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‘He has his father’s eyes’: Behind-the-scenes with ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’ 1968
10.18.2016
09:21 am
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Last week I blogged about behind-the-scenes images Brian De Palma’s 1976 supernatural horror film Carrie. To keep things in the Halloween spirit, this week is Roman Polanski’s 1968 psychological horror flick Rosemary’s Baby.

I love this film. It absolutely scared the shit out of me when I first saw it as a kid. I can see why it’s considered one of the greatest American horror films ever made. Many, if not most horror films—like The Exorcist for example—eventually lose their ability to truly terrorize audiences over time. Rosemary’s Baby never will.

Here’s a quirky little Wikipedia tidbit about the filming of Rosemary’s Baby:

When Farrow was reluctant to film a scene that depicted a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wandering into the middle of a Manhattan street into oncoming traffic, Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, “no one’s going to hit a pregnant woman.” The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera since he was the only one willing to do it.

Nice guy!

If you, like me, dig Rosemary’s Baby as much as I do, hopefully you’ll appreciate these marvelous on set images. Sadly, I could hardly find any candid moments with the wonderful Ruth Gordon.


Roman Polanski directing Mia Farrow
 

John Cassavetes, Mia Farrow and director Roman Polanski
 
More after the jump….

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.18.2016
09:21 am
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Watch ‘Mia and Roman,’ an insufferable 1968 mini-doc on the making of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’
01.21.2015
12:10 pm
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My love for Rosemary’s Baby is a paradox I navigate deftly, considering how much I loathe both Mia Farrow and Roman Polanski as human beings. With Polanski, my complaints are predictable, but Farrow is a far less frequent object of scorn, so I’ll just say I find her support of Polanski hypocritical, her kid-collecting a tad excessive, and her acting often cloyingly twee. I’ve long suspected the canned ingenue thing is really just an extension of her own affected persona; the woman makes Godard’s female characters look like Sarah Conner. Still, I’d argue that Mia Farrow’s simpering sweetness and Roman Polanski’s predatory instincts are exactly what make Rosemary’s Baby work so well—who better to paint a nightmarish situation in which women are repeatedly victimized and never believed? The 1968 mini-documentary on the making of that masterpiece—Mia and Roman-pretty much confirms my instinctual distaste for both of them.

Polanski’s pretentious and macho, driving race cars and callously expounding on how Farrow was not his first choice for the lead—“I saw a more healthier, more stronger maybe a little more sexy girl in the beginning.” Farrow—just back from the infamous trip to India where she meditated with The Beatles—fawns breathily and paints her trailer with flower-power schmaltz. Even Polanski admits there is something contrived about her public face. Perhaps portending of her future child menagerie, Mia goes on about her extensive pet collection.

I think the worst part is the charts they both make—Mia for the crew, and Roman for Mia—that attempt to measure the “good behavior” of their subjects. I’m not sure exactly what made Mia Farrow think this was cute and not crazy diva bullshit (Obliviousness? Did she think her unintimidating haircut inoculated her from accusations of prima donna eccentricity?) and Polanski’s elaborate revision of her original design has the additional feel of a creepy paternalism. I cannot imagine working with two such insufferable people. I checked though—Rosemary’s Baby? Still an amazing movie.
 

Posted by Amber Frost
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01.21.2015
12:10 pm
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Ruth Gordon, Mia Farrow, Bette Davis and Divine dolls

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Ruth Gordon and Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby
 
Okay, these handmade dolls by Alesia Newman-Breen are really freakin’ great! I’m all about anything Ruth Gordon and to find this doll on zee Internets pretty much made my day. WANT!

All of Alesia’s one-of-a-kind (NOT one-of-a-series) handmade dolls are exactly that - no molds are used, no off-the-shelf factory-made components.  Each doll is made by hand with hand-sculpted polymer clay head, breastplate, arms and legs, and a hand-constructed cloth-over-wire-armature body. All garments and accessories are sewn and assembled by hand. THERE IS ONLY ONE OF EACH DOLL. Prices range from about $300 to about $600 a doll. A very reasonable price for a unique masterpiece of the dollmaker’s art. The dolls range in size from 14 to 18 inches.

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Blanche and Baby Jane Hudson

More dolls after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.07.2011
08:29 pm
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