Today, I found this film on PPS by chance, the translation of the name "The Story of Lost Infant", the flavor of Hong Kong and Taiwan is quite strong. Thinking of the translated titles of early old movies, it’s worth remembering. Four-character titles like the Broken Blue Bridge, Revisiting Mandarin Dreams, Suspicious Clouds, Luyuan Changchun, Qingshan Cuigu, and Guanshan Fit, all sound profound and poetic. And those three-character butterfly dreams are even more romantic. Now it seems that the title of "Lost Infant" is also very interesting. The audience who has watched the film will definitely have quite different understanding of the "lost" in it. The title of "The Story of Lost Infant" is also very characteristic of ancient Chinese Gongan legends. Infant loss is a more classic story in the Gongan. It corresponds to the religious themes in the movie, but it also contains some Zen flavor in the three. Among the words, it is very interesting.
The religious meaning in the film is also the starting point of the film's greatest horror. Compared with the mysterious power of Stephen King today, the authenticity of religion is self-evident. I am afraid that this book is so admired by Westerners because of their detached interest and kindness in religious subjects. And if you only talk about religion in the story, it will not only look boring, but also be too serious, so here is a very smart introduction-witchcraft-which is also a very attractive concept. If the worship of God is called faith, then witchcraft can be said to be the worship of Satan, and its power is not weaker than faith, so the encounter with Rosemary, not to mention the repeated appearances in the movie The words "God is dead" also indicate the ending of the story.
Regardless of the religious motif, Rosemary’s baby deserves to be the scariest horror film in film history. Even if I don’t know much about religion, I can still enjoy the thrill of watching horror movies. I don't know anything about religion, and I want to come to the advantage of watching this film. If you are not familiar with religion, you will often have an inexplicable awe of religious symbols. Whether it is a kind and peaceful Buddha statue or the painful Jesus on the cross, it will give people a sense of horror. The reason why Rosemary’s film is successful is not only because of the horror brought about by religion, but also because it makes audiences who have read the book and understand the story felt the same. It can be seen that this movie respects the original work to a great extent, but it fully reproduces the plot through Polanski's Hitchcock-style method, which emphasizes the horror atmosphere of the story, which is difficult for many adaptations to achieve. In particular, the calm narrative style in the front of the movie does not make people feel that they are watching a horror film, but because of the interaction between the characters, they feel depressed.
Speaking of suppressed viewing experience here, Rosemary's baby is indeed superb. The way to create fear in horror films is nothing more than the flesh and blood of ordinary Hollywood horror films, or the sophisticated Japanese psychological horror. Rosemary's baby has a deeper theme than ordinary horror films, and it also abandons the traditional way in performance, forming its own unique style, that is, telling stories like a cocoon, and clinging to the suspense. From the beginning of the girl’s death to the final gathering of believers, the whole film is described in an extremely calm manner. Even the hot scenes of Rosemary’s escape have quickly cooled down after childbirth. But the film is not boring, because the relationship between the characters is constantly changing. Through the communication between people, the final climax of the story is impressed step by step, and the audience is frightened.
The death of the young girl at the beginning brought about the first suspense, and the horrible death of the girl was not overly exaggerated. If it were not fainted, the audience would not be terrified here at all. But questions burst out in the viewer's mind like a flood. Why and how to die, related to her benefactor, and her eye-catching necklace? When the old couple appeared, the answer was not revealed, but more confusing. The performance of the old couple always makes people feel that something is wrong, but I can't tell how strange it is. Is it because the voice of the old lady is too sharp? As benefactors, their expressions are also a little cold, but their words are caring. There are too many questions in this scene, and the audience has no time to think about it, so they are drawn back to the babble of life drama. The old couple became friends of the Woodhouses. The excessive attention and enthusiasm were unacceptable, but it was strange that Rosemary's husband was indifferent. In the exchanges between the two families, the old couple has taken the absolute dominance. It is not so much caring as it is to control Woodhouse's daily life, leaving Rosemary's family with no privacy at all. The more upset our heroine, the closer her actor husband is to the neighbors, it seems that Rosemary is the abnormal alien. In the end, he actually got angry because of a bowl of desserts that tasted wrong, which must be hidden for a gentle person. On that night, a strange change took place in Rosemary, and her husband's concealment made people suspicious. When he learned that he was about to become a father, his expression was complicated. Apart from joy, almost everything could be found on his face. Surprise, fear, and regret were not what a new father should do. When Rosemary became more and more haggard due to pregnancy, every time the old couple appeared, they were stubborn. The care they sent to Rosemary was obviously more extraordinary. At this time, the husband even touched Rosemary’s belly. Excessive fright, not to mention that she is thousands of miles away from the heroine when she sleeps at night. All of this successfully conveys uncertain doubts and the suppression of communication. As a result, the mystery was revealed a little bit later, until the slogans shouted by the evil believers when they were meeting were the extreme horror of the truth after the suppression.
In the book, the baby’s appearance is described in a short or long period of time, and the eyes of the baby in the movie also flash by, and the horror effect is no less than a burst of thunder. The greatest ending unfolds in horror, and the film also develops towards the ending of the original. Rosemary feels the meaning of the child to herself. Even if he is the devil, it is still her flesh and blood. She finally chose to be a mother and everything to her It doesn't matter anymore. The husband is dead, the world is dead, and God is dead. Only her children are left. She will raise the children in the way of angels.
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