Rosemary's Baby - Film Review

Rosemary's Baby

Film review

by Mischel Figusch

Director: Roman Polanski

Cast overview:

Mia Farrow

.... Rosemary Woodhouse

John Cassavetes

.... Guy Woodhouse

Ruth Gordon

.... Minnie Castevet

Sidney Blackmer

.... Roman Castevet

Maurice Evans

.... Edward 'Hutch' Hutchins

Ralph Bellamy

.... Dr. Abraham Sapirstein

Victoria Vetri

.... Terry Gionoffrio (as Angela Dorian)

Patsy Kelly

.... Laura-Louise

Elisha Cook Jr.

.... Mr. Nicklas (as Elisha Cook)

Emmaline Henry

.... Elise Dunstan

Charles Grodin

.... Dr. C.C. Hill

Hanna Landy

.... Grace Cardiff

Phil Leeds

.... Dr. Shand (as Philip Leeds)

D'Urville Martin

.... Diego

Hope Summers

.... Mrs. Gilmore

Summary

"Rosemary's Baby is an eerie gothic film about a young couple who move into an old large apartment in New York and plan to have children soon. During a dinner invitation their friend "Hutch" he warns them of the building's notorious and bad reputation for witchcraft and cannibalism.

While Rosemary is in the basement's laundry room on her first visit there, she meets Terry Gionoffrio who lives with the Castevets on the 7th floor. She displays her mysterious, smelly and noxious "good luck charm" which is filled with tannis-root given her by Mrs. Castevet.

One evening when Guy and Rosemary return from the city they find a bloody unexpected scene in front of their apartment building: Terry has suicidally jumped out of the window.

One day Minnie Castevet visits Rosemary in her apartment with a friend of hers and presents her a tannis-root-charm, the one worn by Terry.

In an unusual circumstance, Guy soon acquires an acting role - the actor who had been chosen over him for a key role in a play is unexpectedly and suddenly going blind.

One evening when the young couple decided to make a baby, they are being interrupted by Minnie who brings them two mousse au chocolates. Soon after the consumption of it (she didn't eat all of it, but pretended to) she looses her consciousness and Guy brings her to bed. In her dream-like sleep Guy begins to have sexual contact to her but then his appearance changes into a grotesque beast-like figure resembling the devil.

The next morning, Rosemary questions mysterious scratches she finds on the side of her body. She is appalled that Guy admits making love to her while she was passed out. He said that he didn't want to miss the night.

Rosemary learns that she is being pregnant. She changes her gynaecologist and he, Abe Sapirstein advises her to drink a daily, herbal mixture made by her neighbour Minnie Castevet.

Soon she suffers sharp pains in her stomach and is afraid of losing the baby. One day Hutch visits her again and reveals that he's rather sceptical about her good luck charm.

After Hutch is introduced briefly to Rosemary's strange neighbour Roman Castevet, Rosemary explains how the Castevets are close to Guy and have become parent figures for him. As Hutch leaves, he can't locate one of his gloves that he put in their closet when he arrived. Later, he calls and sets up a rendezvous with Rosemary at the Time-Life Building in downtown Manhattan. At the appointed time the next morning (about two weeks before Christmas), it is unusual that Hutch doesn't appear. A phone call to his apartment reveals that Hutch is ill and in a deep coma at St. Vincent's Hospital.

After his dead on his funeral Rosemary gets a book of Grace a friend of Hutch. The last thing he wanted her to know about is, that the name would be an anagram.

Later she learns what he meant: STEVEN MARCATO, the son of Adrian Marcato, a witch can be transformed into ROMAN CASTEVET. Appalled, she has to learn that they are all members of a satanic coven, an also her husband is in it. She thinks he sold their baby to them in order to be successful in his job.

Later in the film she gets the baby after being intoxicated but is being told that it would be dead. She doesn't believe it because it's not true. The film ends with the incredible awareness or - rather assumption it is not definite - that Rosemary bearded the son of Satan.

Comment

I for one find that film very interesting. And I also find it very ironic, that a year after the publication of the film, Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the members of a satanic cult when she was eight months pregnant.

One day, when Roman Polanski was in London, fanatic members of the "Charles Manson Family" break into their house and murdered Sharon and friends of her in a brutal way. They also killed the baby by several stabs with the knife.

Originally Charles Manson gave the order to kill Terry Melcher, the producer of the Beach Boys who denied Manson's music. But he didn't know that he didn't live there anymore. So his crazy, probably drugged henchmen killed the wrong persons.

Structure / Form

How are the opening credits presented? Do they relate to meaning?

The mood for the