Rosemary's Baby (film)
Rosemary's Baby | |
---|---|
Directed by | Roman Polanski |
Screenplay by | Roman Polanski |
Based on | Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin |
Produced by | William Castle |
Starring | |
Cinematography | William A. Fraker |
Edited by |
|
Music by | Krzysztof Komeda |
Production company | William Castle Enterprises[1] |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 137 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3.2 million[2] |
Box office | $33.4 million[2] |
Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American
The film deals with themes related to
Plot
In 1965,
In the basement laundry room, Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio, a recovering drug addict whom Minnie and Roman Castevet, the Woodhouses' elderly neighbors, have taken in. Rosemary and Guy first meet the Castavets when they return home to find Terry dead of an apparent suicide, having jumped from the Castevets' 7th-floor apartment. They have dinner with the couple but Rosemary finds them meddlesome. She is bothered when Minnie gives her Terry's pendant as a
Guy is cast in a prominent play after the lead actor inexplicably goes blind. With his acting career flourishing, Guy wants him and Rosemary to have a baby. On the night that they plan to conceive, Minnie brings over individual cups of
Rosemary becomes pregnant, with the baby due on June 28. The elated Castevets insist that Rosemary go to their close friend, Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, a prominent
Three months later, Hutch's friend, Grace Cardiff, informs Rosemary that Hutch is dead. Before dying, he briefly regained consciousness and said to give Rosemary a book on
Rosemary locks herself into the apartment. Somehow, coven members get in, and Dr. Sapirstein sedates Rosemary, who goes into labor and gives birth. When Rosemary awakens, she is told the baby was
Believing her baby is alive, Rosemary discovers a hidden door in the hallway linen closet leading directly into Minnie and Roman's apartment, the same closet the previous tenant had blocked and the same hidden door the coven members had used to access the apartment to subdue Rosemary. Guy, the Castevets, Dr. Sapirstein, and other coven members are gathered around a
Cast
- Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse
- John Cassavetes as Guy Woodhouse
- Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet
- Sidney Blackmer as Roman Castevet
- Maurice Evans as Hutch
- Ralph Bellamy as Dr. Abraham Sapirstein
- Angela Dorian as Terry Gionoffrio
- Patsy Kelly as Laura-Louise McBirney
- Elisha Cook as Mr. Nicklas
- Emmaline Henry as Elise Dunstan
- Charles Grodin as Dr. Hill
- Hanna Landyas Grace Cardiff
- Philip Leeds as Dr. Shand
- D'Urville Martin as Diego
- Hope Summers as Mrs. Gilmore
- Marianne Gordon as Rosemary's girlfriend
- Wendy Wagner as Rosemary's girlfriend
- Tony Curtis as Donald Baumgart (uncredited)
Production
Development
In Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective, a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director
François Truffaut claimed that Alfred Hitchcock was first offered the chance to direct the film but declined.[1] Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with Rosemary's Baby.[4] He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for Downhill Racer along with the galleys for Rosemary's Baby.[5] Polanski read the latter book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought Rosemary's Baby was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it.[6] After negotiations, Paramount agreed to hire Polanski for the project, with a tentative budget of $1.9 million, $150,000 of which would go to Polanski.[6]
Polanski completed the 272-page screenplay for the film in approximately three weeks.[6] Polanski closely modeled it on the original 1967 novel by Ira Levin and incorporated large sections of the novel's dialogue and details, with much of it being lifted directly from the source text.[7]
Casting
Casting for Rosemary's Baby began in the summer of 1967 in Los Angeles.[8] Polanski originally envisioned Rosemary as a robust, full-figured, girl-next-door type, and wanted Tuesday Weld or his own fiancée Sharon Tate to play the role. Jane Fonda, Patty Duke and Goldie Hawn were also reportedly considered for the role.[8][9][10]
Since the book had not yet reached bestseller status, Evans was unsure the title alone would guarantee an audience for the film, and he believed that a bigger name was needed for the lead. Farrow, with a supporting role in
Robert Redford was the first choice for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but he turned it down.[13] Jack Nicholson was considered briefly before Polanski suggested John Cassavetes, whom he had met in London.[13] In casting the film's secondary actors, Polanski drew sketches of what he imagined the characters would look like, which were then used by Paramount casting directors to match with potential actors.[14] In the roles of Roman and Minnie Castevet, Polanski cast veteran stage/film actors Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon. Veteran actor Ralph Bellamy was cast as Dr. Sapirstein. (Many years earlier, Bellamy and Blackmer had appeared in the pre-Code 1934 film, This Man Is Mine.) [14]
When Rosemary calls Donald Baumgart, the actor who goes blind and is replaced by Guy, the voice heard on the phone is actor Tony Curtis. Farrow, who had not been told who would be reading Baumgart's lines, recognized his voice but could not place it. The slight confusion she displays throughout the call was exactly what Polanski hoped to capture by not revealing Curtis' identity in advance.[citation needed]
Filming
When Farrow was reluctant to film a scene that depicted a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wandering into the middle of Fifth Avenue into oncoming traffic, Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, "no one's going to hit a pregnant woman". The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera since he was the only one willing to do it.[1][17]
By September 1967, the shoot had relocated to Paramount Studios in
The shoot was further disrupted when, midway through filming, Farrow's husband, Frank Sinatra, served her divorce papers via a corporate lawyer in front of the cast and crew.
