Ep #18 - Aviva Briefel's 60s Pick: Rosemary's Baby
Cinema60 welcomes, for the first time, a special guest to the podcast: Aviva Briefel. Aviva is a professor of English and Cinema Studies at Bowdoin College, with a focus on Victorian literature and horror movies. Bart and Jenna invited her on to talk about Rosemary’s Baby, one of her favorite films from the 1960s.
In this episode, Aviva tells the gang why this is her favorite film ever, along with discussing its many themes–including body horror, misogyny, motherhood, Satanism and bigotry. She also draws parallels to Night of the Living Dead, which came out the same year, and to several modern horror films.
The following films are discussed:
• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Directed by Roman Polanski
Starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Directed by George A. Romero
Starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman
And a few other movies get touched on:
• Psycho (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles
• Repulsion (1965)
Directed by Roman Polanski
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser
• The Stepford Wives (1975)
Directed by Bryan Forbes
Starring Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson
• The Tenant (1976)
Le locataire
Directed by Roman Polanski
Starring Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas
• Get Out (2017)
Directed by Jordan Peele
Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford
• Hereditary (2018)
Directed by Ari Aster
Starring Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne
• Midsommar (2019)
Directed by Ari Aster
Starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren
