1. Repulsion (1965)
Horrific psycho-drama from Roman Polanski which chronicles the descent into madness of Carol - played very deftly by Catherine Deneuve. Carol is a Belgian manicurist who lives with her sister Helen in a London apartment. Carol goes through her days behaving like a zombie (without the flesh munching) and doesn't like interacting with men. When she hears her sister moaning with pleasure whilst she is cavorting with her married lover in the room next door, Carol gets very agitated. Helen leaves for a trip to Italy with her lover. Any remaining strings that tie Carol to reality are cut. She stops working and begins to hallucinate that hands are coming through the wall and that men are breaking into the apartment to molest her. A would be real life suitor arrives at the door to chat - she bashes him over the head with a candle holder and stows his body in the bath. Later on, the landlord arrives for his money and sees a chance to make a move on Carol. She promptly slashes him to death. When Helen and her fancy man come home, they are shocked to find the bodies. By this stage Carol is in a catatonic trance and we know she will never recover. A last lingering camera focuses upon a photo from Carol's childhood with her giving dagger stares at a man. The English speaking debut for both Deneuve and Polanski, there is not much dialogue in the film as both of them were uneasy with the English Language at this point. Deneuve doesn't need to babble in English to convey her descent into insanity. It shows on her face, on her actions and reactions to the phenomena that manifests as her psychosis. What transpires in the film is entirely feasible but it must be stated that in real life, people with schizophrenia are more likely to be attacked than to attack themselves. But Polanski cleverly uses images to convey Carol's psychosis such as a decaying rabbit, the cracks in the wall, the molesting men and the hands coming out of the wall. The film seems, in its conclusion, to lay the blame for Carol's psychosis on child abuse. This was a pretty radical conclusion for its time. The film is marvellous, if you don't mind getting into the head of a girl who is cracking up, and remains one of Polanski's finest.