Music
Rosemary's Baby (Music from the Original Motion Picture Score) | |
---|---|
Christopher Komeda | |
Released | 1968 |
Recorded | 25 June 1968 |
Studio | Western Recorders, Hollywood, California |
Genre | |
Length | 25:21 |
Label | Dot Records |
Producer | Tom Mack |
The
Track listing
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Lullaby from Rosemary's Baby, Part 1" | 2:20 |
2. | "The Coven" | 0:45 |
3. | "Moment Musical" | 2:00 |
4. | "Dream" | 3:45 |
5. | "Christmas" | 2:05 |
6. | "Expectancy" | 2:21 |
Total length: | 13:16 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
7. | "Main Title (Vocal)" | 2:50 |
8. | "Panic" | 2:02 |
9. | "Rosemary's Party" | 2:05 |
10. | "Through The Closet" | 1:44 |
11. | "What Have You Done To Its Eyes" | 1:27 |
12. | "Happy News" | 1:57 |
Total length: | 12:05 |
Release
Box office
Rosemary's Baby was given a wide theatrical release by Paramount Pictures, opening in the United States on June 12, 1968.[2] The film was a major box-office hit for the studio,[24] grossing a total of $33,397,080 worldwide against its $3.2 million budget.[2]
Critical response
Contemporary
In contemporary reviews, Renata Adler wrote in The New York Times that: "The movie—although it is pleasant—doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms. I think this is because it is almost too extremely plausible. The quality of the young people's lives seems the quality of lives that one knows, even to the point of finding old people next door to avoid and lean on. One gets very annoyed that they don't catch on sooner."[25]
Stanley Eichelbaum of the San Francisco Examiner called the film "a delightful witches brew, a bit over-long for my taste, but nearly always absorbing, suspenseful and easier to swallow than Ira Levin's book. Its suggestions of deviltry in a musty and still-respectable old apartment house on Manhattan's Upper West Side are more gracefully and appealingly related than in the novel, which I found awfully silly, when it wasn't downright noxious. The very idea of a contemporary case of witchcraft, in which an innocent young housewife is impregnated by the Devil, is to say the least unnerving, particularly when the pregnancy is marked by all degrees of mental and physical pain."[26]
Variety said, "Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in Rosemary's Baby, an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore... Farrow's performance is outstanding."[27]
The
Retrospective
Today, the film is widely regarded as a classic; it has an approval rating of 96% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The site's critics' consensus describes it as "A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon."[30] Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 96 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[31]
Accolades
Home media
The Rosemary's Baby DVD, released on October 3, 2000 by
On October 30, 2012, The Criterion Collection released the film for the first time on Blu-ray.[47] It was released for the first time on 4K Ultra HD for its 55th Anniversary on October 10, 2023.[48]
Legacy
The scene in which Rosemary is raped by Satan was ranked No. 23 on
The film inaugurated cinema's growing fascination with demons and related themes in the coming decades,[52] and the novel's author Ira Levin wondered in a 2003 afterword whether his idea for Rosemary's Baby ultimately led to an increase in religious fundamentalism.[53]
Sequels and remakes
In the 1976 television film Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby, Patty Duke starred as Rosemary Woodhouse and Ruth Gordon reprised her role of Minnie Castevet. The film introduced an adult Andrew/Adrian attempting to earn his place as the Antichrist. It was disliked as a sequel by critics and viewers, and its reputation deteriorated over the years. The film is unrelated to the novel's 1997 sequel, Son of Rosemary.[54]
A remake of Rosemary's Baby was briefly considered in 2008. The intended producers were Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller.[55] The remake fell through later that same year.[56]
