| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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STUNNING MASTERPIECE.
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Jul 6, 2007
1
of
1 people found this review helpful
A true visual cinematic gem, a landmark movie that chronicles the descent into madness like no other film ever has, before or since. A cult classic and a psychological horror film of spellbinding genius.
Undeniably dated and grainy, this one still has an impact and had to be cutting edge stuff for its time. An unstable virgin locked in an apartment suffering from hallucinations that lead to murder and insanity. Wow. Catherine Deneuve gives the performance of a lifetime, in a role that requires little dialogue but much expression.
She is marvelous, with facial expressions that speak volumes more than words could. Genius.
A haunting look inside the mind of a sociopath. Director Roman Polanski puts you right there, in her world of the unreal and the paranoid. His filming techniques are brilliant and create a visceral piece of work not easily forgotten. I wish better prints of this film existed. The face slicing straight razor scene is filmed with surgical precision but the black and white filming is so grainy. The hands coming out of the walls is classic. The imagined rape scenes are horrifying. This is good stuff that paved the way, along with Psycho for modern psychological horror. Polanski really pushed the envelope, like Hitchcock did and we all owe them great respect and admiration. Should be shown in every film study class in the world. This is how you make a disturbing movie on a low budget and use censorship to your advantage. Simply brilliant. A must see. I own it and would buy another copy if a better print came out. |
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