Saturday, May 17, 2003
Physical State: wiry
Mental State: freaky
Music: Komeda - The Genius of Komeda
Fashion sense: blue t-shirt, blue jeans
Book: Dark City Dames - Eddie Mueller
After listening to the new Broadcast ep a week or so ago I decided to take out Rosemary's Baby from the library to hear some of the great music done by Krzysztof Komeda. I had forgotten how great this film was. Mia Farrow plays Rosemary, a shy and vulnerable woman who is either going crazy or is the pawn in a witches game (you watch and tell me). One of Polanski's all-time greatest films and an oscar winner for Ruth Gordon (equally as great in Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude).This is one you have to watch again. So incredibly scary without any special effects or makeup (the Exorcist and the Omen being the next logical steps but also taking cues indirectly from Hitchcock). I kept thinking of how they would do a bad remake of this. I kept thinking that Mia Farrow would be played by Gwyneth Paltrow (although she's nowhere near the acting talent of Mia in this one, she certainly has a similar look). This is another of these late 60's early 70's films that just works even now (and frankly wouldn't be made now in the same way). Maybe it should never be remade. Did you know that Frank Oz is remaking a version of The Stepford Wives? A novel also written by Rosemary's Baby author Ira Levin incidentally. Some of the quotes in Rosemary's Baby and the dialogue are truly darkly hilarious to think about after seeing it again. Like this one:
Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) talking about what he did to Rosemary while she was sleeping: It was kind of fun, in a necrophile sorta way.
Rosemary Woodhouse: I dreamed someone was raping me. I think it was someone inhuman.
Guy Woodhouse: Thanks a lot.