In January 2014,
In 2016, the film was unofficially remade in Turkey under the title Alamet-i-Kiyamet.[58]
The short "Her Only Living Son" from the 2017 horror anthology film XX serves as an unofficial sequel to the story.[59]
In June 2022, Bloody Disgusting stated that the company had received announcement that the film Apartment 7A is secretly a prequel to Rosemary's Baby.[60]
In popular culture
Satirized in 1969, in Mad magazine as, "Rosemia's Boo-boo".[61]
The film inspired the
The film was parodied in the 1996 Halloween episode of Roseanne, "Satan, Darling".[63]
In the 2013 film, This Is the End, the scene where Jonah Hill gets raped by a demon is a reference to Rosemary’s Baby.
See also
Notes
- ^ Tied with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Rosemary's Baby". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
- ^ a b c d "Rosemary's Baby, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on September 10, 2013. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
- ^ Ward, Sarah (2016). "All of them witches: Individuality, conformity and the occult on screen". Screen Education (83): 34–41. Archived from the original on June 5, 2021.
- ^ Sandford 2009, pp. 109–110.
- ^ Sandford 2009, p. 109.
- ^ a b c Sandford 2009, p. 110.
- ^ Vlastelica, Ryan (November 3, 2016). "In adapting Rosemary's Baby, Polanski traded ambiguity for dreadfully inevitable horror". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on May 1, 2020. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- ^ a b Sandford 2009, p. 111.
- ^ "The roles that got away". Fox News. May 26, 2015. Archived from the original on October 18, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
- ^ "The Most Cursed Hit Movie Ever Made". Vanity Fair. June 2017.
- ^ a b Sandford 2009, pp. 111–115.
- ^ Sandford 2009, p. 114.
- ^ a b Sandford 2009, p. 112.
- ^ a b Sandford 2009, p. 113.
- ^ Rothman, Lily (June 12, 2018). "The Apartment Building in Rosemary's Baby Is Also a Star. Here's the Not-So-Secret Story Behind Its Name". Time. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
- ^ Levin, Ira. Rosemary's Baby. Bantam Books, 1991. 20.
- ^ Stafford, Jeff. "Rosemary's Baby". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
- ^ Remembering Rosemary's Baby 2012, 29:00.
- ^ a b Sandford 2009, p. 115.
- ^ Sandford 2009, pp. 114–115.
- ^ Sandford 2009, pp. 115–116.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby: The Devil Was Not Only in the Details". Culture.pl. Archived from the original on October 28, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
- ComingSoon.net. Archivedfrom the original on September 20, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ Wanamaker, Christaldi & Stephens 2016, p. 69.
- ^ Adler, Renata (June 13, 1968). "The Screen: 'Rosemary's Baby,' a Story of Fantasy and Horror; John Cassavetes Stars With Mia Farrow". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- ^ Eichelbaum, Stanley (June 25, 1968). "'Rosemary' - A Devilish Delight". San Francisco Examiner. Archived from the original on December 16, 2022. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby". Variety. January 1968. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- ^ Christie 1969, p. 95.
- ^ Christie 1969, p. 96.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby (1968)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby". Metacritic. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ "The 41st Academy Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ "BAFTA Awards: Film in 1970". British Academy Film Awards. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby". David di Donatello. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
- ^ "21st DGA Awards". Directors Guild of America Awards. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
- ^ "Category List – Best Motion Picture". Edgar Awards. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby". Golden Globe Awards. Archived from the original on January 14, 2024.
