THIS 'BABY' A CREEPFEST.Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor Creepy music, creepy story, creepy director... Yet the thing that most creeped me out about the 1998 horror classic ``Rosemary's Baby'' was Ruth Gordon as Minnie, the nosy nos·y or nos·ey adj. nos·i·er, nos·i·est Informal 1. Given to prying into the affairs of others; snoopy. See Synonyms at curious. 2. Prying; inquisitive. neighbor of the young New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of couple, Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Gus (John Cassavetes). It probably creeped out a lot of people. Gordon won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in ``Baby,'' which came out earlier this week for the first time on DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. . The disc includes interviews with writer/director Roman Polanski, producer Robert Evans and production designer Richard Sylbert. While what they had to say isn't eye-opening, there are enough interesting tidbits TidBITS is an award-winning electronic newsletter and web site dealing primarily with Apple Computer and Macintosh-related topics. Internet publication TidBITS has been published weekly since April 16, 1990, which makes it one of the longest running Internet publications. for film fans. For instance, casting - how about the possibility of Tuesday Weld and Robert Redford as the young couple? Or location - the choice of the Dakota apartment building in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , outside of which John Lennon was later gunned down? What gives Polanski's film its resonance is not the special effects - there are none - but its dream/nightmare quality. Polanski (no matter what you think of him since he's a fugitive from California for having sex with an underage girl) has made some brilliant films - ``Knife in the Water'' and ``Chinatown'' being just two. ``Rosemary's Baby'' works because everything is essentially shot from Rosemary's point of view, so you never know if what she experiences is true or if she's just being paranoid. Even the ending can be put down to a postpartum hallucination hallucination, false perception characterized by a distortion of real sensory stimuli. Common types of hallucination are auditory, i.e., hearing voices or noises and visual, i.e., seeing people that are not actually present. . That's why Gordon is so creepy. You can't be certain if she's just a too-upbeat senior citizen or whether she serves the devil - and if she is evil, being apparently benign makes the evil so much more unsettling un·set·tle v. un·set·tled, un·set·tling, un·set·tles v.tr. 1. To displace from a settled condition; disrupt. 2. To make uneasy; disturb. v.intr. . There is also a making-of documentary on the disc that's really a weird little time capsule. Made during the original filming - it's obviously some PR agent's dream to promote rising stars Farrow and Polanski - the documentary is a bit creepy as well, considering events that have subsequently transpired. ``We just groove together,'' Farrow says about her friend Roman. Having been married to Rat Pack leader Frank Sinatra as well as having just come back from visiting the Maharishi ma·ha·ri·shi n. pl. ma·ha·ri·shis Hinduism 1. A teacher of mysticism and spiritual knowledge. 2. Used as a title for such a person. (a Hindu mystic) in India with the Beatles, Farrow was a flower child with an edge. She was painting love and peace symbols on her dressing room while making a chart of people who were on her good or bad side. Polanski, on the other hand, is shown as a brilliant European artiste, which seems so false. There's even a shot of him kissing his then-wife, Sharon Tate, who would be murdered a short while later by Charles Manson's ``family.'' Speaking of creepy. None of this ultimately takes anything away from the film, which remains a classic. HONING THE 'CRAFT': This being the Halloween season, scary movies are coming out of the woodwork, so we'll spotlight a few over the next few weeks. Columbia recently released ``The Craft: Special Edition'' on DVD, and while the film is no classic, it is a nifty little scarefest about four girls at a private L. A. school who dabble dab·ble v. dab·bled, dab·bling, dab·bles v.tr. To splash or spatter with or as if with a liquid: "The moon hung over the harbor dabbling the waves with gold" in witchcraft. Starring Robin Tunney, Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk balk the action of a horse when it refuses to obey a command to which it usually responds. See also jibbing. and Rachel True, the movie takes teen-age girls' fascination with the occult to the extreme. ``Rosemary's Baby'' (Paramount) is $29.99 on DVD includes a making-of documentary and interviews with director Roman Polanski, producer Robert Evans and designer Richard Sylbert. ``The Craft: Special Edition'' (1996) (Columbia) is $24.95 on DVD and includes commentary by director Andrew Fleming, two making-of featurettes and deleted footage with commentary. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes star in Roman Polanski's ``Rosemary's Baby,'' now on DVD. |
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