I watched both lately.

I was pleasantly surprised both times. They are dated, sure, but they are still good, entertaining movies. I was kind of going for the cultural heritage / great films you have to see thing.

Rosemary's Baby is really scary. And what gets you is not the satanic stuff so much as the crap Rosemary has to deal with as a pregnant woman in the normal world. And the way it works isn't so much that the ending is a shocker as that you know where things are heading, and then Rosemary does, and neither you nor her can stop it.

I was wondering whether the feminist theme was intentional or just something projected on it because things have changed so much. For example, there is a bit where Rosemary wants to get a second opinion and her husband won't let her go to another doctor. Back then that was plausible. Then I noticed the author is Ira Levin, who also wrote the Stepford Wives. Yep, intentional.

I had this obnoxious image appear to me - at the end when Mia Farrow (who plays Rosemary) looks in the cradle instead of asking what they did to his eyes, she asks what Woody Allen is doing in there with her.


Last night I watched The Graduate. I remember my parents watching it at a friend's house - a rare thing back then - and sending me out of the room. With good reason, I now understand. What a cynical, rule-breaking, FUN thing! A romantic comedy (in the technical dramatic sense) that isn't romantic and isn't funny, but does it every work. I've heard all the Simon & Garfunkle songs a million times, next time I hear them the meanings will all be different. How can it be a happy ending when "hello darkness my old friend" is what you hear?

I'm used to Dustin Hoffman as a grown man, projecting a sense of control and poise. Here, he's a clueless kid. But his character breaks down and becomes truly himself, out of control but completely in charge, in a way that reminded me of Scarface. The fact that I see the same thing happening in both characters suggests to me that I need some help...

Anyway, my idea was to sort of do my homework in 20'th Century Cinema. But that's not what I ended up with. Sure, it's your cultural heritage and you SHOULD see these. But with a big bowl of popcorn and several cocktails, nothing out now can beat either of them.