- ^ "1969 Hugo Awards". Hugo Awards. July 26, 2007. Archived from the original on September 17, 2012.
- ^ "KCFCC Award Winners – 1966-69". Kansas City Film Critics Circle. December 11, 2013. Archived from the original on January 14, 2024.
- ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on January 9, 2024.
- ^ "Film Hall of Fame: Productions". Online Film & Television Association. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
- ^ "Awards Winners". Writers Guild of America Awards. Archived from the original on December 5, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
- ^ "Shahrokh Hatami". Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
- ^ "Checking Rumors on a 'Wild Bunch'". Los Angeles Times. July 9, 1968. p. E11.
- ^ Harris, Mark (October 27, 2000). "DVD Review: Rosemary's Baby: Collector's Edition". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- ^ "Polanski balances terror, humor the director adds deceit upon deceit in Rosemary's Baby until we finally find the truth". Orlando Sentinel. October 20, 2000. p. 42.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on December 19, 2015.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby 4K Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024.
- ^ "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments". Bravo. Archived from the original on October 30, 2007.
- TheGuardian.com. Archivedfrom the original on August 24, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- ^ Cannady, Sheryl (December 17, 2014). "Cinematic Treasures Named to National Film Registry" (News release). Library of Congress. Archived from the original on December 25, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
- ^ Simon 2022.
- ^ Levin, Ira (November 5, 2012). "'Stuck with Satan': Ira Levin on the Origins of Rosemary's Baby". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
- ^ Mankiewicz, Ben. "Look What's Happened To Rosemary's Baby (1976)". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on March 21, 2019. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ "Rosemary's Baby Remake Confirmed". Cinema blend. March 12, 2008. Archived from the original on June 5, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
- ^ Rosemary's Baby Remake Scrapped, IMDb, December 22, 2008, archived from the original on May 17, 2018, retrieved June 30, 2018.
- ^ Andreeva, Nellie (January 8, 2014). "Zoe Saldana To Topline NBC Miniseries 'Rosemary's Baby'". Deadline. Archived from the original on March 27, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
- ^ "Alamet-i-Kiyamet". Filmaffinity. April 17, 2021. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2021..
- ^ "Director Page - Karyn Kusama — Cut-Throat Women". Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- ^ "'Rosemary's Baby' - Is Paramount's 'Apartment 7A a Secret Prequel?! [Exclusive]". Bloody Disgusting. June 29, 2022. Archived from the original on June 30, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022..
- ^ Drucker, Mort; Kogen, Arnie (January 1969). "Rosemia's Boo-boo". Mad. No. 124. 485 MADison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022: E. C. Publications, Inc.
{{cite magazine}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "Derek Lawrence Interview". Deep-Purple.net. May 2003. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
- ^ "ROSEANNE: SATAN, DARLING (TV)". www.paleycenter.org. The Paley Center for Media. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
Sources
- Christie, Ian Leslie (1969). "Rosemary's Baby". ISSN 0027-0407.
- Remembering Rosemary's Baby (Documentary short). The Criterion Collection. 2012.
- Sandford, Christopher (2009). Polanski: A Biography. New York City, New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-23-061176-4.
- Simon, Ed (2022). Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology. New York City, New York: Abrams. ISBN 978-1-64700-389-0.
- Wanamaker, Marc; Christaldi, Michael; Stephens, E. J. (2016). Paramount Studios: 1940-2000. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-467-13494-1.
External links
- Rosemary's Baby at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Rosemary's Baby at IMDb
- Rosemary's Baby at Metacritic
- Rosemary's Baby at Rotten Tomatoes
- Rosemary's Baby at the TCM Movie Database
- Dialogue Transcript, Script-o-rama.
- "William Castle's involvement in the film", Faber & Faber, Film in focus, archived from the original on August 29, 2008, retrieved July 28, 2008.
- The many faces of Rosemary's baby, PL: Culture. Collection of Rosemary's Baby posters from around the world.
- BABY, podcast by Culture.pl's Stories From The Eastern West about the making of the film.
- Rosemary's Baby: "It's Alive" – an essay by Ed Park at The Criterion Collection