimping in the interview? The wikipedia description makes it sound atrocious, but obviously wikipedia isn't a great critical resource.

[colinr0380]

I've not read it but from the descriptions he makes in that interview, it sounds very much like The Final Conflict: Omen III!

Could it be worse than the 70s TV movie sequel Look What's Happened To Rosemary's Baby?, in which all the characters return but are almost entirely re-cast, with only Ruth Gordon returning.

[MichaelB]

Why are so many of the extras only tangentially related to the film itself? You've got a doc on the composer, which I haven't seen, but I'd be shocked if it devotes more than 5 minutes to Rosemary (although to be fair, it might cover his other collaborations with Polanski).

It does indeed barely touch on Rosemary's Baby (I'm guessing Polish TV couldn't afford clip rights), and is generally fairly sketchy on the other Komeda-Polanski collaborations (Break Up The Ball and Two Men and a Wardrobe get the most coverage). But that hardly matters, as Komeda's work for Polanski has been extensively documented elsewhere, whereas there was tons here about his life, musical career and cultural importance in Poland that I didn't previously know.

It's an impressively generous extra - and the retrospective featurette on Rosemary's Baby is well worth a watch too.

[Steven H]

I'd say the interviews were "uncommonly compelling." It's hard to remember exactly what Evans said, though. That he was practically glowing bronze while wearing a bright silver satin shirt probably has something to do with this memory loss.

[colinr0380]

By the way if you want another take on the fracturing Mia Farrow/Frank Sinatra relationship of that time I would also recommend listening to the commentary by Tom Atkins, that star of the the also recently released Halloween III: Season of the Witch. He and his interviewer go through some of his major roles in his career, including his first feature role in The Detective! (Atkins also does an extremely funny impression of Tony Richardson and mentions some shocking stories about Nicol Williamson getting thrown out of Hungary on The Ninth Configuration, causing a last minute casting change!)

[jedgeco]

That he was practically glowing bronze while wearing a bright silver satin shirt probably has something to do with this memory loss.

I've only popped the disc in to to a brief check, and I started this extra, saw Evans, and couldn't have been more pleased that all of my stereotypes about him were instantly confirmed.

[Duncan Hopper]

I've not read it but from the descriptions he makes in that interview, it sounds very much like The Final Conflict: Omen III!

Could it be worse than the 70s TV movie sequel Look What's Happened To Rosemary's Baby?, in which all the characters return but are almost entirely re-cast, with only Ruth Gordon returning.

Interestingly, (or not) Look What's Happened To Rosemary's Baby? was directed by the editor of Rosemary's Baby - Sam O'Steen.

O'Steen of course also went on to edit Chinatown and Frantic for Polanski.

[escobar741]

The doc is very interesting but did anybody have a problem with the subtitles? I think more care should have been taken over them: in places they are very hard to see against the lighter backgrounds, and the very long job titles of the various interviewees should have been curtailed somewhat, although I dare say that was probably to do with the source (Polish TV).

[Koukol]

Has this release been successful for Criterion?

I would love to see more Polanski titles like FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, MACBETH and THE TENANT.

FVK has already had the HD treatment, someone just needs to release it.