MovieChat Forums > Repulsion (1965) Discussion > I wanted to bump her off

I wanted to bump her off

posted 9 years ago by exinator
7 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong. There are mentally unstable characters you empathize with but this one was downright irritating with her behaviour. I wanted to kill her. She'd be better off that ways.

I like to care or atleast be intrigued by the pivotal characters. She did neither for me.

Comparing this with The Tenant, which is my favorite horror film of all times would be a sin. Boring and almost pointless, because more than halfway into the movie, I just didn't give a damn about her. She was that wooden.

And the guy chasing her was another idiot. Couldn't he see she was not interested? Good what happened to him.

ps: this is just rant. You like the movie? Good for you. I just felt like I wasted good 2 hours of my life and I need to do this to get my system stable lol.

[–] somesunnyday 9 years ago

ps: this is just rant.

No probs mate, that's what IMDB's for. I don't like it when people get all upset about someone's opinion

She was that wooden.

I thought Catherine did an amazing job myself. I wouldn't call her wooden but an acutely neurotic woman terrified of everything, especially sexuality.

[–] clockworkorange13 9 years ago

its a character study, you just dont happen to like the character. i think the film works perfectly.

[–] tpupkin 9 years ago

I've just watched both The Tenant & Repulsion within a month of each other. I liked them both in different ways, but it seems a bit odd to complain that one has a wooden central character while the other is one of your favorites. Trelkovsky is about as bland and wooden as possible in The Tenant, whereas Carol is deeply disturbed from the start. Both films share similarly glacial pacing but I thought Repulsion was more coherent narratively and in terms of character development. The Tenant was, or course, funnier. But they shared many similar qualities, including the ones you cite as problematic in Repulsion.

[–] A_Prosthetic_Prophet 8 years ago

Both Repulsion, and The Tenant, along with Rosemary's Baby form a sort of loose thematic trilogy dealing with people in apartment buildings coming undone mentally. I agree that The Tenant is the better film (The Tenant is such a great film) but, I like Repulsion as well, even if it has less substance than some of his other classics.

[–] ohmemercylard-58-17610 8 years ago

I agree. Love the other two apartment films.

THE TENANT is also one of my favorites. For one thing, THE TENANT is funny as hell and filled with rich, amusing characters.

I hated every character in this movie, save the women she worked with, who were kind beyond understanding. I get that men were all meant to be awful hideous creatures, and they were.

I'm such a fan of every other Polanski film, still puzzled why I feel such an immediate distaste for this thing.

Whatever the genre, there needs to be at least one likable character. If I'm supposed to relate to Deneuve, she needs to show me a bit of a reason why I should give a sh*t about her. Zombies are boring. She was boring.

This is one of those movies where people do things that people never ever really do. That always bugs me.

(SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

She'd have been fired long before she attacked a woman, she could've easily told the bf to go away before he broke down the door, she could've slid the envelope with the rent money and the landlord would've left her alone. It doesn't make sense. Even a crazy person with a strong sense of survival would've likely seen that saying SOMETHING, doing ANYTHING, would probably get these men off her back...before they climbed on her back. (Not including the fantasy rapes, of course.)

I mean, is there some misogyny at work here, suggesting that Carol ultimately desires to be violated?

[–] KitchenKnives 8 years ago

You need to reevaluate your idea of "crazy" if you think she was capable of doing something as rational as asking somebody to leave.

[–] Tenakoto 8 years ago

She's a rape victim. I don't think you understand the philosophy behind the film.