I watched Rosemary's Baby for the first time last night. It's a masterpiece. It might be one of the best movie I've ever seen. It manages to be profoundly terrifying but also really darkly hilarious, and it's scary and creepy with almost no violence or gore, or even darkness or shadow. I love how Polanski dumps information on the audience and uses film techniques so that we're pretty sure what's happening like a third of the way through the movie, but are absolutely powerless to do anything about it while Rosemary is sucked deeper and deeper, which just adds to the anxiety and unease you feel as the audience. It's so, so good.
Also as someone who lives in New York, it's insane that an unemployed actor was apparently able to afford the rent of an apartment like that in 1965. That would easily be worth millions today.
I just rewatched that a few days ago. It's really great.
What I find really amazing is that it's a profoundly feminist film, it's ultimately about how society forces women to subjugate themselves and punishes them for independence and individuality. It's sort of about the tragedy of pregnancy, because a woman's maternal instinct can keep her with a man that she knows is unreliable and bad for her. That was what I took from it anyway. And, to think that feminist message is coming from a rapist.
