Rosemary's baby

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Movie
German title Rosemary's baby
Original title Rosemary's baby
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1968
length 131 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Roman Polanski
script Roman Polanski
production William Castle
music Christopher Komeda
camera William Fraker
cut Sam O'Steen ,
Bob Wyman
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby is an American horror film directed by Roman Polański from 1968 . The novel is based on the bestselling author Ira Levin .

action

The young, childless couple Rosemarie and Guy Woodhouse visit a rented apartment on the seventh floor of Bramford House in central New York. Despite some strange circumstances, Rosemarie likes the spacious apartment very much, while Guy, a little-known actor, is initially not thrilled. A good friend of the two, Hutch, also reports that the house has been the site of mysterious deaths in the past. Nevertheless, the couple moved into the apartment and furnished it tastefully according to current fashion.

In the laundry room in the basement of the house, Rosemarie meets Terry, who is about the same age and who used to be a drug addict and lived on the street. She lives on the same floor as Rosemarie with the older couple Minnie and Roman Castevet, to whom she says she owes a lot. She shows Rosemarie the amulet that the Castevets gave her: a pendant in the form of an openwork metal ball filled with foul-smelling herbs.

Shortly afterwards, Terry is killed by falling out of the window. During the questioning of witnesses by the police, Rosemarie and Guy get to know the somewhat extravagant neighbor couple.

Although Guy doesn't feel much like it, they give in to the urge of the new neighbors and visit them for dinner. At the table, Roman makes disparaging remarks about the Pope , which Rosemary, who was brought up Catholic, is uncomfortable. In other ways, too, the curious Castevets are soon annoying, especially the pushy Minnie, who interferes in her private affairs without hesitation. Guy, on the other hand, is particularly impressed by Roman after the visit, becomes friends with the couple and increasingly spends time with them.

Guy has applied for a significant role, but is not initially accepted. Because the actor Donald Baumgart, who was selected for the role, suddenly goes blind, he still gets the role. The preparation for the difficult role demands a lot from him, but at the same time he tries not to neglect his wife. Soon he proposes that she have a child, a long-cherished wish of Rosemary. Meanwhile, the Castevets give her the amulet filled with "tannis roots" that Terry had owned.

At the romantic dinner, Rosemarie and Guy are disturbed by Minnie Castevet, who brings mousse au chocolat over. While Guy tastes the chocolate cream very good, Rosemarie only eats a little of it. After that, she feels sick and falls asleep exhausted, contrary to the couple's original intentions. She dreams that she is being raped by a monstrous being in front of Guy, Minnie, Roman and other people. During her dream she has the impression that what is happening is real. In the dream she also sees the Pope, who excuses her actions and instead of the fisherman 's ring, offers Terry's amulet to kiss her hand. When she wakes up in the morning, Guy tells her that he slept with her while she was passed out because he “didn't want to miss the night” during her fertile days.

Rosemarie lets her gynecologist Dr. Examine Hill and learn she is pregnant. When she tells Guy about the happy result, Guy immediately runs to the neighbors and invites them to celebrate the day. Minnie, Roman and Guy urge Rosemarie to visit the particularly renowned gynecologist Sapirstein, who is a friend of the Castevets, instead of her previous doctor. Dr. Sapirstein forbids Rosemarie the usual preparations during pregnancy. Instead, she is supposed to drink herbal potions made by Minnie every day.

After the start of her pregnancy, Rosemarie suffered from inexplicable abdominal pain for months, which her new doctor downplayed and treated with aspirin . She is also losing weight, looks extremely pale and, contrary to her habit, eats bloody steaks and raw chicken liver. Hutch, who visits her and runs into Roman Castevet, is appalled by her condition. He promises her to find out what the foul-smelling "tannis roots" in the amulet she wears since the beginning of pregnancy. When Rosemarie gives a party for long-time friends, the friends advise her to change the gynecologist. Against the express will of her husband, Rosemarie also decides to do so, but then the pain suddenly stops.

Hutch makes a phone call to meet Rosemarie to tell her something important. Guy, who overhears the phone call, informs the Castevets. Hutch does not show up at the meeting because he suddenly fell into a coma . He dies some time later and leaves the now heavily pregnant Rosemarie a book about witchcraft . In it she reads that Satanists could use personal items of their victims to harm their owners. She recalls that Guy and Baumgart once switched their ties and Hutch missed a glove after his visit. Through Hutch's underlinings and notes in the book, Rosemarie discovers that Roman is the son of a well-known Satanist, Adrian Marcato, who also lived at Bramford House. The name Roman Castevet turns out to be an anagram of his real name Steven Marcato . She suspects that the Castevets promised their unborn child to the devil , and she no longer wants to see her. When Guy throws the book away, Rosemarie is outraged and gets a copy from the library.

