Being mildly addicted to Facebook I recently took the test to see how many of IMDB's Top 250 movies I had seen. The result - 171 out of 250. Respectable enough for the layman but I'm supposed to be a movie reviewer so it simply won't do. The only possible solution (short of completely disregarding the list as an arbitrary series of votes by the mostly American userbase of a website) was to start at the beginning and work my way down, checking out every movie I could along to the way.
First up Rosemary's Baby.
Coming from a pre-lawsuit Roman Polanski in 1968, Rosemary's Baby stars Mia Farrow as a young, pregnant mother to be who wanders around her apartment block in downtown New York, gets hassled by the neighbours, casually mistreated by her actor husband (John Cassavetes) and slowly begins to suspect that something nefarious is afoot. Its attractively shot, menacingly directed and Farrow is certainly fetching (though a little shrill and emaciated) in the lead role. But its didn't work for me in the end because of one fatal flaw - it completely gives the game away in the first 15 minutes. The supposedly shocking finale isn't just subtly hinted it, its boldly drawn onscreen in the opening scenes with a vividly realised demonic rape. The entire focus of the film could have been completely shifted if that scene was moved to the final act and hinted at instead of shown.
The rest is basic paranoia and dread, ratcheting up the tension for no real payoff and almost no scares. Farrow is never in danger, in fact if anything she can rely on the other residents to keep her as safe as possible to preserve the child she is carrying. The ending is reasonably haunting but even then was far less shocking than I was expecting. A disappointment.
172/250
Next on the list - North by Northwest.
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