I know, I’m super late to this movie, like almost too late, but that doesn’t change the fact that it has to be one of the best movies ever created from front to back. I want to go through it because I simply can’t get it off my mind.

From the opening credits, this was a special movie. I asked my girlfriend what was the purpose of the aerial view for the credits zooming in on the apartment building, and she said “God’s eye-view”. Bingo. God is honing in on this forsaken building because he knows something sinister is happening. Then they walk inside and immediately you’re brought into this older building with a guard at the elevator. It has a fenced gate for it (the gates of hell). Now I don’t know if there was something racist going on with Polanski, but the only black character in this entire movie was the person holding open the gates into a certain type of hell. We later find out he is also a cab driver, and he seems to be the one always keeping an eye on Rosemary.

     They walk around the apartment, led by their real estate agent who assures them everything is fine. They see the garden inside and wonder if marijuana was grown inside there (the devil’s weed). Rosemary loves it, Guy doesn’t love the price, but wants to please Rosemary. Then we approach the secretary drawer. It’s lodged in the wrong place, pushed in front of a closet which seems to hold nothing but shelves and some cleaning equipment, pretty benign from the viewer’s point, but obviously we know we’ll figure out an action occurred here at some point. This is also the first time in the movie we see Polanski at work. He holds the camera back and the real estate agent walks up to it, making him seem small in comparison. The secretary drawer  is massive, almost surely impossible for an older woman (the person who lived there prior) to have moved by herself. She must have had help. This lady is a puzzler for me, and there’s not much online about her. Was she part of the cult and didn’t want Rosemary to see the secret passage or was she blocking them from trying to get in? I imagine since she fell into a coma that she was against the cult, but then why all the plants? That one is confusing.

     They buy the house, of course they get the house, the movie doesn’t move if they don’t. They don’t have any furniture to start and Rosemary goes into the closet and brings a shelf out for them to eat on. I read somewhere that this signifies them bringing the cult into their home. Sure, we can say that. Then follows an awkward undressing, where they want to have sex. It somewhat depicts their relationship in a 1960’s way. They’re spontaneous, he’s always down, and they’ll do it anywhere.

     Then the weird shit starts to happen due to the Castavets. One thing I realized from their dinner with Minnie and Roman is what came after. When Rosemary and Guy are stumbling back to their house Rosemary says, “I don’t know how you ate two pieces of that cake.” This is how they get Guy; he ate the Tannis root, he’s hooked, he can’t wait to go back. I found the one camera angle Polanski uses to be particularly creepy while they are eating. The four of them are all talking and the camera slowly rises and does a half spiral, so that it is above them almost. I look at this as another God’s eye view. He’s watching the deal with the devil happen, but he can’t do anything.

Rosemary meets Terri in the basement and in comes another shot that I loved. For the first time in the movie, Polanski poses two people equidistant apart, and, in that moment, it almost felt like a trade. The camera shot is so perfect that it seems that the two could easily be swapped for one another, and that is pure genius. Rosemary becomes their new model girl, the cults new muse that they will use.

Terri, of course, dies by suicide or by an act of sacrifice, we are never told. The Castavets see her dead on the ground and put on some great acting. They aren’t concerned, they seem inconvenienced by it. Not sad that the girl who had been living with them jumped out of a window, just a little upset that it’s ruined their date night. The moment we realize somethings off about them.

Guy has already fallen for the Castavets, he’s acting different. He gets the call that he got a part after someone went blind, he’s sold, this devil shit really works. Also, at this time the dream sequences start. Rosemary has these obscure dreams, one with a strange nun with Minnie’s voice. I don’t know if their warnings or just an effect from the small bit of Tannis root she has had, but they’re cool and modern in a way. Reminded me somewhat of the Big Lebowski’s dream sequence, but stranger.

The couple talks to Hutch who warns them about all this as he slices meat on his kitchen table, almost like he’s separating away from them with each cut. Their guardian angel. A prevalent theme in this movie is that a guardian angel is always watching over whether it be the camera, Hutch, or Rosemary’s girlfriends. There’s always someone watching over this couple, but it’s up to them to decide who to listen to, unfortunately they usually choose the Castavets.

