Anniversary of the Repulsion

On May 19, 1965, Roman Polanski presented his film "Repulsion" to the participants and guests of the Cannes International Film Festival.

This film was the first full-length film in the work of Roman Polanski, filmed outside of Poland. Three years before "Repulsion", Roman Polanski made his first full-length film, "Nóz w wodzie (Knife in the Water)", in Poland. This work enraged the then leadership of socialist Poland. It is said that the then leader of Poland, an ardent Stalinist and ardent anti-Semite, Władysław Gomułka threw an ashtray into the screen when watching this film. As a result, the film was banned from showing in Poland. Well, in the USSR, of course, too.

However, in Western countries the film was adopted with a bang. And then Roman Polanski went to Paris, where he was born and from where at the age of four he was taken by his parents to Polish Krakow. In France, Roman Polanski was able to participate in the production of the film-almanac "Les plus belles escroqueries du monde (The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers)" as the director of one of the segments. Even from the short segment “La Rivière de Diamants, or Amsterdam” by Roman Polanski, some scenes were cut out in the final version (Polanski considered this a manifestation of xenophobia), but on the set he could get to know the screenwriter Gérard Brach and then still very young, 21-year-old Catherine Deneuve, who is in the same year starred in the famous "Les parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg)".

Together with Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski wrote the script for the upcoming film "Repulsion". Later, Polanski admitted that he and Brach conceived this film purely for commercial purposes - to earn money for filming the movie "Cul-de-sac".

Together with producer Gene Gutowski, Roman Polanski proposed the script for the American film company Paramount Pictures, but the company refused. Polanski and Gutowski received the same refusal from the British film company Lion Films. And here they were offered services in financing and producing the film by the little-known British film company Compton Pictures. This film company until that moment specialized in the production of soft porn, and its management, having accumulated certain financial resources, was eager to change direction in creativity. The script of Brach and Polanski seemed to them the most suitable for this purpose.

In Cannes, the film "Repulsion" was presented outside of any official screenings and even after the official closing of the festival which took place on May 16th. Festival guests deliberately stayed to see the new creation of the author of "Nóz w wodzie (Knife in the Water)". And already at the end of June, the film represented the UK at the Berlin International Film Festival. As it usually happens, the list of festival favorites is formed in advance. And therefore, even though Roman Polanski’s film was nominated for the main festival award, the Golden Bear went to Jean-Luc Godard’s film "Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution", and the Silver Bear went to the Indian director Satyajit Ray for directing "Charulata". But for the film by Roman Polanski (as well as for the film "Le bonheur (Happiness)" directed by Agnès Varda), a special prize was invented (for the first time in the history of this film festival) - Silver Bear Extraordinary Jury Prize. Since 2014, it became known as the Grand Prix of the jury.

Film critics have generally responded positively to the film, albeit without some enthusiasm. For example, the usually spiteful and caustic columnist of The New York Times, Bosley Crowther, managed in his review without a single offensive remark and stated: "Within the maelstrom of violence and horror in this film, Mr. Polanski has achieved a haunting concept of the pain and pathos of the mentally deranged. He has delivered undoubtedly one of the best films of the year."

Time Out British columnist Jeoff Andrew speaks of a movie with more enthusiastic tone: "most perfectly realised film, a stunning portrait of the disintegration, mental and emotional, of a shy young Belgian girl (Deneuve) living in London. ...one of the most intelligent horror movies ever made, and certainly one of the most frighteningly effective."

In the Soviet Union, this film was not shown.

We usually judge the success of a film among viewers by two indicators, moreover, by all means taking these two indicators into account together. The first is the box office in relation to the budget of the picture, the second is the rating of the film on two main sites: IMDB and Kinopoisk.

The budget of the film "Repulsion" according to various sources ranged from 180 thousand to 300 thousand dollars. The box office of the picture is 3.1 million dollars. That is, the film earned at least 10 times the cost of its production.

61% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film a rating from 8 to 10.

Based on these success indicators, the rating of the film "Repulsion" according to FilmGourmand was 8.288. Based on this rating, the film took 414th place in the Golden Thousand.