Rosemarie reports to her doctor Dr. Sapirstein of Roman's true identity. He then tells her that Roman is terminally ill and that the Castevets are therefore going on a long farewell trip to Europe. This calms her down at first, and she says goodbye to the Castevets in a friendly manner. A little later, Sapirstein also appears suspicious to her because he uses tannis root aroma, as Rosemarie accidentally learns from the office hours help. She then seeks help from Dr. Hill and tells him about her theory of a Satanist conspiracy that, with the participation of her husband and her doctor, wants to rob her child. The doctor listens carefully and promises help, but then informs his colleague Sapirstein without her knowledge, who picks up Rosemarie with Guy and brings him home. When she tries to escape and locks herself in, Guy and the doctor break into the apartment through a secret connecting door from the Castevets and administer strong sedatives to Rosemarie. Her child is born while she is drugged. When she wakes up, her guy says it became a boy.

When Rosemarie wants to see the child a few days after delivery, they reveal to her that it died in childbirth. Guy and Sapirstein explain Rosemary's overstrained condition before the birth as pregnancy-related moods and have her nurses give her sedative pills. Rosemarie remains suspicious because a neighbor who cares for her regularly takes her breast milk with her. Later she hears a child screaming in the Castevets' apartment. Armed with a kitchen knife, she sneaks through the secret connecting door to the neighbors. There she meets the assembled Satanists, including Minnie and Roman Castevet, her husband Guy and Dr. Sapirstein, who have gathered around a black cradle with an upside-down cross hanging over it and in which their child is obviously lying. The boy's name is "Adrian", apparently in memory of Steven Marcato's father. Rosemarie is startled when she sees his eyes. Roman declares that the child has “the eyes of his father” and will achieve world domination. Rosemary's son was begotten by Satan, with his birth God died. Guy explains to Rosemarie that he got involved with the Satanists because they can give him a great acting career and thus a better life for both of them. He was also assured that nothing would happen to her. In response, she spits in his face. However, her disgust gives way to a caring impulse when Roman invites her to actively play her motherhood role. Of all women in the world, the devil had chosen them. When she hears Adrian crying, she looks lovingly into the cradle and rocks the child.

background

The Dakota Building (in the film "Bramford House"), where the film was shot outside

Mia Farrow achieved her breakthrough as an actress with this film. The assessment of the critics and the public is divided. The horror film met with massive criticism, especially in American church circles, and was given the rating C for "Condemned" by the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures (NCOMP) for "perversion of fundamental Christian beliefs" and "mocking religious personalities and customs". ) occupied. Still, it became a box office hit.

With Rosemary's Baby , the Polish director succeeded in creating another classic after Tanz der Vampire (1967), which is considered the first in a series of psychedelic horror films such as The Exorcist , The Omen or Carrie , which enjoyed great success from the late 1960s and especially in the 1970s celebrated.

The film, which was produced on a budget of $ 2.3 million, grossed $ 30 million at the box office. The shooting took place between August 21 and December 6, 1967 mostly in the Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, in which the interiors of the two apartments and the corridors of the Dakota Building were set up. The few exterior shots were taken in front of the Dakota Building in New York , Central Park West.


Reviews

"An ingenious masterpiece of tension and horror."

- Newsday

“Ira Levin's book of the same name possesses a maximum of imagination, Polanski's shocker, shot strictly according to this, has a maximum of film-artistic perfection. The story is obviously inspired by the biblical accounts of the virgin birth, but it cannot simply be labeled as blasphemy. Adults who are prepared to accept the film merely as a brilliantly crafted horror of superstitious tinge, it must be recommended with this reservation. "

- Protestant film observer , review No. 488/1968

“Roman Polanski's sophisticated film satire effectively plays with traditional superstitions and delusions as well as modern forms of witch hunts, psychoanalysis and horror literature. An excellent movie theater experience. "

- Rowohlt Film Lexicon

“Polanski succeeded in locating his personal vision of threat and calamity in a thoroughly realistic New York environment. The film is very successful as a refined and unusually complex variation of the horror film. "

- Wolfram Tichy , Liz-Anne Bawden et al. : rororo film dictionary , 1978

“[A] film of horror in the dream-wandering and magical, which transports you into a world of everyday hallucination. (Rating: 3½ stars [exceptional]) "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV" , 1990

"[In contrast to the literary original] Polanski's staging draws its disturbing tension precisely from the constant ambiguity: the rational explanation (a neurotic and paranoid narrowing of Rosemary's perception) is on an equal footing with the dramaturgically consistent but completely irrational conspiracy theory."

