Repulsion

Roman Polanski followed up his international breakthrough Knife in the Water with this controversial, chilling tale of psychosis. Catherine Deneuve is Carol, a fragile, frigid young beauty cracking up in her London flat when left alone by her vacationing sister. She is soon haunted by specters real and imagined, and her insanity grows to a violent, hysterical pitch. Thanks to its disturbing detail and Polanski’s adeptness at turning claustrophobic space into an emotional minefield, Repulsion is a surreal, mind-bending odyssey into personal horror, and it remains one of cinema’s most shocking psychological thrillers.

United Kingdom
1965
105 minutes
Black & White
1.85:1
English
Spine #483

Special Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Roman Polanski, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Audio commentary featuring Polanski and actress Catherine Deneuve
A British Horror Film (2003), a documentary on the making of Repulsion, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor, among others
A 1964 television documentary filmed on the set of Repulsion, with rare footage of Polanski and Deneuve at work
Original theatrical trailers
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: A new essay by film scholar and curator Bill Horrigan

New cover by Steve Chow

Blu‑ray 1 Disc $27.96 SRP: $39.95

DVD 1 Disc $27.96 SRP: $39.95

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Roman Polanski, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Audio commentary featuring Polanski and actress Catherine Deneuve
A British Horror Film (2003), a documentary on the making of Repulsion, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor, among others
A 1964 television documentary filmed on the set of Repulsion, with rare footage of Polanski and Deneuve at work
Original theatrical trailers
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: A new essay by film scholar and curator Bill Horrigan

New cover by Steve Chow

Cast & Credits

Cast

Catherine Deneuve: Carol
Ian Hendry: Michael
John Fraser: Colin
Yvonne Furneaux: Helen
Patrick Wymark: Landlord

Credits

Director: Roman Polanski
Screenplay: Roman Polanski
Screenplay: Gérard Brach
Adaptation and additional dialogue by: David Stone
Producer: Gene Gutowski
Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor
Editing: Alastair McIntyre
Associate producers: Robert Sterne
Associate producers: Sam Waynberg
Art direction: Seamus Flannery
Music: Chico Hamilton
Orchestrated by: Gabor Szabo
Sound: Leslie Hammond

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Explore

Catherine Deneuve

Actor

One of cinema’s great beauties, Catherine Deneuve (born Catherine Dorléac in Paris in 1943) is also an icon of the transformative cinematic 1960s. The daughter of two actors and the sister of three (one of whom, Françoise Dorléac, died in a car crash in 1967), Deneuve has acting in her blood. After her major breakthrough in Jacques Demy’s poignant 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Deneuve continued to prove she was more than just a pretty face in Roman Polanski’s thriller Repulsion and Luis Buñuel’s surreal erotic daydream Belle de jour. Those films may exploit Deneuve’s crystalline loveliness for its seeming inscrutability, but her portrayals of sexual repression in both (and her shocking embodiment of schizophrenia in the former) make for two of the most vivid performances of the era. Those roles set her on the path to becoming a full-fledged movie star, and she went on to act for François Truffaut, Alain Cavalier, Marco Ferreri, and Jean-Pierre Melville. Her performances have grown richer as she’s aged; today, she is a true grand dame of the cinema, and her compellingly enigmatic looks—once interpreted as fragile—have taken on a mature imperiousness, as evidenced in such films as Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale (in which she costars with her daughter with Marcello Mastroianni, Chiara Mastroianni).