USA

ROSEMARY’S BABY

1968 – color – 137’

Direction: Roman Polanski

Screenplay: Roman Polanski from the same novel by Ira Levin

Cinematography: William A. Fraker

Editing: Sam O’Steen, Bob Wyman

Set design: Richard Sylbert

Musics: Krzysztof Komeda

Costumes: Anthea Sylbert

Cast: Mia Farrow (Rosemary Woodhouse), John Cassavetes (Guy Woodhouse), Ruth Gordon (Minnie Castevet), Sidney Blackmer (Roman Castevet), Maurice Evans (Edward ‘Hutch’ Hutchins), Ralph Bellamy (doctor Abraham Sapirstein), Angela Dorian (Terry Gionoffrio), Patsy Kelly (Laura-Louise McBirney), Elisha Cook Jr. (sig. mr Nicklas), Emmaline Henry (Elise Dunstan), Charles Grodin (doctor C.C. Hill), Hanna Landy (Grace Cardiff), Phil Leeds (doctor Shand), Martin D’Urville (Diego), Hope Summers (sig.ra mrs Gilmore), Marianne Gordon (Joan Jellico), Wende Wagner (Tiger)

Producer: William Castle

Production: William Castle Productions

synopsis

Guy Woodhouse, a young stage actor, and his wife Rosemary, establish friendly relations with new neighbors, the elderly Castevet couple. While Guy begins to frequent the Castevets assiduously, Rosemary soon shows her displeasure with their intrusiveness. When Guy resoundingly establishes himself as an actor, the young couple mutually decide to have a baby. Rosemary’s pregnancy proves particularly difficult evidenced by a constant state of malaise, violent abdominal pains and nightmares. After giving birth, the woman learns from her husband that the baby was stillborn. Unconvinced of what Guy has told her, Rosemary sneaks into the Castevet house one evening and surprises the neighbors, her husband and others as they are conducting a “black mass” around a cradle …

critical note

“As everyone must have heard by now, the movie is based on Ira Levin’s novel about modern-day witches and demons. But it is much more than just a suspense story; the brilliance of the film comes more from Polanski’s direction, and from a series of genuinely inspired performances, than from the original story.

The characters and the story transcend the plot. In most horror films, and indeed in most suspense films of the Alfred Hitchcock tradition, the characters are at the mercy of the plot. In this one, they emerge as human beings actually doing these things.” (Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com, 29/7/1968)

premi awards

1968 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards: Sidney Blackmer Miglior  Best Supporting Actor, Ruth Gordon Best Actress in a Supporting Role 

1969 Oscar: Ruth Gordon  Best Actress in a Supporting Role

1969 David di Donatello:  Best Foreign Director, Foreign Actress

1970 French Syndicate of Cinema Critics: Best Foreign Film

2014 National Film Preservation Board, USA: Winner