There are roses everywhere in the upcoming scenes, saying somethings blooming, but there’s also a scary twist to roses. As beautiful as they are, they have those sharp thorns, that can make you bleed with a simple touch. They signal spring has arrived, and new life is coming, but they also say “Stay back”. The one part I don’t completely understand is the mouse, why did she have to call it “mouse”? Maybe to make her more familiar to people, and say the familiar is extra scary, but I think mousse would’ve been fine.

Then comes the Satan rape scene. It’s creepy, culty, and downright strange. Her drug sequence going from the blue waters of the ocean on a ship into the clawed hands of the devil. She looks so beautiful as this scene progresses, playing up the Virgin Mary character. Instead of God raping the Virgin Mary, Satan has raped Rosemary, and she is hardly a virgin, we saw her have sex earlier already.

She wakes up with claw marks that her husband denies as anything strange, saying he already trimmed down his nails (a preposterous response, but this is the 60’s and woman listen to their husbands). This is when the gaslighting and confusing truly begins. They want to confuse poor, naïve (maybe even to the point of stupidity) Rosemary into not being allowed to think for herself, and they do a great job. This all plays on misogyny and domineering of men in those days. They owned the woman they married and would be able to do with them as they pleased, even to the point of birthing Satan’s baby.

I love the use of color Polanski has throughout this movie, the blues of Rosemary into reds when she’s being tempted by the devil. The outrageous outfits of the Castevets, the greens and lively colors of her friends that almost save her, the blues of Dr. Hill’s (safe) office. Each color and scene is specifically chosen by Polanski to serve a purpose.

One of the scariest scenes for me for no reason is at the end when she makes her way back into the house and in the background, you see some of the coven associates tip-toeing in the background. It’s just awkward enough to feel scary. I think Polanski does a great job at making the normal, possibly clumsy, and weird into scary. Just off putting enough where it’s strange. I think Minnie is an embodiment of this. She’s pushy, nagging, slurring, all characteristics of my great aunt at a Christmas dinner, but her outfits are out of touch with reality, her questions are odd, her words are always slurred, and not just for a night. At one point she says, “You’ve already made your choice”, which is such a creepy line to hear.

Guy is the main villain of this movie; I mean he sells his pregnant wife to the devil. Roman and Minnie are just offering him a deal, which tells you everything you need to know about how Polanski views society. The devils aren’t some mythical creatures, they aren’t some horned and red beasts, the true devil is in choices. Devils are the ones who see the two choices and choose the fucked up one.

      My favorite moment in this film comes at the very end when Rosemary finds the secret coven praising her baby (why she walks in there without any backup is beyond me. I mean you have them red handed, for god’s sake there’s a devil baby in the crib). She walks past Roman who offers her some type of excuse for why they’re all there and she says, “Shut up. You’re in Dubrovnik.” It’s just the words of a girl who has fucking had it with all the bullshit. Her naivety is gone and she wants answers. That line is the first time she takes a true stand and no one can convince her of anything other than what she knows to be true. It’s liberating.

Knit-picks:

• Rosemary’s naivety can sometimes come off as stupidity, but it also plays into the misogyny role. Women did as men said. I can let them slide on that one.
• This is a time period movie – before feminism these women couldn’t do anything without their husband doing it for them first. I feel like in today’s world, Rosemary would have just gone to the hospital without the coven knowing where she is. Even if they did find out, she didn’t have to let them in the room and she’d get one of the hospitals doctors to deliver the baby, and she’d be proven right.
• Keep that blicky on you at all times.
• Why did they have to call it mouse? Was it to make it seem less harmful? To make it seem more familiar and play into Polanski’s theme? I don’t know seemed unnecessary.

That’s about it.

After effects

• I haven’t been able to find much on the subject, but why isn’t this looked into more for the reason of Sharon Tate’s death? I mean, Mia Farrow looks like Sharon Tate and Tate was pregnant at the time of this movie. Not even a year later and she was murdered while this movie was still showing in theaters. It almost feels like the Manson’s got the idea that the baby inside of Sharon Tate was going to be this Satan’s baby, and they had to take the matters into their own hands. One of the main villain’s names is actually Roman, it’s just freaky. It feels like there is more in play here, not saying I believe in devilistic rituals or a big conspiracy theory, but it just seems odd is all. Not right.

Honestly one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Every detail is scrutinized and amplified. For a two-hour movie shot in the 60’s this movie didn’t lose my attention for even a second. Every shot is important, every turn of the camera, every word spoken. It’s inspirational and it is truly genius.