Museum of Modern Art

Today, Repulsion screened at the Museum of Modern Art. When I arrived for a ticket, there was only one remaining. Regardless, I’ve always considered Roman Polanski’s 1965 film, starring Catherine Deneuve,a major visual reference in my ideas on photography and its execution. Most notably, the montage sequence of a distressed Deneuve walking around 1960′s London, as if the camera is mounted to her waist and the lens is directed toward her. The resulting effect is a crop of her upper body that stays fixed in the 16:9 frame, thus the background (the urban landscape) is the only element that shifts. Beyond the psychological disruption in the film and the repetition of visual references like the razor blade and the skinned rabbit, Repulsion is not to be missed if anyone is free on Sunday afternoon at the MoMA.