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Rosemary's Baby: 55 Years Later

 Of course, I grew up knowing about Rosemary's Baby.  It's the kind of movie you hear referenced so much throughout your life that it becomes an ubiquitous part of the culture.

Truthfully, I don't know if I thought that up myself or I heard it on this podcast which encouraged me to give the film and the novel a try, "You Are Good".  


You Are Good is probably one of my favorite podcasts because it doesn't just discuss movies, it discusses the "feelings" that movies give us.  It talks about the culture surrounding the movie, the zeitgeist it creates, what the actors experienced while filming and how all those little nuggets impact us all.

I loved the takes on this film by podcast hosts Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed, along with guest Sarah Archer, as they discussed the actors and their other iconic roles (Ruth Gordon, anyone?) as well as the importance of the apartment in the film (the famous Dakota becomes the famous Bramford) and of course the fact that known pedophile Roman Polanski directed the film.  



But like most people alive today I knew the basic plot of Rosemary's Baby.  And since this film is over fifty years old I'm not going to worry about spoiling it for anyone.  Fast take: Rosemary is a young and very sweet wife married to an ambitious actor.  After moving into a cool new apartment, they are basically adopted by their elderly neighbors who become very invested in Rosemary's pregnancy.  Very invested.  A little bit of drugging, raping and manipulating and soon we have a very confused Rosemary who is sure she is being taken in by a cult of satan worshippers and witches.

But who is possibly going to believe this?  

Of course there's one old wise friend who does.  And of course he mysteriously dies.  Then there's her crop of young married lady friends who are advising her to seek second medical opinions.  Well, those cackling hens are quickly shushed!

Rosemary acquiesces, relents, researches, runs, fights, is held hostage, lied to and then eventually seems to come into her own power.  By the end of the film, you get the idea that she may be relenting yet again.  But then again, there's nothing like an innocent baby to bring out your full own mother lioness vibe, am I right?

And of course I'm oversimplifying some very heady issues here.  It's the type of movie that you really need to distance yourself from.  By today's standards of film, I'd call Rosemary's Baby fairly tame and almost melodramatic.  But just imagine seeing this for the first time in 1968.....can you imagine how shocking it would have been? 



And I don't know how to say this without sounding like a weirdo, but I find Dr. Sapperstein, played by the late Ralph Bellamy, to be oh so handsome in this film.  He was 62 when the film was shot and I'm 48 and I like beards, so bite me. 




So next up was of course was to read the book, which according to the podcast, is a great read and a relatively short source material for such a labyrinth of a film.  So yeah, of course, I'm going to read it.

Except I couldn't.  I couldn't bring myself to go to the library and check it out.  I realized that I didn't want to have the book in my house.  And it's kinda ironic how a person who doesn't even believe in God or Satan could be afraid of something as simple as a book!

So I guess you could say I let the powers of Evil win this round.  Well played, Dark Prince.  Well played indeed. 
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