- Stefan Lux, 1995

“Facets of the film music are just as artfully over-the-top as the Oscar-winning gestures of Minnie Castevet (Ruth Gordon), who as a homely, helpful, intrusive and manipulative old lady is the personified horror in the film. [...] [The] extremely detailed musical dramaturgy is [...] a prime example of how lasting horror can arise without musical clichés. "

- Anselm C. Kreuzer, 2009

“Roman Polanski's sophisticated horror film effectively plays with traditional forms of superstition, which he combines with modern psychoanalytic motifs. The subtle story of the 'virgin' mother who is sold to the devil by her husband does not owe its effect to clumsy shocks, but to a subtle dramaturgy of tension: the horror slowly grows out of the seemingly 'normal' everyday reality of modern big city life, which is the breeding ground for fear, alienation and paranoia. "

- Lexicon of international film

useful information

  • Sam O'Steen , one of the two film editors, directed the 1976 sequel Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby .
  • The voice of Donald Baumgart is originally spoken by Tony Curtis , who happened to visit the film set and was spontaneously asked by Polański to take on the role. The scene was shot immediately and Mia Farrow only found out afterwards which celebrity she had spoken to on the phone. Curtis was not paid for his contribution and was not mentioned in the opening or closing credits.
  • Krzysztof Komeda's Lullaby, the lullaby that eerily accompanies the opening and closing credits, is sung by Mia Farrow herself.
  • In 2014, a miniseries was created under the title Rosemary's Baby , which was directed by Agnieszka Holland . Zoë Saldaña and Patrick J. Adams can be seen in the leading roles .
  • The theatrical release in the Federal Republic of Germany was on October 17, 1968, on German television the film was shown for the first time on November 2, 1975 at 9 p.m. on Erste, then German television .
  • In 2014 the film was included in the National Film Registry .

Awards

Rosemary's Baby was nominated for an Oscar in two categories in 1969 ; Ruth Gordon received the award for best supporting actress (further nomination: best adapted screenplay).

The film also received the following awards:

synchronization

The German synchronization was commissioned by the Berliner Synchron , after a dialogue book by M. Z. Thomas and under the dialogue director of Thomas Keck .

role actor Voice actor
Rosemarie Woodhouse Mia Farrow Traudel Haas
Guy Woodhouse John Cassavetes Michael Chevalier
Minnie Castevet Ruth Gordon Alice Treff
Roman Castevet Sidney Blackmer Konrad Wagner
Edward "Hutch" Hutchins Maurice Evans Erich Fiedler
Dr. Abraham Sapirstein Ralph Bellamy Wolfgang Lukschy
Terry Gionoffrio Victoria Vetri Marianne Lutz
Laura-Louise McBirney Patsy Kelly Inge Wolffberg
Dr. CC Hill Charles Grodin Claus Jurichs

publication

  • Rosemary's baby . Paramount Pictures, 2001 (DVD)
  • Rosemary's Baby , Paramount Pictures, 2013 (BluRay)

Soundtrack

  • Krzysztof Komeda : Rosemary's Baby. Original motion picture soundtrack . On the front: Film Music: Rosemary's Baby The Fearless Vampire Killers. The Complete Recordings of Krzysztof Komeda Vol. 19 . Polonia Records, Warsaw 1999, sound carrier no. Polonia CD 160

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Ralf Augsburg: TV tips for Friday (October 28th): Mia Farrow's infernal pregnancy. In: Spielfilm.de , October 28, 2016, accessed January 2019.
  2. ↑ Wolfram Tichy , Liz-Anne Bawden et al .: rororo Filmlexikon. Volume 2: Films K – S. (OT: The Oxford Companion to Film. ) Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1978, ISBN 3-499-16229-6 , p. 560.
  3. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV" (expanded new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 687.
  4. ^ SL [Stefan Lux]: Rosemary's Baby. In: classic films. Descriptions and Comments. Edited by Thomas Koebner , with the assistance of Kerstin-Luise Neumann. 4 volumes. Reclam, Stuttgart 1995, Volume 3, ISBN 3-15-030011-8 , pp. 135-138, here 138.
  5. ↑ Anselm C. Kreuzer: Rosemary's Baby. In: Classics of Film Music. Edited by Peter Moormann. Reclam, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-018621-3 , pp. 178-180, here 180.
  6. ↑ Rosemary's Baby. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 1, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Susan King: 25 titles added to National Film Registry , Los Angeles Times online, December 17, 2014, accessed December 18, 2014
  8. ↑ Rosemary's Baby. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous file , accessed on April 19, 2012 .