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Post by Rodney Farber on Apr 1, 2020 17:38:40 GMT
With time on my hands, I'm watching some of my DVD collection when I exercise (about 20 minutes at a time). In this case, Rosemary's Baby. I'm currently up to New Year's eve. I never noticed that the baby was due 6/66 and a few other things. So far, I have two questions: (1) Is it an important plot point that Terry, the Castevets' house guest, commits suicide? In other words, if Terry's two scenes (laundry room and sidewalk) were removed, would the film change. Also (2) when Dr. Hill (Grodin) call's Rosemary to tell her she's pregnant, Hill tells Rosemary to come back to the office for a second blood test. Is there some plot point to this? Is there ever another reference to this?
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Post by jervistetch on Apr 1, 2020 22:45:39 GMT
I think the Castevets were grooming Terry to be the Devil’s babymama. After she killed herself they moved on to Rosemary. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but I just got the Criterion edition so I’ll be watching it soon.
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Post by Rodney Farber on Apr 8, 2020 15:44:20 GMT
With time on my hands, I'm watching some of my DVD collection when I exercise (about 20 minutes at a time). In this case, Rosemary's Baby. I'm currently up to New Year's eve. I never noticed that the baby was due 6/66 and a few other things. So far, I have two questions: (1) Is it an important plot point that Terry, the Castevets' house guest, commits suicide? In other words, if Terry's two scenes (laundry room and sidewalk) were removed, would the film change. Also (2) when Dr. Hill (Grodin) call's Rosemary to tell her she's pregnant, Hill tells Rosemary to come back to the office for a second blood test. Is there some plot point to this? Is there ever another reference to this?
I haven't read the book, but have seen this classic and outstanding psychological horror film many times. There is nothing else quite like it.
Terry was being groomed by the Castevets to bear the devil's child, just before Rosemary and Guy moved in. It works in well with why Rosemary was then chosen to conceive. It also allowed for these 2 sweet personable ladies to meet, who were gullible and taken advantage of. Part thematic subtext here. It also served as a plot devise for Rosemary to be given the Tannis root charm later, when Terry was showing it to Rosemary in the laundry. Something was amiss and creepy about it. We don't meet the Castavets in person until the apparent suicide and get to see their fake shock and distress at Terry's death and see the charm lying in a pool of blood.
Rosemary's blood test would have also been out of the ordinary due to what she was carrying. It plants a seed that something is not quite right. It also serves as a devise to get the viewer off guard regarding the conspiracy aspect of the story and the projection of Rosemary's own paranoia. Dr. Hill appeared well meaning and Rosemary was full term pregnant with her first child when she went back to see him, and her behavior could have just been put down to typical observation of hormonal hysteria. Hill humored her and as a viewer, I just knew I wanted Rosemary to be away and safe from what she had uncovered.
No scene is a wasted take in this film and I find it near perfect\flawless. Everything was carefully set up and contrived to add to the effect, but for an ultimate purpose. Polanski knew what he was doing. Apparently, John Cassavetes and Polanski had some clashes, due to Polanski's methodical and fastidious approach and Cassavetes himself was a spontaneous, out of the moment director. The control stamp that Polanski put on his film was for the best outcome possible.
Having read the two above posts, I decided to watch the "Terry" part of the movie several times. I believe that the suicide/shock was genuine. Then again, the story is fiction (isn't it???) and that's just my interpretation.
After the laundry-room scene, Rosemary hears Minne while lying in bed. Minnie says something like, "I don't think we should tell her". After the suicide, Rosemary hears/dreams Minnie's voice saying something along the lines of, "I told you we shouldn't have told her. Now, we'll have to start all over." Note: anyone watching the film for the first time would have no context as to what Minnie was talking about at this point. In previous viewings, I just though it was showing that Minnie was a domineering wife, talking down to Roman.
Assuming that the first blood test did show something out of the ordinary, I would assume that a subsequent blood test would show the same anomaly and Dr. Hill would have been more sympathetic to Rosemary's paranoia. OTOH, we never know (do we?) whether Rosemary went back for the second blood draw or whether she just went to Dr. Sapirstein.
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