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Rosemary’s Baby

Introduction by Film Conservator Julie Buck
Screening on Film
Directed by Roman Polanski.
US, 1968, 35mm, color, 137 min.

Roman Polanski’s landmark horror film has frightened audiences with its penetrating psychological terror for more than thirty years. Mia Farrow plays a Manhattan housewife who suspects she has been impregnated by the devil himself. Ambiguity and paranoia permeate the film, leaving audiences to wonder until the end whether Rosemary is truly the victim of a witches’ conspiracy. Polanski employs precision camera work and deliberate pacing to chronicle Rosemary’s emotional and physical deterioration, opening up a series of radical discourses that previewed the feminist debates of the 1970s. The film elicits virtuoso performances, especially from John Cassavetes as the ambitious husband and Ruth Gordon as the couple’s nosy neighbor.

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