ROSEMARY'S BABY

"This isn't a dream!  It's really happening!"--an unsubtle Mia Farrow line in ROSEMARY'S BABY

This afternoon I saw Roman Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY, for the second time, at the Bloor. (I considered seeing an earlier showing of the Maysles brothers' classic documentary SALESMAN, but decided it was a bit too downbeat for me.)

I didn't much care for the movie the first time I saw it and I still don't.  It's very much of its time (1968), about big-city paranoia and a creepy New York apartment building, not unlike all those horror movies involving a creepy haunted house.  I'm not attracted to movies about satanism:  THE EXORCIST left me cold.  I guess I'm more afraid of the evil within us.

I'll admit that Mia Farrow's performance is rather stunning of its kind.  But I didn't care for her costar John Cassavetes:  he was another of those actors whom I can see acting.  And Polanski's the kind of director who can make a bouquet of roses look sinister!

True fact:  Mia was married to Frank Sinatra, who wanted him to costar with him in THE DETECTIVE.  But the ROSEMARY'S BABY production got behind schedule and Mia had to choose between walking off the movie and bowing out of her husband's vehicle.  Sinatra gave her an ultimatum:  Make my movie or I'll divorce you! (Nice guy, huh?) But Paramount production executive Robert Evans showed her footage of her scenes that had already been filmed, and she finished it and sacrificed her marriage. (Evans tells the story in his memoir THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE.)

The movie was so long that I was late getting home.  John and Kathrine had brought over dinner and they'd already eaten, so I went out to KFC.  Though to tell the truth, they always bring vegan food and I'd probably have sneaked out to KFC afterward anyhow.