6. Repulsion
Roman Polanski's first English movie is accepted as one of his best, and is helped by Catherine Deneuve's perfect portrayal of a woman slowly going mad. Filmed in London with unrivaled cinematography by the legendary Gilbert Taylor (Frenzy, Dr. Strangelove, The Omen, Star Wars IV) and imaginative sound design that is integral to the claustrophobic disarray that is Repulsion. It can't be stressed enough that it is the excellent cinematography and set design that makes this film work. As we follow Carol (a 22 year old Catherine Deneuve) and her almost mute performance, we experience with her the horror of her transformation. The lousy transfer in the previous North American release by Koch did not lend itself well as the film relies heavily on its visuals which is why the Criterion release for this is a must have for fans. Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 with the Blu Ray 1080p transfer, Repulsion has never looked better. The striking black and white still retains the inherit grain (no over use of Digital Noise Reduction) and the restored transfer was approved by Roman Polanski himself. Like most titles released in this era, the audio is presented as it was originally was, a 2.0 mono format. With sound being as important as it is in the film, the Anchor Bay UK release has the film remixed in 5.1 surround so it would have been nice to have that secondary audio feature as an option.
Unlike other studios, Criterion has the same features for both the DVD release and the Blu Ray. There is an audio commentary with Roman Polanski and Catherine Deneuve recorded separately but edited together. This commentary was originally recorded in 1994 when Criterion first released Repulsion on Laser disc. Also presented is Grand Ecran, a French television documentary aired in 1964 that was filmed on set with fantastic footage of both Polanski and Deneuve explaining the story and characters. More notably is the addition of A British Horror Film, a documentary on the making of Repulsion produced by Blue Underground in 2003. Polanski is interviewed as well as producer Gene Gutowski and cinematographer Gilbert Taylor. At 24 minutes it is rather short but a nice companion piece to the other features included.