Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5854 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-11-05
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
• Dubbed in: German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 131 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
For Rosemary’s Baby, his modern horror tale about Satanic worship and a pregnant woman’s decline into madness, Roman Polanski moves from the traditional monolithic mansions of Gothic flicks to an apartment building in New York City. Based on Ira Levin’s novel, the story concerns Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse who find the apartment of their dreams in a luxurious complex in Manhattan. Soon after moving in and making friends with a group of elderly neighbours, Guy’s career takes off and Rosemary discovers she is pregnant. Their happiness seems complete. But gradually Rosemary begins to sense that something is wrong with this baby, and slowly and surely her life begins to unravel.

Polanski uses such subtle means to build up the sense of preternatural disquiet that initially you suspect Rosemary’s prenatal paranoia to be a figment of her imagination. But the guilty parties and their demonic plan to make Rosemary the receptacle of their master’s child are eventually revealed and, as Rosemary looses her grip on reality, she realises that no one can be trusted. The performances are excellent throughout; Farrow as the young wife is so fragile that you wonder how she made it unscathed to adulthood and John Cassavetes is horrifyingly duplicitous as her husband Guy. But the real star is Polanski’s masterful direction. The mood is at the same time oppressive and hysterical with the mounting terror coming from the situation and gradually unravelling plot rather than any schlock horror moments.

On the DVD: the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack shows off Christopher Komeda’s eerie "lullaby" score to it’s haunting best. The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is relatively free of speckle and dust, some scenes filmed in low light are slightly grainier but this adds to the oppressive tension that Polanski is building up in the film. In terms of extras there is a 20-minute "making of" feature from 1968 and retrospective interviews with Polanski, production designer Richard Sylbert and producer Robert Evans. --Kristen Bowditch

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Retrospective Interview
"Making Of" Featurette
Languages: English, German
Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English, English for the hearing impaired, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Synopsis
In Roman Polanski's stylish occult thriller--possibly the director's most famous film and a big box-office success--a young, happily married couple, the waiflike Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and struggling actor Guy (John Cassavetes), move into a spacious apartment in a venerable old building off Central Park. They are befriended by the elderly couple next door, Roman (Sidney Blackmer) and Minnie Castavet (Ruth Gordon in an Oscar-winning performance), who seem to take a special interest in Rosemary's well-being. Shortly after another young woman in the building commits suicide by jumping out a window, Rosemary begins to be plagued by disturbing dreams, including a hallucinogenic black mass sequence in which she is raped by something "inhuman" while surrounded by a host of unlikely spectators. Rosemary discovers she is pregnant and soon falls violently ill. The Castavets offer advice and home remedies and even go so far as to talk her into seeing a new doctor of their choosing. But when the young couple's friend Hutch (Maurice Evans) exposes her eccentric but seemingly well-meaning neighbors as members of a witches' coven, Rosemary realizes that she is the victim of a Satanic conspiracy and that no one can be trusted--not even her own husband.

Customer Reviews

Polanski's urban horror classic
Rosemary's Baby is regarded by many as Roman Polanski's finest achievement. Although it is now 32 years since Poland's enfant terrible brought his adapation of Ira Levin's 1967 novel to the screen, it stands up well to the test of time. Starring Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon, and John Cassavetes, Rosemary's Baby is a stylish and brilliantly executed set piece, accurately reflecting the New York of the late 1960's.

Set in the famous Dakota building - later to become infamous, following the senseless assassination of John Lennon, on its' doorsteps some two decades later - this masterpiece of suspense will chill even the most hot blooded spine. Polanski coaxed brilliant performances from his stellar cast, also featuring Sidney Blackmer, and Ralph Bellamy as Rosemary's insidious gynacologist, and Ruth Gordon won an Academy Award for her star turn as the nosy parker next door.

Rosemary's Baby is not simply a classic tale of suspense and horror, but a fine example of how a feature film of the genre need not lose it's impact when viewed on the small screen. A 20th century classic! 5 stars. Kym Jones

A fantastic horror film and a very well made disc
This is a truly brilliant film with a great script and great acting - especially from Ruth Gordon and Mia Farrow. The suspense is kept high throughout the film, and for anyone who's spent any time in New York City it will feel all the more real and horrifying. It's not a typical horror film in that there's no blood & guts - the horror's purely psychological. Quality wise the film looks pretty clean & detailed, obviously quite a lot of effort was put into the making of this disc. The sound quality is good for a film that's over thirty years old too. The menu layout is clean & user-friendly and worked faultlessly (something of a first for a dvd!). All in all a great addition to any horror fan's DVD collection.

A superb, disturbing drama, but no horror movie
Rosemary's Baby is a magnificent movie. Mia Farrow puts in a stunning performance as the protagonist of the story; in my view one of the finest dramatic performances in modern film history.

It is, however, somewhat misleading to categorise Rosemary's Baby as a horror film. By the modern conventions of what constitutes a horror film, it is no such thing; the terror in this film is understated and on the mental stage, and expressed without any outrageous scenes that make you jump in your chair.

Nonetheless it will leave an impression on the viewer: the intellectualised depiction of terror in this film is since unsurpassed in the modern history of scary films.