Great Character: Rosemary Woodhouse (“Rosemary’s Baby”)
The Great Character theme for the month: Supernatural. Today: Rosemary Woodhouse from Rosemary’s Baby, screenplay by Roman Polanski, novel by Ira Levin.
The 1967 horror novel by Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives, The Boys of Brazil) was not just an explosive bestseller, but also the top selling horror novel of the 1960s, supplying a demand for over 4 million copies. Adapted as director and screenwriter Roman Polanski’s first American film, Rosemary’s Baby turned a $3.2 million budget into $33,395,426 million at the box office in 1968, and evolved into an Academy Award-nominated screenplay for Polanski.
Before actress Mia Farrow became the go-to blonde in many of Woody Allen’s beloved movies (The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters), Farrow and her golden Vidal Sassoon short cut first captured audience empathy as the whimsical mother-to-be Rosemary Woodhouse in the iconic psychological horror film Rosemary’s Baby.
Rosemary’s Baby IMDB:
A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.
The towering exterior of the Upper West Side Manhattan apartment building known as “The Dakota,” famously recognized as the home of John Lennon between 1973 and his horrific murder, becomes “The Bramford” in Rosemary’s Baby, the new ominous living arrangement for Rosemary and her career-driven husband Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes). Majestic on the outside, eerie on the interior, “The Bramford” unexpectedly becomes the Dracula’s Castle” that Rosemary unfortunately gets enamored by while apartment hunting with Guy. Rosemary the housewife’s spacious bright yellow, sunny dwelling quickly turns into a red alert claustrophobic isolation chamber.
Rosemary meets soon-to-be antagonists, her seemingly sweet elderly neighbors Minnie and Roman Castevet, at the crime scene of a supposed suicide. The young recovering drug addict Terry (Victoria Vetri) has gone from living with the Castevet’s to plunging from their window above, diving into the sidewalk from who knows what. The Castevets latch onto the Woodhouses by gassing up Guy’s acting ego and sniffing around Rosemary’s personal space. To Rosemary, the Casevets raise suspicion while Guy raises his level of closeness to them.
With no friendly visitors in Rosemary’s younger age bracket, the haunted horror stories of “The Bramford” hanging over her head courtesy of her previous landlord Hutch (Maurice Evan), and no career exploits of her own, Rosemary’s circle of influence consists of Guy and his prying new pals the Castevets. Unfortunately, Rosemary’s desire to become Momma Rosemary is marred by a drugged and demonic rape from her husband, and a peril-filled pregnancy like none other.
ROSEMARY WOODHOUSE: This is no dream! This is really happening!
Roman Polanski epically portrays the nightmare conception of Rosemary’s baby in Rosemary’s Baby by capturing the random foreign yet familiar people, places and things of the dream world, layered with a heightened portrayal of her worst fears. In this trance, Rosemary’s bed feels like her life, a drifting boat she isn’t the captain of, with the furious flames of hell beneath it, waiting for Rosemary to give birth to the devil’s child. This electric acid trip of a sequence overlaps the conscious with the subconscious, leaving Rosemary psychologically scarred with physical scratches to prove it.
ROSEMARY WOODHOUSE: Pain, be gone, I will have no more of thee!
Rosemary’s plight to save her baby from the bloodsucking Satanists that have perverted her husband can be read with a subtle, yet intriguing feminist undertone. She begins as totally dependent, submissive and subservient, until it has led her to the pits of hell, in her own apartment no less. She takes a stand against the Castevets kooky medication, the closes the distance between her and her trusted friends and she seeks the care of her abandoned private doctor. Rosemary’s soon regains possession of her better judgment and begins her own investigation of the occult and rebellion against being hog-tied to a life without options or influence. She evolves towards the transformation into a life that feels authentic, of her own design, but unfortunately, with no one to trust.
Rosemary sprints through a remarkable marathon of emotions within the 136 minute running time of Rosemary’s Baby: optimism, excitement, compassion, caution, confusion, concern, anxiety, anger, doubt, desperation, terror and ultimately — strength.
ROSEMARY WOODHOUSE: Shut up. You’re in Dubrovnik, I don’t hear you.
For her journey from faithful idealistic innocence to harsh evil realities, Rosemary Woodhouse is a wonderful GREAT CHARACTER in the category of supernatural characters.
Rosemary finds herself surrounded by a cadre of Trickster who eventually remove their masks to reveal themselves as Nemeses. Stories like these play on fundamental fears about The Other: Do we really know who they are underneath the ‘mask’ they wear?
Thank you, Jason, for this post. What’s your favorite bit from the movie? Please join us in comments to discuss Rosemary’s Baby.
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